Where's Ronald?

Cafe Society
1

I just realized that I haven’t seen Ronald McDonald in any McDonald’s commercials for quite some time. Have they dumped that character?

2

Not “dumped” (they’d be fools to completely walk away from such a recognizable character), but McDonalds scaled back their use of the character quite a few years ago. This article indicates that one of the reasons was that they found that he didn’t resonate with kids the way he used to, and I suspect that scary clowns in movies and TV shows played a role.

That article also notes that McDonald’s has some very stringent “Santa is real”-style rules about how they talk about Ronald.

3

Well, he creeped me the eff out.
Bozo was pretty scary too. :eek:

Gah!! :smack:

4

While we’re clowning around, does anyone have a link to the initial creepy king mask Burger King commercial? I think it first appeared during a Super Bowl, but I’m not sure.

5

Ronald built a secret room in his mother’s house and lived there after his Mom died when the house was sold to a young family with teen-age daughters.

6

He lies sleeping in the hidden city of R’lyeh, but one day, when the stars are right, he will return. Over 7 billion to be served…

7

… so get up and get away to Mcthulhu’s!

(Andy L, excellent!)

8

Thank you.

9

I’m afraid to click on Burpo’s link after that virus he gave me. Wasn’t even on the computer! :wink:

10

Unless they’re hoping that clowns come back into vogue, it might be worth it to them to reinvent the character, if I’m honest.

The closest thing to a friendly clown in modern day life, that I can think of, is a Juggalo. That’s certainly not encouraging for a family friendly ad campaign.

Maybe if they turned him into a cartoon character it would work. But a sightly clowny Dr Who type or something might be the better alternative if they want to stick to live action.

11

I think this is the first one.

The mask is from the 70s, but that’s the first one he was intentionally creepy.