When
Ray A. Kroc helped the McDonald brothers make their fast-food
enterprise big, he wanted to advertise on television using a
circus vehicle he had seen on a show called "Bozo
Circus".
Television
was ideal for McDonalds, especially as children were fast
becoming McDonalds most important customers. A franchiser for
the enterprises called Ray Goldstein promoted "Bozo"
the Clown from the circus to become the children's star; but
in 1963, the television executives at the Washington station
decided to axe the show. Goldstein was undeterred, and asked
for a promotion agency, Kal-Elrlich and Merrick, to come up
with ideas that would preserve McDonalds image among children.
Something had to be done very quickly.
Bozo the clown had become McDonalds spokesman and Merrick
decided the only solution was to engage another clown in a
television commercial. The way forward was to establish
McDonalds own clown and produce its own commercials.
The
agency proposed naming the clown Archie McDonald, a reference
to the famous golden arches seen outside McDonalds
restaurants, but there was already an Arch McDonald in
Washington. Willard Scott, who had played Bozo the Clown,
named the new clown Ronald McDonald, and went on to play the
character.
Ronald
McDonald made his debut in Washington D.C., in October 1963.
Janet Vaughn designed the costume. The hat consisted of a tray
with a styrofoam burger and a bag of fries, a milkshake, shoes
shaped liked buns, and a nose fashioned out of a McDonalds cup.
The belt buckle was made out of a styrofoam hamburger. The
commercial featured Ronald McDonald pulling hamburgers out of
his belt. Ronald McDonald's appearance marked the first occasion
a "character" was used in commercials in the
U.S.A.
By
1965, Ronald McDonald became the national spokesman for the
McDonalds restaurant chain.
In
television commercials and media, the character of Ronald
McDonald inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland, and has
adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar,
Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. The McDonald's
Corporation has also characterized Ronald McDonald as being able
to speak 31 different languages including Mandarin, Dutch,
Tagalog, and Hindi.
Many people work full-time
making appearances in the Ronald McDonald costume, visiting
children in hospitals. There are also Ronald McDonald Houses,
where parents can stay overnight when visiting sick children in
nearby chronic care facilities. Since August 2003, McDonald has
been officially recognized as the "Chief Happiness
Officer" of the McDonald's Corporation.
An author of a chapter on
excessive eating once called Ronald McDonald the second most
recognized figure in the world (after Santa Claus). This proved
to be true in the controversial 2005 film Supersize Me where
filmmaker Morgan Spurlock showed young children images of well
known faces. They all correctly identified Ronald McDonald but
failed to name George W. Bush and Jesus.
At any given time, there are
dozens, or possibly hundreds, of actors retained by McDonald's
to appear as Ronald McDonald in restaurants and events. It is
assumed, however, that the company uses only one actor at a time
to play the character in national television commercials.
Following is a list of such primary Ronald actors.
- Willard
Scott (Washington, D.C. 1963–1965)
- Bev
Bergeron (Southern California, 1966-68)
- George
Voorhis (South California, 1968-1970)
- Bob Brandon (1970-1975)
- King
Moody (1975-1984)
- Squire
Fridell (1984-1991)
- Jack Doepke (1990-1992)
- Joe
Maggard (1994-2007)
- Brad Lennon (2007-Present)
Various forms of the name
"Ronald McDonald" as well as costume clown
face persona, etc. are registered trademarks of McDonald's.
McDonald's trains performers to portray Ronald using identical
mannerisms and costume, to contribute to the illusion that they
are one character.
McDonald's marketing designers
and stylists changed elements of the Ronald McDonald character,
persona, style, costume and clown
face when they adopted the clown as a trademark, possibly in
deference to "The
Code", the tradition of clowns
to scrupulously avoid copying other clowns' appearance or
performance style.
Although is it me, or does this
recent British version of Ronald McDonald somehow not look quite
right?
At least it's not
as weird as Japan's sex change Ronald McDonald...she's rather
hot though.
To
this day the clown is of great appeal to children around the
world. In recent years, the "childish"
McDonaldland has been largely phased out, and Ronald is instead
shown interacting with normal kids in their everyday lives.
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