What mascot replaced Speedee in McDonald’s branding during the 1960s?

Ronald McDonald replaced Speedee as McDonald’s principal mascot during the 1960s.

Speedee had represented the company’s original Speedee Service System, but McDonald’s increasingly needed a character suited to national television and family advertising. Ronald McDonald was developed as a clown character and became the chain’s best-known public representative.

The character appeared in early television advertising in the United States and was played first by Willard Scott, who had worked as a television clown known as Bozo. Ronald’s costume incorporated strong red and yellow visual cues that matched McDonald’s restaurant identity.

Ronald is often confused with the later McDonaldland characters, including the Hamburglar and Grimace. Those figures belonged to a broader advertising world, while Ronald remained the central human-like mascot associated with the brand itself.