McDonaldland was the fictional setting created for Ronald McDonald and McDonald's advertising characters.
The campaign presented McDonaldland as a colorful fantasy world populated by characters such as Ronald McDonald, Grimace, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, and Birdie the Early Bird. Restaurants, commercials, packaging, and promotional materials used the setting to connect McDonald's with children's entertainment.
McDonaldland was introduced in the early 1970s. Its characters and visual elements were designed to make menu items and restaurant visits part of a larger imaginative story rather than a straightforward food advertisement.
The name is sometimes confused with McDonald's general corporate branding or with later promotional playgrounds. McDonaldland specifically refers to the fictional universe and campaign. Legal disputes involving character creators also affected the campaign's development, but the setting remained a major part of McDonald's family marketing history.