McDonaldland was the name of McDonald's 1970s advertising world populated by characters such as Mayor McCheese.
The campaign presented McDonald’s as a colorful fictional place inhabited by humanlike food characters, including Mayor McCheese, Officer Big Mac, Grimace, and the Hamburglar. Ronald McDonald served as the central guide through this imaginative setting. The characters appeared in television commercials, restaurant displays, packaging, and promotional material.
McDonaldland gave McDonald’s a connected story world rather than a series of unrelated advertisements. It also helped the company communicate with children through recurring characters, recognizable settings, and simple narratives built around visits to McDonald’s.
McDonaldland is sometimes confused with the individual characters who lived there. Mayor McCheese and the Hamburglar were characters; McDonaldland was the name of the fictional advertising environment that contained them.