Mac Tonight was the advertising character who starred in McDonald’s campaign beginning in 1986.
The character was depicted as a person with a crescent-moon head, sunglasses, and a tuxedo. Mac Tonight promoted McDonald’s evening business and was paired with a modified version of the song “Mack the Knife,” whose repeated “Mac Tonight” phrase made the campaign distinctive.
Unlike Ronald McDonald and the McDonaldland characters, Mac Tonight was designed around a time-of-day sales message. The campaign encouraged customers to consider McDonald’s for dinner and late-evening visits, expanding the brand beyond its traditional lunch and daytime associations.
Mac Tonight is sometimes confused with the moon imagery used in unrelated advertising or with McDonaldland characters. It was a separate campaign character, and its name was a deliberate pun on “Mack the Knife.” The campaign was especially prominent in the late 1980s.