Ronald McDonald became a McDonald’s advertising mascot in 1963.
The character appeared in a television commercial for the Washington, D.C., area, where he was presented as a clown connected with McDonald’s food and restaurants. The early version was designed to be memorable to children and immediately linked to the brand’s family-oriented advertising.
Television personality Willard Scott played the first Ronald McDonald in those early commercials. The character’s look later changed substantially, and McDonald’s eventually developed Ronald into the central figure of a broader fictional setting known as McDonaldland.
Some accounts place Ronald’s story earlier because Scott had used a clown persona on local television before the McDonald’s campaign. The McDonald’s branding milestone, however, is 1963: that is the year Ronald McDonald was introduced as the company’s advertising mascot. His arrival also marked the shift away from Speedee as the most prominent character in McDonald’s public identity.