McDonaldland was the fictional town used in McDonald’s advertising from the early 1970s.
The campaign presented McDonaldland as a colorful world populated by characters including Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, and Birdie. It gave McDonald’s a shared setting for television commercials, restaurant decorations, toys, and other promotional material.
The name and characters helped turn the company’s branding into a narrative universe aimed especially at children. McDonaldland was not a real place or a permanent restaurant division; it was a marketing setting used to connect different campaigns.
McDonaldland is sometimes confused with McDonald’s later “McWorld” promotions, which used a different concept and slogan. Its strongest period was during the 1970s and 1980s, when the character-based campaign was central to the company’s family advertising.