Mayor McCheese was the mayor character in McDonaldland, McDonald’s fictional advertising world of the 1960s and 1970s.
The character had a cheeseburger-shaped head and was presented as a civic leader among McDonald’s promotional characters. This gave the advertising world a playful social structure, with characters assigned roles that children could recognize quickly.
Mayor McCheese appeared alongside figures such as Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar. The characters supported television commercials, in-store imagery, packaging, and other forms of children’s marketing.
A common mix-up is confusing Mayor McCheese with Officer Big Mac, another character whose role was connected with law enforcement. The title “mayor” is the key distinction: Mayor McCheese was the elected-style civic figure of McDonaldland.