McDonald's has certainly changed quite a bit since its humble California beginnings in the 1950s, and a great deal of that change has happened just in the last decade or so.
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00:00McDonald's has certainly changed quite a bit since its humble California beginnings in the 1950s,
00:06and a great deal of that change has happened just in the last decade or so.
00:10They've removed many of their playgrounds, spent $6 billion on making their restaurants
00:14more high-tech and sleeker-looking, and done everything under the sun to create
00:18a menu that appeals to fast, casual-loving millennials. One of the more nostalgic
00:22aspects of McDonald's that's faded away has been the burger chain's long-standing clown mascot,
00:28Ronald McDonald. The absence of Ronald McDonald is bound to split people into two groups.
00:34There are those who will view Ronald's firing from the McDonald's of today as yet another
00:38piece of their childhood gone forever. On the opposite side of the coin are those with more
00:42of a good riddance attitude about it. So why, after so many years of promoting Happy Meals,
00:48did the Golden Arches finally pull Ronald McDonald from its promotions?
00:52Despite the friendly and fun, good nature of Ronald McDonald,
00:552016 brought some bad press to clowns everywhere that not even the almighty machine of McDonald's
01:00wanted to try and fix. Perhaps you remember back in 2016 when there was a rash of really
01:06spooky clown sightings across the United States?
01:09"...a clown just chased my daughter."
01:11Clowns were reportedly chasing motorists with knives, lurking around schools,
01:15and otherwise just being real creeps. This wasn't simply something that was causing a
01:20stir on the internet bulletin boards or Twitter. Major media outlets were reporting on rumors of
01:25terrorizing clowns. The whole thing was widespread enough that McDonald's felt the need to officially
01:30distance themselves from the worrying news. Spokeswoman Terry Hickey said in a 2016 press
01:36statement,
01:37"...McDonald's and franchisees in the local markets are mindful of the current climate
01:41around clown sightings in communities and as such are being thoughtful in respect to
01:46Ronald McDonald's participation in community events for the time being."
01:50While the creepy clown craze might have been the straw that broke the camel's back,
01:53it was hardly the only reason McDonald's parted ways with their clown.
01:58"...McDonald's hamburgers? And some french fries?"
02:04Ronald McDonald has been McDonald's main mascot since the 1960s, but his presence was wearing
02:10thin before those terrifying clown sightings of 2016. Various watchdog groups had been
02:15criticizing Ronald's marketing of unhealthy fast food to impressionable kids for years,
02:21drawing comparisons to the long-retired cigarette mascot Joe Camel.
02:25Long before the creepy clown incidents, former CEO Don Thompson attempted to defend
02:30Ronald as a mascot, saying in 2014,
02:33"...you don't see Ronald McDonald in schools. You don't see him eating food."
02:37Basically, the message seemed to be that Ronald doesn't eat McDonald's food. He just sells it.
02:43Many observers thought the defense didn't do much to help Ronald as a mascot or McDonald's
02:48as a place to eat. That same year, the company redesigned the clown with a cooler,
02:52more sophisticated look, but whatever they were shooting for, the rollout was a flop.
02:58McDonald's has been going through a makeover to make its restaurants more appealing to adults
03:02for years. The company started this makeover in 2012, and they're still in the process of
03:07updating its 5,000-plus locations. This means self-order kiosks, refreshed exteriors, and dining
03:14rooms that take inspiration from cafes and coffee shops. But the turn away from the kid-friendly
03:20burger joint design is a problem for Ronald, whose loudly-dressed cardboard cutouts don't
03:24really fit in with the new modernized aesthetic. McDonald's could always bring Ronald McDonald
03:29back whenever it likes, but these days, if you look through the company's social media accounts,
03:33you'll see that they're almost totally Ronald-free. This doesn't mean that Ronald
03:37McDonald has been 100 percent erased from the brand. You can still see Ronald McDonald
03:42representing the Golden Arches at least one day out of the year in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day
03:47Parade. McDonald's has been flying a giant Ronald McDonald balloon in the parade for years,
03:53and it continued to do so at the parade in 2019. Ronald's parade appearance that year wasn't
03:58exactly smooth sailing, though. Poor Ronald suffered a gash in his leg after being blown
04:03into a tree branch. The deflation got so bad that NBC cut away to pre-recorded footage from an old
04:09parade to save Ronald the embarrassment.