McDonaldland

The advertising campaign

Cycle one of McDonaldland began in January 1971, about the same time McDonald's was replacing its drive-ins with mansard-roofed restaurants. These early commercials were built on an upbeat, bubble-gum style tune, and featured a narrator, and plots that involved various villains trying to steal a corresponding food item, foiled by Ronald.

McDonaldland itself, as it was depicted in the commercials, was a magical land where plants, foods, and inanimate objects were living, speaking characters. In addition to being the home to Ronald and the other core characters, McDonaldland boasted "Thick shake volcanoes", anthropomorphized "Apple pie trees", "The Hamburger Patch" (where McDonald's hamburgers grew out of the ground like plants), "Filet-O-Fish Lake", and many other fanciful features based around various McDonald's menu items. In the commercials, the various beings are played by puppets or costumed performers, very similar to the popular H. R. Pufnstuf program.

McDonald's had originally hoped Sid and Marty Krofft, the creators of H. R. Pufnstuf, would agree to license their characters for commercial promotions. When the Kroffts declined, McDonaldland was created, purposely based on the H. R. Pufnstuf show in an attempt to duplicate the appeal.

Lawsuit and the aftermath

In 1973, the Kroffts successfully sued McDonald's, arguing that the entire McDonaldland premise was essentially a ripoff of their television show. In specific, the Kroffts claimed that the character Mayor McCheese was a direct ripoff of their character, "H. R. Pufnstuf" (being a mayor himself). McDonald's was forced to pay a $50,000 settlement.

After the lawsuit, the concept of the "magical land" was all but phased out of the commercials, as were many of the original characters. Those that remained would be Ronald, Grimace, The Hamburglar, and The Fry Kids. Birdie the Early Bird would join the fold soon after, representing the restaurant's new breakfast line in the early 1980s. From then on, the characters seemed to live in the real world and they interacted with real life characters, but commercials still fell under the blanket of "McDonaldland".

Soon after, the Happy Meal Gang and the McNugget Buddies were prominent features in the commercials (representing the restaurant's "Happy Meals" and "Chicken McNuggets" respectively, being the menu items that mainly appealed to kids) along with Ronald and the gang.

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