According to official company statements,
Ronald McDonald is “second only to Santa in terms of recognition”. While this may or may not have been true at
one point in time, you might have noticed of late that the formerly prominent fast-food
mascot has almost completely disappeared from the lime-light. So how did Ronald McDonald come about in the
first place and where has he disappeared to in recent years? The original idea behind the character of
Ronald McDonald was to more or less capitalize on the popularity of the iconic Bozo the Clown,
with initial efforts on this front simply advertising on that children’s show in the
Washington D.C. area. When this succeeded in getting kids to drag
their parents to McDonald’s, in 1963 McDonald’s decided to create their own similar character,
with the first to portray the Bozo knock-off being none other than Willard Scott, who would
later go on to much more prominent fame for his decades of work on The Today Show. Wanting to expand the character, McDonald’s
hired Ringling Bros. clown Michael Polakovs, better known as Coco the Clown, to re-do the
look of Ronald McDonald. You see, at the time Ronald’s garb featured
a cardboard tray for a hat and a paper cup over his nose- not exactly prime time material. What Polakovs came up with is the now iconic
look of the character. With this, Ronald McDonald was ready for the
big-time, at which point Scott was promptly fired from the role in 1966 and Bev Bergeron
was hired to take his place. While you’ll often read Scott was fired
for being too fat, which would be kind of ironic if true, this seems unlikely as Bev
Bergeron had many more tires in his trunk than Scott at the time. From this, it seems more likely that Bergeron
was probably hired as he was vastly more qualified for the role, with an extremely impressive
resume as an entertainer, magician, and clown. In fact, later in life he would actually receive
a Lifetime Achievement Fellowship Award from the Academy of Magic Arts and Sciences. Speaking of that switch, “officially”
McDonald’s publicly only recognises nine men as having played the character since the
1960s when he was created. Or to put it another way, if McDonald’s
is to be believed, more men have walked on the moon than played Ronald McDonald. The reality though is that hundreds, if not
thousands of actors have portrayed Ronald over the years, with said actors usually being
tasked with being the Ronald for a specific area or set of McDonald’s restaurants. Save for a few scant references to the handful
of men known to have portrayed Ronald in an official capacity, McDonald’s as a company
otherwise insists that Ronald is real and that there is only one of him. Towards this end, the company has rules in
place that prevent two or more Ronalds from ever appearing in costume at the same place
at the same time, with the one apparent exception being a secret convention the company holds
for Ronalds it sometimes refuses to admit actually happens. In an attempt to catch McDonald’s out, The
Baltimore Sun once reached out to the company and asked how Ronald seemingly appeared in
so many places at once if there was only one of him. In response, the company issued a statement
they claimed was from Ronald himself reading: “If I told you all my secrets, they wouldn’t
be secrets anymore. Let’s just say that between you, me and
Santa, it’s magic.” Meaning it’s the official position of McDonald’s
as a company that not only is Ronald McDonald real, but that he has magic powers. So as to not break the carefully crafted illusion
that Ronald is real, men playing him are forbidden from disclosing their real identity in costume
and even from taking the costume home with them. As an idea of how seriously the actors playing
Ronald take this, we’re aware of at least one example of a Ronald being detained by
police as a direct result of the “no admitting you’re just an actor while playing Ronald”
policy handed down by McDonald’s. Specifically, after an actor in full Ronald
McDonald costume and makeup got into a minor car crash in Saginaw, Michigan in 2000, they
were temporarily detained after being asked to give their real name and hilariously refusing
to respond with any other name than “Ronald McDonald” to the police. In addition to being expected to never disclose
that they’re an actor just playing a part while in costume, out of costume actors who
play Ronald similarly aren’t supposed to acknowledge that fact, instructed to refer
to themselves as “Ronald’s helpers” when asked what their job is. Understandably, given the character’s position
as the face of their brand, McDonald’s takes the training of prospective Ronalds incredibly
seriously, putting anyone wanting to don his iconic outfit through an extensive and grueling
training program. While this training program has evolved somewhat
over the years to reflect the changing climate surrounding the brand and its products (more
on that in a moment), it is mostly the same as it was back in the 1970s and follows the
rules and guidelines set out in a book titled Ronald and How. This was penned by a former Ronald named Aye
Jaye, with the help of advertising executive Roy Bergold. At this point, Jaye was serving as the company’s
“boss clown” (a role that mainly involved overseeing the hiring and training of Ronalds). As you might have guessed from the title,
the book teaches actors everything they need to know about being Ronald McDonald. For example, along with containing information
about the character’s history, Ronald and How gives practical advice on everything from
applying makeup to walking around in those ridiculous shoes. The book also teaches Ronalds how to interact
with children in a non-creepy way, which when playing a clown is always a difficult task. For example, given the rampant stigma against
strange men interacting with random children, the book carries a stark warning- “never
