McDonald's characters

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about McDonald's characters

Answer 1

Changeables

Changeables, also known as McRobots, was a toy series produced by the McDonald's corp. and given away with fast-food meals at their restaurants. The series used the then-popular "Transforming Robots" toy concept in conjunction with their own products. The robots could transform into items (mostly food) from the company.
There were three series (1987, 1989 and 1990) of McRobots.

The original series featured six food items that transformed into unnamed robots. The second series included re-colors of two Series 1 robots (Big Mac and Large Fries) and six new molds. Series 2 also gave the robots names. Series 3 had four molds from Series 2 and three from Series 1 but changed into dinosaurs instead of robots. It also had one new mold, the Happy Meal box.

Intended for use by small children, the Changeables line of toys was surprisingly sturdy as each figure was made from fairly thick plastic and typically contained only three moving parts. This made changing the individual figures from food item to robot/dinosaur and back fairly easy even for those within the intended age range.

There were also some under-3 (U-3) toys in the sets that did not transform.

Big Mac
Large Fries
McNuggets Box
Milk Shake
Egg McMuffin
Quarter Pounder
(U-3) Pals Changeable Cube

Big Mac / Macro Mac (Re-color from Series 1)
Large Fries / Fry Force (Re-color from Series 1)
Small Soft Drink / Krypto Cup
Small Fries / Fry Bot
Hot Cakes / Robo-Cakes
Quarter Pounder (Box) / Gallacta Pounder
Cheeseburger / C2
Ice Cream / Turbo Cone
(U-3) Pals Changeable Cube

Happy Meal-O-Don
McDino Cone
Hot Cakes-O-Dactyl
Fry-ceratops
Big Mac-O-Saurus Rex
Tri-Shake-atops
McNuggets-O-Saurus
Quarter Pounder with Cheese-O-Saur
(U-3) Bronto Cheeseburger
(U-3) Small Fry-cerotops

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Wikipedia

Answer 2

Mac Tonight

Mac Tonight is a fictional character who appeared in television commercials for McDonald's restaurants in the 1980s, known for his crescent moon head, sunglasses, and piano-playing. The campaign used the music of "Mack the Knife", the English language version of Die Moritat von Mackie Messer composed by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill for the play The Threepenny Opera. Crooner Bobby Darin had made "Mack The Knife" famous throughout the English speaking world in 1960. Mac was portrayed by actor Doug Jones in his first Hollywood job.

Originally conceived as a promotion to increase dinner sales by Southern California licensees, Mac Tonight's popularity led McDonald's to take it nationwide in 1987. McDonald's ceased airing the commercials after settling a lawsuit brought by Darin's estate, although the character was reintroduced in Southeast Asia in 2007.

The campaign was created locally for California McDonald's franchisees by Los Angeles firm Davis, Johnson, Mogul & Colombatto. Intended to increase the after-4pm dinner business, the advertisers were inspired by the song "Mack the Knife", made famous in the United States by Bobby Darin in 1959, and listened to different versions of it before deciding to have an original version with new lyrics. After deciding not to feature real people or celebrities, the designers settled on a crooner moon on a man's body, with 1950s-sunglasses; the song and style were playing to a high population of baby boomers and a recent revival of 1950s-style music. The character, who plays a piano on a floating cloud, was intended to garner a "cult-like" following, like Max Headroom. Director Peter Coutroulis, who won a Clio Award for a previous campaign for Borax, pitched several spots which did not air, including a "Spielberg-like" one in which two astronomers observe Mac Tonight driving his Cadillac through the sky.

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Wikipedia

Answer 3

Ronald McDonald

Ronald McDonald

Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. In television commercials, the clown inhabited a fantasy world called McDonaldland and has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. In recent years, McDonaldland has been largely phased out, and Ronald is instead shown interacting with normal children in their everyday lives.

Many people work full-time making appearances in the Ronald McDonald costume, visiting children in hospitals, and attending regular events. There are also Ronald McDonald Houses, where parents can stay overnight when visiting sick children in nearby chronic care facilities.

The origin of Ronald McDonald involves Willard Scott (at the time, a local radio personality who also played Bozo the Clown on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. from 1959 until 1962), who performed using the moniker "Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown" in 1963 on three separate television spots. These were the first three television ads featuring the character.

Scott, who went on to become NBC-TV's Today Show weatherman, claims to have "created Ronald McDonald" according to the following excerpt from his book Joy of Living:

At the time, Scott was working for Oscar Goldstein and John Gibson, Washington DC area McDonald's franchisees, and numerous sources describe Scott's role as only playing the part of Ronald McDonald, while giving credit for the creation of the mascot to Goldstein, Gibson, and their ad agency.

McDonald's does not mention George Voorhis or acknowledge that Willard Scott created Ronald in their statement:

"The smile known around the world," Ronald McDonald is second only to Santa Claus in terms of recognition. (According to one survey, 96% of all schoolchildren in the United States of America recognize Ronald (stunning-stuff.com)). In his first television appearance in 1963, the clown was portrayed by Willard Scott.

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Wikipedia

Answer 4

McDonaldland

McDonaldland was a fantasy world used in the marketing for McDonald's restaurants. McDonaldland was inhabited by Ronald McDonald and other characters. In addition to being used in advertising, the characters were used as the basis for equipment in the playgrounds attached to some McDonald's. McDonaldland and the supporting characters were dropped from McDonald's marketing in 2003, but Ronald McDonald is still seen in commercials and in Happy Meal toys.

McDonaldland was created by Needham, Harper & Steers in 1970-1971 at the request of McDonald's for its restaurants. The early commercials were built on an upbeat, bubble-gum style tune, and featured a narrator; many had plots that involved various villains trying to steal a corresponding food item, foiled by Ronald.

In 1976, Remco created a line of six-inch action figures to celebrate the McDonaldland characters.

In 1973, Sid and Marty Krofft sued McDonald's, claiming that the entire McDonaldland was a copyright infringement of their television show. The Kroffts claimed that the character Mayor McCheese was a direct rip-off of their character, "H.R. Pufnstuf" (a mayor himself). At trial, a jury found in favor of the Kroffts and McDonald was ordered to pay $50,000. The case was appealed by both parties to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The appeals court, in the 1977 decision of H.R. Pufnstuf Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions Inc. v. McDonald's Corp., reassessed damages in favor of the Kroffts to more than $1,000,000. McDonalds was also ordered to stop producing many of the characters and to stop airing commercials featuring the characters.

In the early 1980s and throughout the 1990s, McDonaldland remained a popular marketing device. The characters that remained following the lawsuit were Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Hamburglar, and the French Fry Gobblins (renamed the Fry Guys, and later the Fry Kids with the addition of the Fry Girls). Mayor McCheese, Officer Big Mac, Captain Crook, and the Professor were used until 1985 (however they did return for a Sears advertisement in 1987). Birdie the Early Bird would join the lineup soon after, representing the restaurant's new breakfast line in the early 1980s. Some of the characters' physical appearances were revised in later commercials (notably Hamburglar, Grimace, and Birdie). From then on, the characters seemed to live in reality and they interacted with real-life characters, but commercials still took place in "McDonaldland". Soon after, the Happy Meal Gang and the McNugget Buddies were prominent features in the commercials (representing the restaurant's "Happy Meals" and "Chicken McNuggets" respectively, being the menu items that mainly appealed to kids) along with Ronald.

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Wikipedia