Which McDonald’s mascot was a hamburger-shaped character introduced in the early 1970s?

The hamburger-shaped McDonald’s mascot introduced in the early 1970s was Mayor McCheese.

Mayor McCheese was part of McDonaldland, the fictional world used in McDonald’s advertising to give the brand a cast of recognizable characters. He had a large hamburger for a head and wore clothing associated with a mayor, including a sash. The character represented a playful civic leader within the fictional setting.

McDonaldland characters helped McDonald’s turn advertising into a continuing story world. Children could recognize recurring figures, locations, and relationships across television commercials, packaging, and promotional material. This approach made the brand more distinctive than advertising hamburgers through product imagery alone.

Mayor McCheese is sometimes confused with the company’s other food-themed characters. The Hamburglar was a striped thief, while Officer Big Mac had a police role. Mayor McCheese’s defining feature was his hamburger head and mayoral identity.