to initiate a hug”, instead suggesting Ronalds respond to a child trying to hug them by turning
to the side and patting the child on the back. With this in mind, it’s probably not all
that surprising that prospective Ronalds are also subjected to extensive background checks. Ronalds are also constantly tested on their
suitability for the role by official Ronald trainers who are given the power to fire a
Ronald on the spot for any reason if they ever don’t measure up to the exacting demands
of the company. Amazingly, these trainers also have the power
to put actors playing the character on “Ronald probation” to let them know they need to
literally get their act together. According to Geoffrey Giuliano, who played
Ronald for about a year and a half in the late 1970s, one of the more unusual rules
they also have to follow is never eating McDonald’s food in costume. This is reportedly as it might smudge their
makeup. Giuliano has also claimed that he was forbade
by McDonald’s brass from informing children how McDonald’s hamburgers were made. Instead, if a child asked where hamburgers
came from, the Ronalds are instructed to give a stock response about McDonald’s burgers
being grown in patches where they are picked whole. This was presumably done so as to maintain
consistency with a series of McDonald’s ads from the early 1970s aimed at children
which claimed that hamburgers grew in a special patch in a place called McDonaldland, instead
of made by slaughtering approximately half a million cows per year… According to canon established by the ads,
McDonaldland is a place in which McDonald’s food grows naturally in a world being populated
with things like french fry bushes (which we actually think is a way better name for
the potato plant), trees that bear piping hot McDonald’s apple pies, and volcanoes
filled with milkshakes instead of lava, which would have made the whole historic destruction
of Pompeii a lot more fun. One can only imagine how Pliny the Eldar’s
supposed “Fortune favors the brave” statement might have morphed. As you might have guessed, Ronald McDonald
hails from this magical land and throughout the 1970s seemed able to travel between it
and our own world at will somehow. As time went on though, Ronald was shown visiting
McDonaldland less and less, with modern ads and promotional material suggesting that he
has seemingly decided to live in our world permanently. A fact that segues nicely to the training
of more recent Ronalds. You see, in recent years McDonald’s has
been attempting to rebrand Ronald and distance themselves from accusations that the character
exists only to peddle junk food to children, with some even going so far as comparing Ronald
McDonald to the old Joe Camel cigarette ads, which while officially not aimed at teens,
studies showed a full 1/3 of teen smokers in the U.S. chose to smoke Camel cigarettes
before the less comic-like version of the character was phased out because of the public
backlash. In an attempt to get around similar negative
PR, but still keep their iconic mascot, McDonald’s has recently pushed Ronald as an advocate
for health instead… A thing worth noting is that, according to
McDonald’s, Ronald’s goal has never been to sell McDonald’s food but promote values
the company considers integral to its brand. In fact, officially Ronald’s position within
McDonald’s is that of national spokesman. McDonald’s maintains then that Ronald is
merely an ambassador for goodwill and happiness and that his main concern has always been
fun as well as educating children about “important subjects, such as fire safety, exercise, health
and hygiene, anti-bullying, self-esteem and literacy”. Of course, many of these lessons take place
inside McDonald’s restaurants, not to mention all of the ads with Ronald where he’s clearly
trying to sell McDonald’s food to children, but we digress. The first rumblings that McDonald’s were
considering ways to revamp Ronald came about in 2002 when rumors began circulating that
they were going to reduce visibility of the character in promotional material in the wake
of sustained negative coverage of the brand and accusations that it was playing a role
in the childhood obesity epidemic. While McDonald’s did admit that the character
was going to play a reduced role in advertising, top brass in the company stated the reason
for this was due to research suggesting the character didn’t resonate with children
anymore, with one executive noting simply: He reminds me of Mickey Mouse — iconic but
dated. The kids have moved on. A year later in 2003 McDonald’s began trying
in earnest to revamp Ronald’s image, announcing that the character had promoted from mascot
to “Chief Happiness Officer”- a new position created just for him. Exactly what, if any, official duties a Chief
Happiness Officer HAS aren’t really clear, with one McDonald’s executive noting that
Ronald doesn’t even get paid, and further noting about the question of Ronald’s salary:
“Ronald doesn’t go out to work. He goes out to have fun.” In truth, it would appear from accounts of
former Ronald McDonalds, the gig pays anywhere from about $40,000 per year on up to nearly
half a million dollars per year, depending on what district one is assigned, how prominently
McDonald’s chooses to use you, etc. In fact, the top Ronalds reportedly even get
their own fancy office with secretaries and bodyguards to boot, with the latter apparently
necessary as older children sometimes like to throw things at Mr. McDonald, and some
adults also behave badly towards him. In any event, in 2005, McDonald’s pitched
Ronald as a “global ambassador of fun, fitness and children’s well-being”, releasing
a series of ads showing him tearing it up on a snowboard and juggling fruit. These ads coincided with a fundamental shift
in how McDonald’s trained Ronalds, with the company making it known that any actor
