Which McDonald’s character was introduced in 1971 as the brand’s moon-faced mayor?

Mayor McCheese was introduced in 1971 as McDonald’s moon-faced mayor character.

Mayor McCheese appeared in McDonaldland advertising, a fictional setting populated by characters connected with McDonald’s food and brand imagery. He had a large cheeseburger for a head and wore a mayoral sash, making the character immediately recognizable to children.

The character belongs to the same advertising universe as the Hamburglar, Grimace, and Birdie. Unlike those characters, Mayor McCheese was designed as a civic leader, giving McDonaldland a town-like structure and a recurring authority figure.

A frequent confusion concerns his name: Mayor McCheese was not named after a sandwich called the McCheese. His name combines the civic title “mayor” with “cheese,” while the character’s head visually resembles a cheeseburger. McDonaldland characters were central to McDonald’s child-focused branding in the 1970s and 1980s.