Ronald McDonald was McDonald’s first nationally advertised character mascot, introduced in 1963.
The character appeared in early television advertising as a clown associated with McDonald’s restaurants and children’s promotions. His costume used the company’s visual language, including red and yellow, while his name directly incorporated the McDonald’s brand.
Willard Scott portrayed the earliest televised version of Ronald McDonald. The character later became the central figure of a larger fictional setting called McDonaldland, where other mascots represented different parts of the brand’s family-oriented identity.
People often remember Ronald alongside the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, and Grimace, but those characters were introduced later. Ronald’s role was broader: he was the principal brand mascot and the public face of McDonald’s children’s advertising for decades.