Most of us have fond memories of Ronald McDonald from our childhood. However, as adults, there are a few things about the clown from the McDonald's fast food chain we've come to notice. With fewer clowns in the public eye these days, we're more likely to appreciate his ability to put smiles on our faces. However, there are other things we've noticed, including how he's never played by a woman or how fit and spry he is. And most of us never questioned his choice of friends as a child, but now we have to wonder why he tended to hang out with criminals.
Something else you've probably noticed is that you haven't seen him around as much anymore. When was the last time you saw him in a McDonald's commercial? Probably a while. What about the last time you saw his image in a McDonald's restaurant? It's probably been quite some time unless your local McDonald's has a leftover statue from Ronald's heyday.
The Origins of a Fast Food Icon
Back in the 1960s, Barry Klein was doing the advertising for both McDonald's and the "Bozo the Clown" television show at the same time. So, he had the brilliant idea of combining the two and getting McDonald's to run ads during the children's show. The first McDonald's clown was a bit awkward looking, with a McDonald's cup for his nose and a cardboard serving tray hat filled with toys and Styrofoam McDonald's food items. He also sometimes had a tray attached to his waistband that could hold a fake drink and fries and could magically produce hamburgers from his costume.
Something you may not have noticed as a kid is that Ronald's eyebrows are arch-shaped to resemble McDonald's golden arches. After the "Bozo the Clown" show ended in 1963, Klein kept one of the Bozos, Willard Scott (yes, the "Today" show weatherman), as the McDonald's mascot and hired a previous Bozo, Michael "Coco" Polakovs, as a wardrobe consultant. The resulting costume kept the big red smile, arched eyebrows, and gloves. It also continued to feature the restaurant's main colors, red and yellow, while adding the iconic arch emblems to the ensemble. Switching from white to yellow gloves now makes Ronald McDonald's fingers remind us of french fries.
Global Variations and Name Changes
Anyone who has gone with friends from Japan to eat fast food at McDonald's has probably noticed they don't say McDonald's the same way we do in English. They give it lots of extra syllables. When native Japanese speakers say "Makudonarudo" instead of "McDonald's," it's not a mispronunciation. It's simply a change of Ronald's name to fit the Japanese language pronunciation patterns. Similarly, Ronald McDonald has a different name in Japan: Donarudo Makudonarudo.
There are several reasons why the Japanese Ronald is a Donald (or Donarudo) instead. The English "r" sound at the beginning of the word "Ronald" is notoriously difficult for some native Japanese speakers to say. In Japanese, the letter "r" sounds like something between an "l" and an "r" to our English ears. However, Ronald is Japanized to Ronorudo, but it doesn't sound right because the "ro" part is too close to the "ru" part, turning the name into a tongue twister.
The Mascot's Physicality and Evolution
McDonald's eventually dumped the first Ronald McDonald because of his size. The chain worried that if it kept a larger mascot on staff, it would need to continue hiring large Ronalds to keep the image consistent. Is there really a shortage of large men who want to be a clown? With Willard Scott being 6 feet and 3 inches tall and 290 pounds, maybe so. Regardless, Scott was heartbroken to learn his size was an issue when it came to continuing his mascot gig. Despite being the mascot for a fast food chain later notorious for supersizing its food, McDonald's didn't want a supersized Ronald McDonald. Instead, it wanted a mascot who could be spry and energetic in its television ads.
The Expanding McDonaldland Family
Ronald McDonald started out as the sole mascot for McDonald's. However, from 1971 to 2009, other characters joined him in commercials for the fast food chain. If you missed the comic book series from the early 1970s, you probably felt like you were missing a backstory and wondered why the storyline included food thieves Captain Crook and Hamburgler. McDonald's got rid of Captain Crook in 1987 after 15 years of the pirate stealing Filet-o-Fish sandwiches and occasional cheeseburgers.
Most of us never had any idea what Ronald McDonald's purple bell-shaped sidekick Grimace even was, but it turns out he was supposed to be a gigantic taste bud whose sole purpose was to remind us how tasty McDonald's food is. However, even goofy, lovable Grimace had a dark side and started life as Evil Grimace who was known for stealing milkshakes and scaring children. Obviously, having a character that would give children nightmares didn't work out too well, so his persona had to change. In addition to all the shady characters who wandered in and out of McDonaldland, there were a few nice ones like Birdie, the Professor, Officer Big Mac, and the Mac Tonight moon.
Standardized Guidelines and Mascot Behavior
Roy Bergold and Aye Jaye wrote a book in 1972 called "Ronald and How" to help standardize everything about the McDonald's brand mascot. They offered instructions on dress and makeup as well as sanctioned behavior. One thing that Ronald will never do is hug you or your child, which is a good choice when children are learning the difference between good and bad touches. A brief pat on the back is the most you'll ever experience from the red-wigged clown. Sure, there's a 2014 study from the Association for Psychological Science that says hugs are good for stress relief and keeping us healthy.
The same handbook that keeps Ronald McDonald from hugging you or your kids also stipulates what he can and can't say. For example, if your children want to know where hamburgers come from, he's absolutely not allowed to tell them that the meat comes from a cow, which could be devastating to a child who loves animals. In fact, Ronald McDonald has his own type of fast food catechism that provides exact answers to questions that customers might have. For example, if you ask him how much he makes playing the role of the chain's mascot, he's directed to say that what he's doing isn't work; he's just having a good time.
