McDonald's introduced Speedee in 1948 as part of its early restaurant branding.
Speedee was a small chef character whose name referred to the McDonald brothers' Speedee Service System. That system emphasized quickly prepared hamburgers, fries, and drinks rather than the carhop service common at many American drive-ins.
The character appeared in early McDonald's signs and promotional material, often alongside the restaurant's original service-system messaging. Speedee is sometimes confused with Ronald McDonald, but Ronald was introduced later, in the 1960s, as a more prominent advertising character.
McDonald's eventually phased out Speedee as the company developed the Golden Arches and a broader family-oriented brand identity. Even so, Speedee remains an important link between the restaurant's 1948 self-service redesign and its later global visual branding.