McDonaldland was the name of McDonald’s first major fantasy world for its advertising characters.
Introduced in the early 1970s, McDonaldland gave McDonald’s a shared setting populated by characters including Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese, Grimace, and the Hamburglar. The setting turned menu items and restaurant features into parts of a colorful fictional world aimed especially at children.
The characters were used in television commercials, restaurant promotions, packaging, and toys. Their designs and roles changed over time, and not every character appeared with equal prominence in every period.
McDonaldland is sometimes confused with the name of a single character or with later promotional labels. It was the broader setting, while figures such as Mayor McCheese and the Hamburglar were individual residents. The branding helped distinguish McDonald’s from ordinary restaurant advertising during the 1970s.