The Hamburglar was introduced in 1971 as a striped-shirt thief who wanted hamburgers.
The Hamburglar became one of McDonald's best-known advertising characters during the early-1970s expansion of the company's fictional McDonaldland world. His visual identity included black-and-white stripes, a broad-brimmed hat, and a recurring desire to steal hamburgers. The character's role made hamburgers central to his comic storylines.
He appeared alongside characters such as Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese, Grimace, and Officer Big Mac. These figures helped McDonald's build a distinctive family-oriented advertising universe rather than relying only on product photographs or price messages.
The Hamburglar's design changed over time. The original version was an older, more exaggerated character, while later campaigns presented him as a younger figure. That redesign can cause confusion, but both versions are the Hamburglar. The name is a wordplay combination of “hamburger” and “burglar.”