The Evolution of Ronald McDonald

Like everything else in this world, advertisement styles change from generations to generations. What is hot today may not be hot tomorrow, which is why advertising specialists are highly paid to ensure that the company keeps up with advertising and marketing trends, or start its own--all for the sake of selling a product. To illustrate, watch this advertisement--the first TV advertisement with Ronald in it--of McDonald's:

Well, today, I'm sure he looks like a pedophile posing as a clown, but I guess that look (with the weird hat on and all) was a novel idea during that time.

Now contrast that with this recent ad from McDonald's Japan. WARNING: Extremely hot.

I'd take the girl for my Happy Meal. LOL. Well, as you can see, McDonald's Japan threw the clown out of the shop and hired some foreign model to be Ronald's daughter. I guess this kind of approach is part of a plan to rework the image of the fastfood chain into something luxurious, elegant, and high-class (or that's just probably the tomato burger that they are working on), hence the tomato with the pout.

In case you are wondering, Ronald has a son as well. Here he is:


Thanks to Apple for giving me a heads up.

I did a little digging and I found the original TV advertisements. Here they are (too much videos!):