Ronald McDonald
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Ronald McDonald is an advertising mascot created in 1963, to promote the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. Depicted as a smiling, friendly clown in a village of food-related characters, he appeared in many vignettes creating a safe, pleasant fantasy for children. The highly successful advertising campaign still continues to draw in thousands of children and parents to purchase McDonald's famous Happy Meal.
According to the book Fast Food Nation (2001), 96 percent of schoolchildren in the U.S. can identify Ronald McDonald. Only Santa Claus was more commonly recognized.
Many of the restaurants are decorated with a life-size statue of the clown, holding out his hand to greet customers at the entrance, and children love to shake hands with him. Sometimes the figure is sitting on a bench, allowing children to sit next to him or on his lap.
In television commercials, the cloony clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland, and has adventures with his friends Grimace, Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. In recent years, however, the somewhat "childish" McDonaldland premise has been largely phased out, and Ronald is instead shown interacting with normal kids in their everyday lives.
Several people work full-time making appearances in the Ronald McDonald costume, visiting children in hospitals. There are also several Ronald McDonald Houses, where parents can stay overnight when visiting sick children in nearby chronic care facilities.
Due to the controversy over fast food, critics have likened McDonald to Joe Camel, the former mascot of Camel cigarettes.
McDonald is also, officially, the Chief Happiness Officer of the McDonald's Corporation.
Origin and history
The original character and design of American advertising icon Ronald McDonald, including facial design and costume (featuring "french-fry bag pockets" and "food-tray hat"), were created by Terry Teene and George Voorhees. Voorhees, a professional clown, first portrayed the character for a hired performance at a local Los Angeles, California area McDonald's restaurant. The performer was subsequently legally enjoined from performing as, or exhibiting the likeness of, the character in any form.
Willard Scott
Willard Scott (a local radio personality who also played Bozo the Clown on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. from 1959 until 1962) performed using the monicker Ronald McDonald in 1963 on three separate television spots—these were the first three television ads featuring the character, whose appearance was substantially similar to the original (George Voorhees) Ronald Mcdonald (spelled with a lower-case "d") as shown in the Valley News and Green Sheet, a San Fernando Valley newspaper of the time.
According to Willard Scott
Though Scott claims to have "created Ronald McDonald" (at the time the character had already been portrayed by at least two other actors) -- he apparently is referring to his personification of the character in the following excerpt from his Joy of Living:
- "At the time, Bozo was the hottest children's show on the air. You could probably have sent Pluto the Dog or Dumbo the Elephant over and it would have been equally as successful. But I was there, and I was Bozo... There was something about the combination of hamburgers and Bozo that was irresistible to kids... That's why when Bozo went off the air a few years later, the local McDonald's people asked me to come up with a new character to take Bozo's place. So, I sat down and created Ronald McDonald."
According to McDonald's website
McDonald's does not mention Voorhees, nor claims 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. In his first TV appearance in 1963, the happy clown was portrayed by none other than Willard Scott." [1]
At 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 as one another, to contribute to the illusion that they are one character.
'The Code' of the Clown
Willard Scott's costume was in several minor ways different from the original Ronald Mcdonald version (but notably, retaining the "fast food tray" hat design) and, as Ronald, Mr. Scott's clown face was substantially the same as that of his personification of Bozo the Clown, a well-known character whose widespread syndication in early television made him the best-known clown character in the United States. Thus, his use of the character may not violate the clown code.
McDonald's marketing designers and stylists changed elements of the Ronald McDonald's 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.
Makeup
Putting on the Ronald McDonald clown face is a painstaking process of applied foundation, spirit gum, white base and detail makeup that would sometimes take two hours to apply. Actors are strictly selected by the McDonald's Corporation and Leo Burnett Advertising for their ability to project energy, warmth and compassion that reflected the desired brand image. Ronald's wig is usually kept in a freezer before shoots to keep a uniform red look when applied to the actor's head. Ronald's nose prosthetic is made from a wax paraffin mold, modelled from the actor's own nose. Ronald's oversized clown shoes were at times very painful for the actors to wear as they were injected with a special silicone gel to give them weight and a rubberlike appearance. The modern version of Ronald's costume has inflatable balloons in the pants to make them look oversized. The balloons are adjustable to conform to the actor's posterior.
Trivia
- The McDonald's Corporation has produced over two thousand commercials featuring Ronald McDonald worldwide.
