McDonaldland was the fictional world used in McDonald’s advertising during the 1970s.
The setting placed Ronald McDonald alongside characters including Grimace, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, and Birdie the Early Bird. Television commercials, restaurant displays, toys, and other promotions used the world to make McDonald’s branding more imaginative and appealing to children.
McDonaldland is sometimes mistaken for the name of a children’s play area or a single promotional restaurant. It was primarily a fictional advertising universe, although McDonald’s restaurants and promotions used related physical displays. The characters did not all debut at the same time, and some were redesigned or retired. The world became a major part of McDonald’s visual identity before the company gradually relied more heavily on the Golden Arches, product imagery, and broader family marketing.