Mayor McCheese was McDonaldland’s giant talking hamburger character who served as the fictional town’s mayor.
The character appeared in McDonald’s advertising during the early 1970s. He had a large cheeseburger for a head, wore a suit and mayoral sash, and was presented as a civic leader within the brand’s fantasy world.
Mayor McCheese was part of an ensemble created to give McDonald’s advertising a continuing setting and recognizable characters. His role differed from the Hamburglar’s, since the Hamburglar was a mischievous food thief, while Mayor McCheese represented authority and community leadership.
McDonaldland characters became especially prominent in children’s advertising and promotional materials. McDonald’s later reduced their visibility, partly because the company moved toward simpler branding and faced legal disputes involving similarities between McDonaldland characters and characters from the television program “H.R. Pufnstuf.”