- In the spring of 2004, following the success of America's Army, a now shelved Ronald McDonald video game was under development. Trying to alleviate the negative brand image of the movie Super Size Me, the game featured the famous clown teaching kids to learn basic exercise routines and tips for a healthy lifestyle. The game used motion capture technology and the TrueVision3D game engine. The project was cancelled later on in that year for unspecified reasons.
- Ronald McDonald is never seen promoting the McDonald's salads as the salads are targeted at an older audience.
- In August 2003, Ronald was named McDonald's "chief happiness officer."
- In Thailand, Ronald McDonald does not make a handshaking gesture. Instead he has his hands in the traditional Thai "wai" greeting gesture of hands together as if in prayer.
The Real Ronald
- Few people know that there is a "REAL" Ronald who is a member of the family that started McDonald's. Ronald Lee McDonald, is related to Richard and Maurice McDonald the of McDonald's founders Dick and Mac McDonald, is a successful businessman, consultant, and author. He currently resides in Tampa, Florida.
Ronald has been active in the hospitality industry since the begining of the chain that bears his family's name. He worked the first store in San Bernadino, California in 1955 when on family visits and has continued in the industry for the past 50+ years.
In 1967 Ronald also became an innovator by designing and building the first Disco in America called "Pandora's Box" in a subburb of Miami,Florida. He went on to open Dave Thomas first "Wendy's" in South Carolina in Spartanburg and worked to help with the "Western Family Steak House" Chain, The "Ale Haus'" and "Villa Inn's Italian resturants". He has been a Director on Company Boards both in and out of the Hospitality industry.
Ronald has been active in many aspects of the food industry as Chairman of Dixie Southern Foods, Cottonwood Creek Farms and McDonald Hospitality Group where he maintains an active hospitality consulting business. Ronald is also Chairman of the Inner City Fund a Non Profit Charitable Foundation. He is very active in real; estate and real estate investing and is President of Coast to Coast Real Estate, LLC in Tampa, Florida and functions as a licensed Broker, Morgtage Banker and General Contractor in Florida.
Ronald has authored a number of book's including:
"The Complete Hamburger",Birch Lane Press. This was written with Dick McDonald the origional founder of McDonald's Hamburgers. Dick did the forward to the book shortly before he passed away.
"Ronald McDonald's International Burger Book" Hat's OFF Press
"Ronald McDonald's Franchise Buyers Guide" Xlibris Press
In 2003 Ronald was recognized as the "Businessman of the Year" in Florida
In 2004 Ronald Recieved the "National Leadership Award" from the President's Business Advisory Council and recieved the "Ronald Regan Gold Medal" from President George W. Bush.
In 2005 Ronald was appointed to the Chairmanship of the Entrepenure Mentors, Special Interest Group of Mensa, an organizatrion he is an active member of.
There were also other Ronald's not connceted to the McDonald's Hamburger Family:
- Ronald McDonald was also the name of the man who won the 1898 Boston Marathon.
- In November of 2005, a story widely reported in the American media involved a man named Ronald MacDonald who had robbed a Wendy's restaurant.[2]
- In October 1997, CBS featured a tounge in cheek interview with a Ronald McDonald actor, where he broke down and cried to the host and admited a huge cocatin problem was his reason for a constantly white face and red nose. He also showed great empathy for Michael Jackson, a man who he said "I can really relate to."[citation needed]
Actors
At any given time, there are dozens, or possibly hundreds, of actors retained by McDonald's to appear as Ronald McDonald in local 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 and secondary Ronald actors.
- Willard Scott (1963 – 1966)
- Bob Brandon (1966 – present)
- King Moody (1970s)
- Geoffrey Giuliano (late 1970s – early 1980s)
- Joe Maggard (mid-1990s)
Quotes
- "I feel badly about what I've done with young people. I was the happy face on something that was horrendous." —Geoffrey Giuliano, former Ronald actor who later embraced vegetarianism
- "For the last eight years I have documented coercion, threats, intimidation and manipulation by McDonald's and Leo Burnett Advertising against me due directly to my work as Ronald McDonald." —Joe Maggard, former Ronald actor, 2003
- "All the other actors that I will not mention by name have complained about their Ronald McDonald experiences. I, however, have not had a problem with the McDonald's corporation. It was just a job for me and I got my paycheck every week. This was before the Happy Meal came around, before Chicken McNuggets became a part of the menu, times back then were very different and you were grateful for what you got. I myself was very satisfied with my work with them and the perks were nothing to cry about either." —Bob Brandon, former Ronald actor, 2004.