The cheeseburger gave its name to Mayor McCheese, the fictional McDonaldland character introduced in 1971 as its mayor.
Mayor McCheese was designed as a humorous character with a large cheeseburger for a head and a human-style body dressed in formal civic clothing. His name and appearance turned a familiar menu item into a character that could appear repeatedly in television commercials and promotional materials.
He belonged to the same advertising world as Ronald McDonald, Grimace, the Hamburglar, and other McDonaldland figures. These characters gave McDonald's a continuing story environment rather than isolated product advertisements. The mayor role also made the character part of the imagined community's civic structure.
Mayor McCheese is sometimes mistaken for a general nickname for the hamburger or for the Big Mac because both are strongly associated with McDonald's. Historically, however, the character's defining food reference was specifically a cheeseburger.