McDonaldland was the fictional advertising world used for Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar, and other characters.
McDonaldland appeared in McDonald's campaigns beginning in the early 1970s. It gave the brand a shared setting where characters could interact, visit restaurants, and repeat simple stories built around hamburgers, fries, and other menu items.
The world included figures such as Mayor McCheese, Officer Big Mac, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and the Hamburglar. These characters helped McDonald's create a distinctive children-oriented identity beyond its restaurant signs and product packaging.
McDonaldland is sometimes confused with the name of the broader restaurant chain or with individual characters. It specifically refers to the fictional setting. The concept later became associated with legal disputes over similarities to characters from the television program “H.R. Pufnstuf,” but the advertising world remained an important part of McDonald's branding history.