The anthropomorphic cheeseburger mayor in McDonaldland advertising was Mayor McCheese.
Mayor McCheese was a large character with a cheeseburger for a head, a mayoral outfit, and a role as one of the leaders of McDonaldland. His design made the restaurant's food visually inseparable from the imaginary world used in its advertising.
The character belonged to the same broad campaign universe as Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and the Hamburglar. McDonaldland advertisements used these figures to give children a recurring story world rather than presenting every commercial as an isolated product announcement.
Mayor McCheese is sometimes confused with Officer Big Mac because both were authority figures in the same fictional setting. Their names and designs were different: Mayor McCheese had the cheeseburger head, while Officer Big Mac was based on the Big Mac sandwich.