Speedee was McDonald’s main mascot before Ronald McDonald became prominent.
The Speedee character appeared in the restaurant’s early identity after the McDonald brothers introduced their streamlined service system. He was drawn as a chef-like figure with a hamburger head, making the connection between speed and hamburgers immediate.
Ronald McDonald was introduced in the early 1960s and gradually became the company’s dominant mascot in mass advertising. Grimace, the Hamburglar, and Mayor McCheese belonged to the later McDonaldland advertising world. Because the characters overlapped in public memory, Speedee is often mistakenly treated as a later McDonaldland figure.