McDonald’s fictional advertising town was called McDonaldland.
McDonaldland was introduced in McDonald’s advertising in the early 1970s as a colorful setting populated by branded characters. Ronald McDonald served as the central guide, while characters such as Grimace, the Hamburglar, and Mayor McCheese helped create a shared story world for television commercials and promotional materials.
The setting gave McDonald’s a way to market directly to children through recurring characters, imaginative locations, and simple narratives. Its characters were not menu items in a literal sense, although many were designed around food or restaurant imagery.
McDonaldland is sometimes mixed up with the later “Happy Meal” branding. The two were connected in family marketing but were not the same thing: McDonaldland was a fictional universe, while the Happy Meal was a children’s meal product and promotional package.