Mayor McCheese was the cheeseburger-headed mayor of McDonaldland.
The character had a large hamburger-shaped head, a slice of cheese, a mayoral sash, and other civic-style accessories. His design turned McDonald’s food imagery into a personified public official, a common feature of the surreal and colorful McDonaldland advertising world.
Mayor McCheese appeared alongside Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar, Grimace, and other characters in commercials and promotional material. His role was different from the product mascots used in ordinary packaging because he helped give McDonaldland a fictional government and community.
The character is sometimes confused with Officer Big Mac, another McDonaldland figure whose name referred to the Big Mac sandwich. Mayor McCheese’s defining detail is the cheeseburger head combined with his mayoral identity. McDonald’s eventually reduced the use of many McDonaldland characters, but he remains an identifiable example of the company’s early-1970s branding.