McDonaldland was the family-oriented fictional world introduced in McDonald’s advertising.
The campaign presented McDonald’s as an imaginative place inhabited by characters such as Ronald McDonald, Grimace, the Hamburglar, and Mayor McCheese. It became a major part of the chain’s branding during the 1970s, particularly in television commercials, restaurant displays, and promotional merchandise.
McDonaldland was designed to make the restaurant appealing to children while giving McDonald’s a distinctive cast of recurring characters. The characters’ names and visual designs often connected fantasy elements with menu items or restaurant themes.
The fictional setting is sometimes confused with individual character names. Grimace and the Hamburglar are inhabitants of McDonaldland, not names for the entire world. McDonaldland also differs from the company’s real-world corporate identity: it was an advertising universe created to support the brand’s family marketing.