Why Did Ronald McDonald Disappear?

For well over half a century, McDonald’s peddled hamburgers and fries with the pleasantly hyper mascot Ronald McDonald. The red-haired clown was introduced in 1963 and became a fixture in popular culture thanks to toys, personal appearances, and countless television commercials. He is to the Golden Arches as Mickey Mouse is to Disney—a corporate fixture that might be second only to Santa Claus in the realm of fictional character recognition.

But in the mid-2010s, he all but disappeared.

At the time, the media and McDonald’s themselves connected Ronald’s absence to a weird hysteria surrounding “clown sightings,” or the idea malevolent clowns were popping up in a rash of prank appearances. While that may have been part of the reason, there’s more to it than that.

1. Why Ronald McDonald Went Missing
2. Looking for Ronald McDonald
3. A New Direction

Why Ronald McDonald Went Missing

Before Ronald McDonald, there was Bozo. The popular clown was a staple of children’s television in the 1950s and 1960s, with different local markets using different actors to portray the character. In Washington, D.C., it was future NBC weatherman Willard Scott. When that Bozo show folded in 1963, McDonald’s—which had been a sponsor of the series—decided to create a clown of their own. They hired Scott, who went on to appear in a number of national ad spots while sporting a paper cup for a nose and a food tray on his head.

Following a makeover that put him in a yellow-and-red jumpsuit, Ronald became the painted face of the company, often appearing alongside other characters like Grimace or the Hamburglar. He appeared in countless commercials; he starred in a series of animated VHS tapes from Rugrats studio Klasky Csupo distributed in McDonald’s restaurants; in 1991, he even hosted a Christmas special on CBS, The Wish That Changed Christmas, drawing criticism that the show was merely a 30-minute McDonald’s advertisement in disguise.

But as anti-clown sentiment rose in the 2010s, Ronald was being reclassified as a possible burden. Clown “sightings” were often benevolent, but enough of them—like one man dressed as a clown who followed children to a school with a knife in an apparent prank—still contributed to an atmosphere of apprehension.

In October 2016, the company sent a written statement to NBC News. “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,” it read.

The clown crisis abated rather quickly. Just months later, in December 2016, Ronald made an appearance during a parade in Ruidoso, New Mexico. But it wasn’t exactly the beginning of a resurgence. Ronald has remained largely out of McDonald’s advertising ever since. Something else was to blame.

Looking for Ronald McDonald

While many associate Ronald’s retreat from the public eye with clown paranoia, his waning public profile actually predates that scare by years.

In 2016, The Chicago Tribune reported that the consumer watchdog group Corporate Accountability International had long been petitioning McDonald’s to scrap Ronald from its advertising, arguing it was marketing its food too aggressively to children. CAI even attended annual shareholder meetings to protest the spokesclown, comparing him to the cigarette-pushing Joe Camel character.

McDonald’s countered that Ronald was by this point was mainly serving as a charity ambassador—his namesake, the Ronald McDonald House Charities, continues to house families of children receiving medical care—and that Ronald is rarely depicted consuming McDonald’s food. The company had recently given him a makeover in 2014, complete with cargo pants, seemingly indicating he was still gainfully employed. (The impractical clown shoes remained.)

McDonald’s did not respond to Mental Floss’s request for comment on Ronald’s current whereabouts, but there are signs the character is more dormant than retired. “Ronald McDonald is still around,” McDonald’s posted on X in 2021. “He’s just busy helping sick children.” What appears to be the official Ronald McDonald Instagram account leads to photos of actors dressed as Ronald, though the account has been neglected since 2021. (Not coincidentally, the drop-offs in personal appearances coincide with the coronavirus pandemic.)

A New Direction

Instead, the company appears to be leaning into Grimace, the amorphous purple blob of indeterminate origin (though some believe he’s supposed to be a taste bud) who occasionally surfaces as a meme-friendly presence. In 2023, various videos of social media users pretending to perish after sipping a Grimace milkshake went viral.

In 2025, a green relative, Uncle O’Grimacey, promoted the seasonal Shamrock Shake. Unlike past McDonald’s mascot campaigns, Grimace’s recent one seem calculated to appeal to the humor of Millennials and Gen Z rather than to recruit child customers.

Ronald fans should not count the clown out. In April 2024, Ronald appeared next to Grimace at the McDonald’s All-American Games in Houston, Texas, which highlights standout high school basketball players. In the summer of that year, Ronald attended the NASCAR Cup Series in Chicago, Illinois, as part of their partnership with driver Bubba Wallace. And in November 2024, he was one of the floats at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.

There are also signs his social media hiatus may be coming to an end. On February 18, 2025, McDonald’s posted a YouTube Shorts clip featuring Ronald clicking his oversized heels together.

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