The original Ronald McDonald looked nothing like he does today. Here’s the strange tale of America’s most famous obesity-themed clown.
The original Ronald McDonald . You probably do n’t require tyke with that .
McDonald ’s has had some memorablefiascosin their 60 - plus - year sovereignty as fast food king , but it seems the people behind the Golden Arches always find a way to regroup and return even stronger than before . And this is especially true of the face of the business himself : Ronald McDonald .
If you take a spirit at the original Ronald McDonald , it ’s hard to envisage why anyone thought he ’d come through as a marketing tool . Yet the photo above indeed evince the original Ronald McDonald ad , show in the Washington , D.C. market in 1963 ( with the mascot played by TV personality Willard Scott ) .
The original Ronald McDonald. You probably don’t want fries with that.
His nose was a McDonald ’s cup , his lid was a loaded tray , his composition was like that of the Scarecrow inThe Wizard of Oz , and his belt as if by magic produced hamburger . But , all in all , he would have fit in well with modernistic - sidereal day horror movie clowns than with anything that belong at , say , a kid ’s birthday party .
And the foreign fib of the original Ronald McDonald does n’t even end with his scariness .
Ironically , for a business organization that has been so oft and publicly accuse of contributing to the corpulency epidemic , Scott was not used for the first nationwide Ronald McDonald ads because he was too sullen . The society thought that a more physically fit man would be better for the “ extremely active ” Ronald McDonald character .
This makes it all the more strange that a McDonald ’s executive would tell the AP in 2011 that , “ There ’s only one Ronald , ” after repeatedly dodging questions about how many actors have portray the ubiquitous buffoon ( of course , it ’s bad to expect unity from a company who sellsa kale salad with more rich than a duple Big Mac .
This sort of matter has been set out McDonald ’s into red-hot water for years , and only all - day breakfast has been able topull the company out of its recent slump .
Through it all , Ronald McDonald , perhaps the human beings ’s most famous debauched - food mascot , has been right there — even if he used to look a whole lot unlike .
