McDonaldland was McDonald’s 1960s advertising universe featuring Ronald McDonald and Mayor McCheese.
The campaign presented a brightly colored fantasy world populated by characters based on menu items and restaurant imagery. Ronald McDonald served as the central character, while Mayor McCheese, Grimace, Captain Crook, and the Fry Kids appeared in different periods.
McDonaldland was designed to make the brand especially appealing to children and to create a shared setting for television commercials, packaging, and promotional material. The characters gave McDonald’s branding a narrative world rather than relying only on a logo or product photographs.
The advertising setting is sometimes confused with the separate names of individual characters. Mayor McCheese was one resident of McDonaldland, not the name of the entire fictional setting. Some characters and designs changed over time, but McDonaldland remained the umbrella name for the campaign world.