McDonaldland was the McDonald’s advertising campaign and fictional setting built around a fantasy world of restaurant characters.
Introduced in the early 1970s, McDonaldland gave McDonald’s a shared imaginative setting for television commercials, promotions, playground equipment, and merchandise. It included characters such as Ronald McDonald, Grimace, the Hamburglar, and Mayor McCheese. The setting helped the company present the restaurant as a family-friendly entertainment brand rather than only a place to buy food.
The name can be confusing because McDonaldland refers both to the fictional world and to the broader advertising campaign using that world. It is not the name of a single character or a restaurant format.
McDonaldland also became associated with branded playgrounds and promotional products. Although the character system changed over time, the campaign remains one of the most recognizable examples of fast-food world-building in advertising history.