Think about it, when was the last time you saw Ronald McDonald? The famous food franchise’s mascot? Quite a long time ago, right?
The face of McDonald’s
Ronald McDonald, the clown who was made to be the mascot of the American fast food franchise McDonald’s, is certainly less popular today than he was back in the day.
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Ronald first appeared back in the 1960s with clown makeup: a white face and bright red hair.
He was an important symbol for a while
The clown business mascot was an important symbol of American popular culture at the time he first appeared, with his face going hand-in-hand with the post-war United States.
But while the mascot was the face of the happy meal, which is targeted at kids, and the McDonald’s franchise as a whole, he has certainly seen better days.
Kids used to love him
Back in the day, kids used to love Ronald, with many of them running to speak with the clown in the yellow boiler suit at their local McDonald’s.
But when was the last time you saw one in person?
The decision was made to phase him out
If you really think about it, the last time the mascot was out and about in person will have probably been 2016, because that was the year Ronald started slowly phasing out of the public eye.
It was in response to a disturbing trend
The phasing out of Ronald McDonald began in 2016, in response to a disturbing social media trend where people dressed up as sinister-looking clowns and filmed themselves scaring strangers in public.
If you were following things on the internet at that time, you’ll remember the killer clown trend sent people into a frenzy.
Some even showed up near schools
Some people would even post creepy-looking pictures of themselves dressed up as clowns and standing near schools to scare people passing by.
Incidents of public clown sightings were reported all over the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Things got serious very quickly
Like many internet jokes, some people took it too far. Although it started as a stunt for a horror movie at the time, there were serious incidents reported about people getting attacked by clowns in public.
In the UK, it was even reported that one person dressed as a clown pulled a knife and allegedly ran after a boy going home from school with it in hand.
McDonald’s executives decided to phase it out
Since then, people started seeing the mascot differently, and the McDonald’s team had to take the decision to phase him out of public presence.
They put out a statement at the time which read, “McDonald’s and franchisees in the local markets are mindful of the current climate around clown sightings in communities and as such are being thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald’s participation in community events for the time being.”
There’s also a statement on the website
On the McDonald’s website, a statement also reads, “We’re afraid that Ronald McDonald no longer appears in McDonald’s UK advertising, but he is still very busy working for us.”
“He often travels up and down the country to help promote some of our exciting new activities and visits our restaurants to make sure everyone is enjoying their meals.”