#30: Ronald McDonald
Ronald McDonald used to be the iconic face of McDonald’s. He was everywhere in the 90s. Literally, he was in every McDonald’s Happy Meal commercial, and he would even show up at physical McDonald’s locations to interact with guests and entertain kids. But these days, he’s nowhere to be found. Did Ronald retire?
The lack of Ronald McDonald isn’t just your over-active imagination. The fast food chain slowly faded the happy clown from its publicity materials as recently as 2016. There’s a reason for that. Remember the hysteria over the 2016 clown sightings? Yeah, not exactly the best publicity for clowns. McDonald’s probably realized it was safer for guests, and the guy hired to play Ronald McDonald, if the famous clown mascot was laid low.