McDonaldland was the fictional town created for McDonald's characters such as Ronald McDonald and Mayor McCheese.
The setting appeared in McDonald's advertising beginning in the early 1970s. It transformed the brand into an imaginative world populated by characters associated with menu items, restaurant features, and child-friendly stories.
Among the best-known residents were Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie, and the Fry Kids. Their designs gave different parts of the McDonald's experience a recognizable personality and helped advertisements form a connected universe.
McDonaldland is sometimes confused with the restaurant chain itself or with individual promotional characters. The name refers specifically to the fictional setting in which those characters lived and interacted.