Grimace was the purple, rounded McDonald’s character who debuted in 1971.
Grimace was introduced as a McDonaldland character during the same broad advertising era as the Hamburglar. His original design was more complicated and mischievous, with multiple arms and a role connected to stealing milkshakes.
McDonald’s later simplified Grimace’s appearance into the large, purple, friendly character most audiences recognize. The redesigned version became a companion to Ronald McDonald and a prominent figure in the company’s family-oriented advertising.
A common mix-up is treating Grimace as a recent creation because social-media trends revived interest in the character decades after his introduction. His origins are actually in the early 1970s. The character’s exact fictional identity has often been left playful and ambiguous, but his visual branding—purple color, rounded shape, and friendly personality—is distinctive.