The disturbing reason why you never see Ronald McDonald anymore

Growing up, many of us were familiar with McDonald's clown mascot Ronald McDonald - but what exactly has happened to him?

In recent years, you may have noticed the absence of a recognisable character in the fast food giant's marketing and promotions and there is a specific reason for this.

Ronald McDonald was first introduced back in the early 1960s and sported a yellow boiler suit along with a bright red wig and painted face - the red and yellow being the recognisable colours of McDonald's.

Clowns are known for being comedic characters, but their appearance can divide people's opinions by either making them laugh or creeping them out, and Ronald was no different.

Nowadays though, Ronald has had fewer appearances and isn't used to promoting McDonald's as much as he used to and started to be phased out in 2016.

Ronald McDonald isn't as prominent as a mascot for McDonald's nowadays.Photo by Mike Fuentes/Getty Images and Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images

In this particular year, you may recall the viral trend where people would dress up as terrifying-looking clowns near forests and schools to scare and terrorise the public.

At one point, a group of 20 people in clown masks attacked a family in Florida on Halloween (October 31).

So with all this going on, clowns were a source of fear rather than amusement which in the end led McDonald's to roll back on Ronald.

During this time, McDonald's released a statement on the matter: "McDonald's and franchises in the local markets are mindful of the current climate around clown sightings in communities and as such are being thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald's participation in community events for the time being," as reported by The Independent at the time.

Then in 2017, the horror film IT was released where antagonist Pennywise doesn't exactly help the reputation of clowns either...

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.