Ronald McDonald was the clown character who appeared before McDonald's created its broader McDonaldland character group.
Ronald debuted in a 1963 television commercial and became the central figure in McDonald's child-focused advertising. His clown identity made him visually distinctive and allowed the company to connect its restaurant brand with an imaginative, recurring character.
McDonaldland later brought together Ronald and additional figures, including Grimace, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, and Birdie. These characters gave McDonald's advertising a shared fictional setting and made the brand world more recognizable to children.
The wording can cause confusion because Ronald was eventually shown inside McDonaldland. Historically, however, his first television appearance predates the larger character ensemble. Grimace and the Hamburglar are not clowns: they are separate characters with different designs and roles.