Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain.
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18 Facts About Ronald McDonald
1.
2.
The first person to portray Ronald McDonald was Willard Scott, who had played Bozo the Clown on WRC-TV in Washington from 1959 to 1962 and was an employee of Goldstein at the time.
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3.
That's why when Bozo went off the air a few years later, the local Ronald McDonald's people asked me to come up with a new character to take Bozo's place.
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4.
Circus performer Coco the Clown was hired in 1966 to revamp Ronald McDonald's image, creating the now familiar costume and make-up.
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5.
On May 18,2011, Corporate Accountability International renewed their call to retire Ronald McDonald by running ads in major newspapers and launching several web pages dedicated to the retirement of the character.
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6.
However, McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner defended Ronald McDonald by saying that he is an ambassador for good and "it's all about choice".
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7.
McDonald's trains performers to portray Ronald using identical mannerisms and costume, to contribute to the illusion that they are one character.
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8.
In Thailand, Ronald McDonald greets people in the traditional Thai "wai" greeting gesture of both hands pressed together.
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9.
In Japan, Ronald McDonald is called Donald McDonald due to a lack of a clear "r" sound in Japanese enunciation.
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10.
In 1987, Ronald McDonald appeared in an eight-minute animated short film titled Ronald McDonald and the Adventure Machine, which was only shown during birthday parties at McDonald's restaurants.
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11.
From 1998 until 2003 a series of direct-to-video animated episodes titled The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald and produced by Klasky Csupo were released in participating McDonald's worldwide on VHS.
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12.
Ronald McDonald is the protagonist of three video games: Donald Land, developed by Data East for the Famicom console, released only in Japan in 1988; McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, developed by Treasure for the Mega Drive console and released in 1993; and Ronald McDonald in Magical World, developed by SIMS for the Game Gear handheld, released only in Japan in 1994.
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13.
Ronald McDonald is featured in two more video games: M C Kids for NES, Game Boy, C64, Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS; and Global Gladiators for Genesis, Master System, Game Gear and Amiga.
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14.
Ronald McDonald appears for a few seconds in the 1988 film Mac and Me during a birthday scene set at a McDonald's.
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15.
Ronald McDonald is played by Squire Fridell, but is credited as "Ronald McDonald as himself".
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16.
Ronald McDonald won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star for his appearance in the film.
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17.
Ronald McDonald's prominence has made him a symbol for McDonald's as well as Corporate America, capitalism and globalization.
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18.
Ronald McDonald made fewer appearances in 2016 due to the 2016 clown sightings.
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