McDonald’s called its fictional character world McDonaldland when it introduced the setting with Ronald McDonald in 1971.
McDonaldland was a fantasy environment created for McDonald’s advertising. Ronald McDonald appeared there with characters such as Grimace, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, and Birdie. The setting gave the company a way to connect menu items and restaurant visits with a shared story world aimed largely at children.
The characters were used in television commercials, restaurant materials, and promotional merchandise. Their designs and roles changed over the years, and some characters were later used less frequently or retired from regular advertising.
McDonaldland is not the name of a restaurant chain or a physical theme park. It is the fictional advertising setting. That distinction separates it from real McDonald’s locations and from later promotional partnerships that used licensed entertainment properties.