Mayor McCheese was the McDonald's character who served as mayor of the McDonaldland advertising world.
Mayor McCheese was depicted with a large cheeseburger for a head and appeared in McDonald's fantasy-based advertising alongside Ronald McDonald and other characters. The character helped turn the restaurant's branding into a shared fictional setting rather than a collection of unrelated commercials.
McDonaldland was created in the early 1970s as a colorful advertising environment aimed especially at children and families. Its characters gave McDonald's recurring personalities, locations, and stories that could be reused across television commercials, packaging, and promotional material.
Mayor McCheese is easy to confuse with the Hamburglar, but their roles were different. Mayor McCheese represented the fictional community's official leader, while the Hamburglar was portrayed as a mischievous character who tried to steal hamburgers.