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Mac Tonight | |
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First appearance | Dec. 29, 1986 Dec. 26, 1987 (Canada) |
Created by | Davis, Johnson, Mogul & Colombatto |
Portrayed by | Doug Jones (1986–1997) |
Voiced by | Brock Walsh (1986–1990) Eason Chan (2007–2010) Sharizan Borhan (2007) |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Male |
Occupation | Nighttime mascot for the McDonald's fast food restaurant chain |
Mac Tonight is a fictional character who was used in the marketing for McDonald's restaurants during the late 1980s. Known for his crescent moon head, sunglasses and piano-playing, the character used the song " Mack the Knife" which was made famous in the United States by Bobby Darin. Throughout the campaign, Mac was performed by actor Doug Jones and voiced by Brock Walsh.
Originally conceived as a promotion to increase dinner sales by Southern California licensees, Mac Tonight's popularity led McDonald's to take it nationwide on August 27, 1987. [1] By 1988, the ad campaign had spread worldwide. In 1989, Bobby Darin's son, Dodd Mitchell Darin, sued McDonald's for allegedly infringing upon Darin's likeness. After the lawsuit, McDonald's stopped using the song featured in the original Mac Tonight campaign in the United States. There were several attempts to reboot Mac Tonight in the US throughout the 1990s, but none of them took off.
The campaign, created by Jim Bennedict [2] and Peter Coutroulis, [3] was created locally for Southern California McDonald's franchisees by Los Angeles advertising firm Davis, Johnson, Mogul & Colombatto, [3] for a budget of around $500,000 dollars. Looking to increase the after-4 p.m. dinner business, the agency was inspired by the song " Mack the Knife" by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, which was made famous in the United States by Bobby Darin in 1959 and listened to different versions of it before opting to create an original version with new lyrics. [3] After deciding not to feature real people or celebrities, the designers settled on an anthropomorphic crooner moon on a man's body with 1950s-style sunglasses; the song and style were designed to appeal to baby boomers and a revival of 1950s-style music in popular culture. [3] The character, who played a grand piano atop either a floating cloud or a giant Big Mac (hence the name), was intended to garner a "cult-like" following, e.g. Max Headroom. [3] From 1986 to 1987, the campaign expanded to other cities on the American West Coast. McDonald's said that the campaign had "great success" while trade magazine Nation's Restaurant News announced that it had contributed to increases of over 10% in dinnertime business at some Californian restaurants. [3] A crowd of 1,500 attended the visit of a costumed character to a Los Angeles McDonald's. [3] With concerns that he was too typical of the West Coast, in February 1987 it was decided that the character would feature on national advertisements which went to air that September and he attracted a crowd of 1,000 in Boca Raton, Florida. [3] A September 1987 survey by Ad Watch found that the number of consumers who recalled McDonald's advertising before any other doubled from the previous month, and was higher than any company since the New Coke launch in 1985. [3]
Doug Jones performed Mac Tonight for over 27 out of the 29 commercials from 1986–1997. Years later in 2013, he recalled "[T]hat's when my career took a turn that I was not expecting. I didn't know that was a career option." [4] Mac Tonight's voice was provided by Brock Walsh. [5] Director Peter Coutroulis, who won a Clio Award for a previous campaign for Borax, pitched several commercials which did not air, including an E.T.-like one in which two astronomers watch Mac Tonight drive his Cadillac through the sky. [3]
In 1989, Bobby Darin's son Dodd Mitchell Darin claimed that the song infringed upon his father's trademark without prior permission and filed a lawsuit as well as an injunction for the song to be removed from both TV and radio ads. [6] As a response to the lawsuit, McDonald's stopped airing the advertisements.
