McDonaldland was the fictional town used in McDonald's character-based advertising world.
McDonaldland appeared in McDonald's commercials and promotional material beginning in the early 1970s. It provided a shared setting for Ronald McDonald and a group of branded characters, including Grimace, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, and Officer Big Mac. The setting turned individual mascots into a connected story world.
The concept borrowed the colorful logic of children's television and fantasy settings. Familiar McDonald's products and restaurant features were transformed into elements of an imaginary place, giving the company a way to build recurring adventures around its menu and characters.
McDonaldland is sometimes described as if it were a real restaurant brand or a single mascot, but it was a fictional setting. Its importance in branding came from the way it organized McDonald's character marketing during the 1970s and later decades.