Mac Tonight was the moon-faced McDonald's character used to advertise late-night food in the 1980s.
McDonald's introduced Mac Tonight in 1986 as a character for a campaign promoting extended evening and late-night restaurant hours. He wore sunglasses, a tuxedo, and a crescent-moon head, giving the advertising a distinctive visual style that separated it from the company's family-oriented McDonaldland characters.
The commercials prominently used a rewritten version of “Mack the Knife,” a song associated with Bobby Darin's 1959 recording. That musical association made the campaign especially memorable, but it also led to a lawsuit from Darin's estate. The legal dispute ended the use of the song in the campaign, while Mac Tonight continued to appear in some advertising for a period.
Mac Tonight is often confused with a permanent McDonaldland mascot. He was primarily a promotional character for a particular advertising campaign, not a replacement for Ronald McDonald. His visual design is nevertheless one of the most distinctive short-lived identities in McDonald's branding history.