McDonaldland was the fictional town created for McDonald’s character-based advertising in the early 1970s.
The setting placed Ronald McDonald and other branded figures in a brightly colored fantasy world designed to appeal especially to children. Characters associated with the setting included Mayor McCheese, Grimace, the Hamburglar, Birdie, and the Fry Kids.
McDonaldland was not a real restaurant chain or a physical theme park. It was an advertising universe used in television commercials, in-store materials, merchandise, and promotional campaigns. Its visual style helped connect separate McDonald’s products to one recognizable story world.
The campaign later became the subject of a legal dispute with the creators of the children’s program H.R. Pufnstuf. The dispute concerned similarities between McDonaldland characters and elements of that program, but McDonaldland itself remained a major part of McDonald’s branding history.