wanting to play the character now had to be fit enough to sell the idea they could do
everything Ronald did in the ads. According to insiders, McDonald’s went as
far as to straight up fire long-time Ronalds it felt were too out of shape. At the same time the company also began training
Ronalds to give basic health and nutrition advice to children as well as to teach games
that doubled as exercise. However, to ensure uniformity amongst Ronalds,
the advice they are able to give is limited to stock, scripted answers handed down by
McDonald’s, and Ronalds are under strict instructions to never, ever go off script,
being told to tell any curious children or adults asking questions they don’t have
a scripted answer for to “ask someone wearing normal shoes”. Following this and the somewhat lackluster
response from the public to this change, McDonald’s once again slowly began downplaying the role
of the character in advertising, occasionally responding to comments and queries about Ronald’s
continued status as the company’s mascot by saying that, while Ronald was still around,
he was focusing his efforts on promoting Ronald McDonald House Charities. And here we should note that while Ronald
was less visible in McDonald’s advertising, the company still had hundreds of official
Ronalds on its payroll across the globe to promote the brand in person and at various
events. Unwilling to let go of the character, however,
in 2012, McDonald’s decided to try and revamp Ronald again, quietly hiring Tony Award winning
designer Ann Hould-Ward to secretly work on updating his look. Unveiled to the world in 2014, the new Ronald
ditched his old yellow jumpsuit for a goofy looking shirt and bow tie combo, accessorised
with a garish red blazer. The change in look coincided with an announcement
from McDonald’s that Ronald would be taking an active role on social media and that he
was looking forward to hearing feedback about his new outfit. Although McDonald’s would later claim that
Ronald’s foray onto social media was a rollicking success, his new look was near-universally
derided to the point that the top trending phrase on Twitter the day the new outfit was
revealed was “NotLovinIt”. (Oh Internet denizens… Never change.) Commentators additionally noted that the change
came off as more desperate than anything and that it was clear the company had attempted
to make Ronald look less, well, clown-like. In addition to giving Ronald a new look, McDonald’s
announced that he was “setting out on a global mission to rally the public through
inspiring events”, a fairly nebulous goal the company declined to elaborate on. Ronald however did, being quoted as saying: Selfies …here I come! It’s a big world and now, wherever I go
and whatever I do…I’m ready to show how fun can make great things happen. Since then, at least according to McDonald’s,
Ronald has basically spent his time doing what they as a company claim he’s always
done- tout the benefits of an an active, healthy lifestyle to children worldwide. In fact, if McDonald’s are to be believed,
along with not paying Ronald, apparently Mr. McDonald has literally never taken a day off
since he joined the company in 1963, save for a brief period in 2016 when all those
creepy clown sightings happened… In response to these events, McDonald’s
released a statement noting that Ronald would be limiting the amount of public appearances
he made due to the “current climate around clown sightings in communities”. Officially, as of 2018, Ronald is still very
much (apparently) a slave labor employee of the McDonald’s corporation and the company
maintains that he’s not only real but have acknowledged that he possesses both magical
powers and is presumably immortal due to the fact they’ve noted he will likely continue
to serve in his role as a brand ambassador, spokesman and advocate for a healthy lifestyle
forever, and has never appeared to age. So, just to recap, rather than admit that
its company mascot is just a series of guys in a costume, McDonald’s instead maintains
that one of their employees is actually an ageless magical clown hailing from another
dimension that can bend reality, space and time to his will and tries to attract children
to his abode. A fact that’d be hilarious if it wasn’t
also the exact plot of IT. If you’ve ever wondered why there is often
a second capital letter in surnames starting with “Mac” or “Mc”, this is because
“Mac” and “Mc” are prefixes that mean “son of”. Early inconsistencies in records are what
led to having both Mc and Mac prefixes. Mc is just an abbreviation of Mac, and both
can actually be abbreviated further to the much less common M’. So someone with the last name of MacDonald
is sort of like someone with the last name of Johnson—likely, each had ancestors with
the name of Donald or John respectively. From this, you can probably see why Mc and
Mac names typically contain a second capital letter. Since proper nouns are capitalized, you would
write “son of Donald,” not “son of donald.” In the same way, you would usually write MacDonald
rather than Macdonald, but there are obviously exceptions. Surnames have been around so long that sometimes
they get changed, and in some families, the second capital letter was gotten rid of. There was also a prefix for “daughter of”
but these mostly fell out of favour. The daughter prefix was Nc, short for the
Gaelic “nighean mhic.” Surnames for women like NcDonald were fairly
popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, but after that time there were only a few secluded
mentions of them. To a lesser extent, “Vc” was used to denote
“grandson of,” so that a person would have two surnames, like John MacDonald Vcmaster
for John being the son of Donald who in turn was the son of a master of some sort, but
this tradition was never incredibly popular and
is not as prevalent today.
