McDonald’s fictional advertising world populated by characters such as Grimace and the Hamburglar was called McDonaldland.
McDonaldland was created as a setting for McDonald’s television commercials and other promotional material. It gave the brand a shared landscape where restaurant characters could interact, making the advertising feel like an ongoing children’s fantasy series.
The name is sometimes confused with generic descriptions of McDonald’s restaurants or with individual character names. McDonaldland referred to the entire fictional world, while Grimace, the Hamburglar, and Mayor McCheese were inhabitants of that world.
The campaign illustrates how McDonald’s built a recognizable character ecosystem around its food and logo. Although the company later reduced its use of many McDonaldland characters, the setting remains an important chapter in McDonald’s branding history.