The Life of a Local Ronald McDonald
Have you ever noticed that, even though there might be hundreds of Ronalds out there, you never see multiple Ronalds together unless they're cosplayers? You might see 10 Elvises at a time, but you'll never see 10 real Ronalds together. Being a local Ronald McDonald is actually not a bad gig, and it's far more complicated than you'd imagine. Once recruited through CW & Co. Productions, they had to be willing to relocate to an area that needs a mascot. They often had a chauffeur drive them from gig to gig and even had their own bodyguard to help avoid rock-throwing kids and protesters.
It might be possible to find multiple Ronalds together to photograph - if only you knew the location of the top-secret McDonald's convention the chain puts on every other year. But, alas, nobody is leaking that information. And there have been times when he has appeared in multiple countries on the same day for special events.
The Shifting Perception of Clowns
In it, Ronald convinces a little boy to go with him to McDonald's even though the boy knows he shouldn't talk to strangers or accept gifts from them. A commercial where Ronald McDonald kidnaps a kid certainly wouldn't go over very well today. Plus, more people have started to view clowns as creepy rather than as characters to cheer us up. When McDonald's surveyed test audiences in 2011 about commercials it was thinking of airing on television, more and more reviewers used the word "creepy" to describe their feelings toward Ronald McDonald. But is Ronald really creepy?
Controversies and Scrutiny
The chain has been extremely strict about who could represent the chain. While the company vets each Ronald with a comprehensive background check, at least one creep has slipped through the cracks and into the role. In 1998, Joe Maggard (a substitute Ronald for one of the chain's commercials) turned out to be a bad hiring choice. Maggard was arrested on a weapons charge and went to court again the next year for making prank calls as Ronald McDonald.
Unfortunately for Ronald's reputation, sinister clowns started appearing in random locations worldwide in 2016. The first reports came from South Carolina in August, and disturbing clowns were soon popping up everywhere. People were seeing them walk down deserted stretches of road, into the countryside, or through city lots both day and night. While many were just dressing up for fun, others tried to lure kids into the woods, ran at people, or brandished real weapons to incite terror. There were several clown arrests in 2016. If you started to notice Ronald McDonald disappearing from sight in 2016, it's because of all the rampaging clowns. We often don't notice what's missing when it's not there anymore.
confirms his intentional disappearance from ads but says he still makes special appearances in the community and restaurants. You could blame the shift in viewpoint on clowns as being creepy or the sinister clown debacle of 2016. However, people have been protesting against the Ronald McDonald mascot for years since advertising campaigns featuring him all target children. In 2011, 550 doctors came together to insist that McDonald's remove him from its marketing efforts, pointing out how many kids were becoming unhealthy from eating so much junk food. When Ace Matrix studied McDonald's ads in 2013, it found that Ronald had become less of an asset for the company.
The Actors Behind the Mask
The earliest official Ronald McDonald was Willard Scott, who landed the role in 1963. He only played Ronald for two years before being replaced by a string of clown actors who tended to keep the job for only a couple of years. Bob Brandon was the first actor to hold onto the part for five years, starting in 1970. Most Ronald McDonalds since 1975 have been able to stay in the role for a significant amount of time. King Moody still holds the record for reigning as Ronald for 16 years, from 1969 to 1985. David Hussey also did an impressive 14-year stint as Ronald from 2000-2014.
Ronald McDonald's Social Media Presence
While we haven't seen Ronald McDonald and his McDonaldland friends for a while on television, he was quite active on Instagram for a time. However, after getting packed for a road trip in 2021, he hasn't returned. Ronald McDonald's Instagram was extremely active during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. If you were among his 59,900 followers, you would have been treated to entertaining videos showcasing some of his many talents. He displayed his juggling skills and performed magic tricks, like throwing one Christmas ornament at the fireplace to magically decorate his entire living room. In fact, we learn that he is absolutely obsessed with the winter holiday season. His Insta has everything from jokes to trivia and a late-night talkshow to keep fans entertained. Some of his old McDonaldland friends, like Birdie, Grimace, and the Hamburgler, even make occasional appearances on the Instagram account.
The Legacy of Ronald McDonald Houses
1974 marks the year when McDonald's first joined forces with a children's hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to provide a place for families to stay while their sick children received medical care. Ronald McDonald Houses are currently in 51 countries worldwide to help relieve some of the emotional and financial stress for worried parents of sick children. However, did you know that, despite featuring the Ronald McDonald name, these charities all operate as separate entities? They each have boards of directors comprised of people from the community rather than ones connected to the McDonald's corporation.
Even though Ronald McDonald hasn't shown up in McDonald's commercials since 2016, he still remains the face of Ronald McDonald House. Representatives for Ronald McDonald House call him the "CEO of Happiness" (via YouTube). In this role, he still visits sick children in hospitals to try to bring brightness and cheer to them while they undergo treatment. Plus, many of the fundraising efforts the charity uses to raise money each year - like Red Shoe Day - continue to use Ronald McDonald mascots.