Ronald McDonald appeared in the 1963 television commercial created for the Washington, D.C., market.
The advertisement introduced a clown character designed specifically to make McDonald's more appealing to children. Willard Scott played Ronald in the early commercial, and the character soon became much more prominent in McDonald's advertising and public appearances.
Ronald's first appearance was not yet the standardized version familiar from later decades. His costume used McDonald's food packaging, and his design changed as the company developed the character. He eventually became the centerpiece of a larger fictional setting known as McDonaldland.
This debut is sometimes dated incorrectly to the national expansion of the character. The first television appearance was a local Washington, D.C., commercial in 1963; later national advertising made Ronald widely recognizable. Speedee was the earlier corporate mascot, not the clown introduced in this commercial.