"ronald mcdonald" news and stories

Apparently, the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated -- Ronald McDonald, the red-haired clown that's been the (silent) mouthpiece of the Golden Arches for 48 years, is back in a new ad campaign for the chain.

Ronald will star in several new commercials for Happy Meals. The spots direct kids to a HappyMeal.com website, reports Nation's Restaurant News. The site is basically another commercial -- kids are supposed to upload pictures of themselves for videos called "Ronaldgrams." (The idea is for the children to email the videos to their friends.)


Kids may like it, but the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Corporate Accountability International don't -- the two groups have been after McDonald's for years about marketing directly to young consumers. "Plain and simple, if McDonald's were truly concerned about 'parental choice and control,' they'd market their offerings directly to parents, not children," Lapidus said to NRN.

What do you think? Are you glad to have the clown back in your life?

It's the fate of celebrity icons everywhere: One minute you're adored by legions and the next thing you know, you've somehow drifted into middle age and the tepid waters of cultural obscurity.

It's downright tough these days to be clown in the fast-food biz. Just ask Ronald McDonald. As Bloomberg reports, the 48-year-old face of all that's supposedly happy in Happy Meals is finding it harder to land work these days.

Blame it on the changing times. McDonald's is undergoing a dramatic re-branding of sorts, launching its uber-popular line of Starbucks-style coffees under the McCafe label and committing upwards of $1 billion to renovate hundreds of restaurants to make them look less like one big Playland and more like...well, again, Starbucks. And it appears that Ronald doesn't exactly fit in with the aesthetic of the latte-sipping, iPad-toting crowd.

Wednesday afternoon, as McDonald's opened its 300th Ronald McDonald House in St. Louis, Missouri -- little red headed clowns running around, sweeping down counters -- Fox Business Network anchor Liz Claman got a tour with the House President and CEO Marty Coyne, during the taping of her show "Countdown to the Closing Bell." She learned that most of the House was donated by other corporations, including beds from Tempur-Pedic and paper products from Georgia Pacific.

She also met up with McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner; Slashfood later caught up with Claman just after her meeting to get the scoop on the company's future endeavors and new menu items.

Though Skinner was unable to reveal most of these items, we do know there will be oatmeal (Claman says it's good!) and will come with the option to add apples. No word yet on specific ingredients or when this will be offered, but the company does plan to continue offering more healthy options and also feels that drinks are a big focus.

Does it seem like fast-food mascots are getting creepier and creepier? Brittny Drye over at The Stir noticed this disturbing trend, and decided to round up the 10 Creepiest Fast Food Mascots, ranging from weird lips to rats (yes, you read that right...rats.) Counting backwards, from ten:

10. Ronald McDonald
9. Old-School Ronald McDonald
8. Hamburglar
7. Arby's oven mitt
6. Little Caesar's naked guy

Head over to The Stir for the rest of the creepy-mascot list...

It's not every day you see the iconic red-headed mascot walk into a competitor's fast-food joint for a burger. In this music video for "When I'm With You" by Best Coast, an imposter Ronald McDonald is caught walking out of In-and-Out.

Maybe he heard about McDonald's decision to stick with regular eggs instead of the more humane cage-free version...

The video after the jump.