Ronald McDonald
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Ronald McDonald is a clown spokesman for McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. According to the book Fast Food Nation (2001), 96% of school children in the United States can identify Ronald McDonald, making him the United States' most recognized fast food advertising icon. 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 for children 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 clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland, and has adventures with his friends Grimace, Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. The McDonald's Corporation has also characterized Ronald McDonald as being able to speak 31 different languages including Mandarin, Dutch, Tagalog, and Hindi.[1] In recent years, the "childish" McDonaldland has been largely phased out, and Ronald is instead shown interacting with normal kids in their everyday lives.
Many people work full-time making appearances in the Ronald McDonald costume, visiting children in hospitals. There are also 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. Since August 2003, McDonald has been officially recognized as the "Chief Happiness Officer" of the McDonald's Corporation.
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[edit] Appearances
[edit] Television commercials
The McDonald's Corporation has produced over 2,000 commercials featuring Ronald McDonald worldwide. Ronald McDonald does not eat any food in American commercials. [citations needed]
[edit] Other media
Ronald appeared in a small role in the 1988 film Mac and Me, a movie with a plot very similar to E.T. The film was largely funded by McDonald's.
McDonald's was featured in a game for various platforms entitled M.C. Kids in 1991.
In 1995, the album "Ronald Makes it Magic" was released, featuring a combination of covers (often with new lyrics) and original material performed by Ronald and other characters.[1]
He stared in an animated series entitled The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald.
In spring 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 project was cancelled later that year because of advertising reasons with the show's sponsors.
[edit] Conception and creation
Two conflicting versions of Ronald McDonald's origins exist. One claims that the original character and design of 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, supposedly first portrayed the character for a hired performance at a Los Angeles, California drive-in restaurant McDonald's. When his homosexuality became public, the performer was subsequently legally enjoined from performing as, or exhibiting the likeness of, the character in any form.
The other version of Ronald McDonald's origins involves Willard Scott (a local radio personality who also played Bozo the Clown on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. from 1959 until 1962), who performed using the moniker "Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown" in 1963 on three separate television spots. These were the first three television ads featuring the character, whose appearance was substantially similar to 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.
Scott, who went on to become NBC-TV's "Today" show weatherman, claims to have "created Ronald McDonald" according to the following excerpt from his book 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."
McDonald's does not mention Voorhees or claim 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."
But on March 28, 2000 Henry Gonzalez, McDonald's Northeast Division President, thanked Scott for creating Ronald McDonald, during a taped tribute to Scott on the "Today" show.
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, to contribute to the illusion that they are one character.
Willard Scott's costume was in several minor ways different from the Voorhees' 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.
[edit] Actors
At any given time, there are dozens, or possibly hundreds, of actors retained by McDonald's to appear as Ronald McDonald in 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 Ronald actors.
- Willard Scott (Washington, D.C. 1963–1966)
- Bob Brandon (1966 + )
- King Moody (1970s)
- Geoffrey Giuliano (late 1970s – early 1980s)
- Squire Fridell (1984 to 1991)
- Jack Doepke (early 1990's)
- Joe Maggard (mid-1990s)
[edit] 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[citation needed]. 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 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 buttocks.
[edit] In other countries
- In Japan, Ronald McDonald is known as Donald McDonald.[citation needed]
- 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.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Ronald McDonald House Charities - the official website
- Ronald.com — the official website
- Ronald McDonald at the Internet Movie Database
- TV Acres info about Ronald McDonald
- Ronald McDonald's debut TV commercial
