Has Anybody Seen Ronald Lately?

Back when we were growing up, most of the companies that marketed directly to a youth audience (including my younger self) had advertising mascots, and most of them had jingles as well. I can still remember the original Burger King – a short, completely animated character whose shticks included a hamburger-shaped helicopter and a castle decorated in a pleasant hamburger motif – and the original Jack in the Box mascot, Pioneer Pete (from Pioneer Chicken), the dancing hamburger and taco from Pup ‘N Taco, a number of Taco Bell mascots including the talking dog, the animated Happy Star from Carl’s Jr., the original Colonel Sanders (I have no idea if it was the real Harlan Sanders or not), the original (animated) Bob’s Big Boy, and many others. I can also remember interim versions of many of these, including a live-action Burger King (an actor in costume and makeup) who had his own theme song and an animated Colonel Sanders. But the biggest of them all was always Ronald McDonald, who had his own theme song and supporting cast at least 40 years ago…

Today, however, it seems like Ronald’s theme song should be “Have You Seen Me Lately?” by Counting Crows, since no one has. In an article on their website, Bloomberg speculates that the company is making less use of the character in their advertising in a bid to both go upscale and refocus their brand onto more adult products. Recent McDonald’s menu changes have emphasized salads and relatively healthy food options, and the McCafe line of upscale coffee products has been credited by the company for creating revenue growth over six of the last seven quarters. At the same time, the company has been shifting towards advertising that supports these new target demographics – which is hardly surprising, if you think about it…

Personally, I can’t help speculating that the shift in advertising focus may reflect the cultural impact of previous campaigns and the company’s current market position as much as it does their new demographic targets. In America, it isn’t generally necessary to encourage children to ask for McDonald’s food products; nearly all cases, children already know what McDonald’s is offering and will already beg their parents for it, simply because they have been conditioned to believe that this is the best-tasting (or at least most-enjoyable) food possible. It will probably be necessary to keep marketing to children, at least to maintain that position, but today’s younger customers are the children and grandchildren (and in some cases, great-grandchildren) of McDonald’s customers, and that market position is not likely to change any time soon. But to establish themselves as a purveyor of adult favorites and a destination for adults, the company will need to develop an entirely new public imagine, and a clown-like spokesman probably won’t help with that…

Of course, Ronald isn’t actually going anywhere. The company still uses him in a lot of different iconography, including charitable (and PR) initiatives like the Ronald McDonald House charities. And we can probably count on seeing him turn up from time to time in youth-oriented advertising of various sorts, as the company uses him to retain their brand recognition among children and pre-teens. What we probably won’t see is a “gritty re-boot” of the character, to appeal to teenagers and young adults, since that would interfere with the primary uses already listed – which is unfortunate, I think. Imagine the marketing potential for Ronald as a superhero, fighting crime with his amazing hamburger-oriented powers; or as an adventurer, discovering the Tomb of the Lost Carbohydrate with his mad exploring skills. On the other hand, given what Burger King did with their smart, funny animated King (who would have fit in with most Warner Brothers cartoon characters) in creating the current, excessively creepy “freaky King,” maybe it’s just as well…

So if you’re out there in America somewhere and you pass a guy in a yellow clown costume and a red wig trying to sell hamburgers to people who have become jaded with live-action advertising mascots, be nice to him. He helped make this country what it is today, good and bad – and I think we can all count on seeing him again soon…