McDonald's McMania Trivia Quiz

Answer: Richard and Maurice McDonald

On May 15, 1940, Richard and Maurice McDonald, founded their restaurant, a barbeque joint called "McDonald's Famous Barbeque". In 1948, they redesigned the restaurant, added burgers and shakes to the menu and added a self-serve section and re-named it 'The Speedee Service System'. Their slogan became "McDonald's Famous Hamburgers" in 1948 and in 1953 they were simply "McDonald's".

Answer: 1953

Real arches were incorporated into the logo in 1962 and the famous golden arches logo was introduced in 1968. They resemble an "M" for "McDonald's" and is one of the most recognizable logos in the world.

Answer: $2.7 million

In 1955, Ray Kroc, joined the company as a franchise agent and the McDonald's Corporation was born. In 1961, he bought the brothers out for $2.7 million.

Answer: Ronald

Willard Scott created Ronald McDonald after McDonald's asked him to create a character to help boost hamburger sales. His inspiration came from his work as portraying Bozo the Clown and hamburgers, which he thought was exciting to kids.
Ronald McDonald made his national advertising tv debut in 1965, during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Answer: True

The first Ronald McDonald House first opened its doors in Philadelphia, PA on October 15, 1974. Philadelphia Eagles player Fred Hill's three year-old daughter had leukaemia and when she was hospitalized, not wanting to leave her side, he and his wife slept on hospital chairs and ate from vending machines. Following this, the Philadelphia Eagles raised over $100,000 and McDonald's donated proceeds from the sale of Shamrock Shakes to help support the hospital. Due to lack of funds, and empathy for families who faced the same difficulty as the Hills, a community charity was formed (RHMC) to help families get support for their hospitalized children.

As of 2024, there are 380 Ronald McDonald Houses in 62 countries.

Answer: Yes

Since the 70s, Bermuda has a law that bans foreign fast food franchises. McDonald's however, found a loophole and built a "Mickey Ds" on a US Naval base "for the troops", but once the base shut down, the country wanted the restaurant to go as well. As of 2024, you won't find a McDonald's in Iran, Yemen, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Bolivia or Iceland either.

Answer: Apple pies

Given the title "The McDonald's $1,000,000 Menu Song", it was a part of their advertising campaign in the late 80s and lists all of their menu items at that time.

Answer: Justin Timberlake

In 2003, McDonald's stocks were dropping so they held a competition to find someone to write a catchy ad slogan to help. A German ad agency created the slogan, "Ich Liebe Es" which roughly translates to "I'm Lovin' It". They also came up with the "Ba-da-ba-ba-ba". McDonald's knew they needed music so they contacted a veteran jingle maker who then created a song and they loved it but they wanted to add a popular singer to sing a song around the slogan but didn't want to release the connection until after the song became a hit.

They knew, in order for them to have a massive hit, they needed "a massive star". Pharrell Williams wrote the song, "I'm Lovin' It" and McDonald's paid Justin Timberlake $6 million to sing it. They used the hook of the song in their commercials. It worked. McDonald's stock went from being down to $12.00 up to $150.00. "I'm Lovin It" has been running since 2003 and has become the longest running marketing campaign.

Answer: Happy Meal

The Happy Meal was created by an advertising executive who specialized in kid's marketing named Bob Bernstein. The Happy Meal made its U.S. debut in 1979 and was called a "Menu Ronald".

Answer: Big Mac

The Big Mac debuted on April 22, 1967 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania and sold for $0.45. It wasn't released across the entire US until 1968.
The jingle was commissioned to list all of the ingredients of the sandwich in their ads.
In 1974 McDonalds held a contest of sorts that if a customer could recite the jingle in less than 4 seconds, they would win a free Big Mac!