They thought that I had co-opted his father’s singing style, and they filed suit for infringement of likeness. Specifically, my vocalization was apparently the issue. To me though, Bobby Darin wasn’t the imprint on that song. I was more influenced by guys like Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong — Louis Armstrong was known for this song, too. That brought the gravy train to a grinding halt. I do think, though, that this lawsuit coincided with the downturn of Mac Tonight ads as effective marketing anyway. I think McDonald’s looked at it like, Do we really want to fuck with this? Isn’t it easier to just cut and run from the whole thing?” So that’s what they did. It’s cool, though. It’s a business. I get it. I think they tried to change the song for a bit, but it just didn’t work. Mac was done soon after that. [7]
Between 1997 and 1998, McDonald's sponsored NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott with Mac Tonight featured on his car. [8] In 2016, the Mac Tonight theme was McDonald's driver Jamie McMurray's Chip Ganassi Racing No. 1 Chevrolet SS throwback scheme for Darlington Raceway's Southern 500. [9]
In 2006, McDonald's brought back the character in territories throughout Southeast Asia such as in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and China. The Asian-exclusive campaign featured a CGI-animated Mac Tonight dancing atop a McDonald's restaurant while singing and playing a saxophone. [10] These commercials were made by Liquid Animation. [11]
The other was a series of bumpers showing updates of a competition, 'Mac Tonight Mad Dash' was a competition hosted and broadcast in the Philippines in which 24 pairs of contestants had to race to visit 24 24 hour McDonald's locations where they had to solve puzzles to continue, this race lasted for 24 hours. This competition was hosted and broadcast on July 24, 2007. [12]
The mask the actor wore was made by a makeup and practical effects artist called Steve Neill. It weighed over 10 pounds and had the facial expressions motorized with animatronics. It needed three puppeteers to control the lip, jaw, and eyebrow movement. [13] This was mostly done by Steve Neill, Gilly Neill, and Bob Burns. [14]
New masks were made with more articulation and animatronics added. The Australian 1988 mask was made by Robert Bertie. [15] Due to the law in Australia at the time, they were forced to remake 'Spinning Burger from scratch in order to air it. This required a new actor, a new head, a new instrumental, and a new set, all done in Australia. In 1993 the original American advertisements later aired after laws had changed. [16] A new advertisement was produced, with a new head to emulate the look of the 1987 and 1988 heads.
Several McDonald's restaurants in the early 1990s were fitted with Mac Tonight hydraulically-powered animatronic figures built by Mannetron [17] with the character playing a piano. [18] One of the animatronics is the World's Largest Entertainment McDonald's in Orlando, Florida. [19] Other locations include a Greenfield, Wisconsin McDonald's known as the Solid Gold McDonald's, prior to undergoing major renovations in 2011. [20]
Mac Tonight is featured on an episode of Video Soul on January 26, 1988. [21] Mac Tonight is in an advertisement from 2004 [22][ unreliable source] and in 2013 for the launch of the After Midnight Menu. [23][ unreliable source] Mac Tonight's last known appearance was in the background of a Canadian McDonald's ad on a poster. [24][ unreliable source] The poster design was made and used for the General Mills/McDonald's Promotion. [25][ unreliable source] This artwork was done by Tom Dubois. [26]
Ronald Mcdonald House Charities has an annual fundraiser named after Mac Tonight, this fundraiser was named the Mac Tonight Gala. In 2018 the event was renamed 'Masquerade Ball'. [27] In 2019 they stopped mentioning the name 'Mac Tonight Gala' for unknown reasons.
Mac Tonight has a heavy association with Vaporwave. Mac Tonight appeared on the cover of the split album Late Night Delight by Saint Pepsi and Luxury Elite, [28] [29] where he became an icon of the vaporwave genre. [30]
Mac Tonight is featured in The Simpsons episodes " Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore" as a cardboard cutout, " Fatzcarraldo", and " Burger Kings" via Homer's imagination. [31]
Moon Man is an Internet meme and unofficial parody of Mac Tonight that originated in 2007 on the Internet meme community YTMND, in which the character is depicted as advocating for racism and racist acts. [32] A Salon article compared Moon Man to Pepe the Frog, another meme labeled as a hate symbol. [32] In 2016, Salon said that YouTube was removing Moon Man videos for violating its community guidelines on hate speech, and AT&T, whose text-to-speech software was used to create the meme, had edited it to filter out the character's name and obscenities. [32] In 2019, the Anti-Defamation League added Moon Man to their database of hate symbols. [33] [34] [35]