In the early 1990s, Ronald McDonald had a very public falling out with McDonald’s. The dispute began in 1990, when McDonald’s stopped using the clown as the face of their Happy Meals. McDonald’s cited complaints from parents about Ronald’s inappropriate content.
Ronald responded by creating his own Happy Meal, which featured characters from his own TV show. In 1992, Ronald filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s, but the case was eventually settled out of court.
Since the 1990s, Ronald has largely disappeared from public life. In 2017, he made a brief appearance in a McDonald’s commercial to promote their new Happy Meals with autism-themed content.
However, this was the only public appearance of Ronald in over 20 years.
There are several possible explanations for Ronald’s disappearance. One possibility is that Ronald’s feud with McDonald’s was a financial disaster for him.
McDonald’s pulled all of their advertising from his show, and he was unable to generate any new revenue from it. It’s also possible that Ronald’s character had outgrown the Happy Meal format, and that McDonald’s no longer wanted to be associated with him.
Whatever the reasons, it’s clear that Ronald McDonald has faded from public life. His last major appearance was in a commercial promoting McDonald’s new Happy Meals with autism-themed content.
