Red and yellow became especially associated with McDonald's restaurants in the 1960s.
The combination paired the bright yellow Golden Arches with strong red fields, signs, and other restaurant branding. Both colors were highly visible from roads and worked well for a fast-food chain whose restaurants depended heavily on passing motorists recognizing them quickly.
Yellow connected directly with the arches, while red helped create a bold background and strong contrast. Together they formed one of the most recognizable color systems in restaurant branding, even though McDonald's visual identity has changed across different periods and markets.
The colors are sometimes treated as if they were the original logo itself. The arches began as architectural features in the 1950s, and the stylized logo was created in 1962. The red-and-yellow presentation became a particularly familiar expression of that logo during the following decade.