McDonald's had original mascot prior to Ronald McDonald before clown had to be phased out for disturbing reason

You may assume that Ronald McDonald was the fast-food chain's one and only mascot, but you'd be sorely mistaken.

In fact, there was another mascot before the famous clown with his white face, yellow suit and red wig.

McDonald's is the most popular fast food chain in the world, so you'd expect changes to the mascot to be known, but on top of the old mascot, when was the last time you saw Ronald himself?

There's a lot to know about the history behind the face of Maccies.

Ronald is known to be the one and only mascot of the American chain since 1963, when he was first portrayed on TV by Willard Scott.

He can still be found in a few restaurants around the world today, but was largely removed from the brand for a disturbing reason.

Before all that though, it turns out that in 1962, the first ever McDonald's mascot was introduced, and not just that - it was used as the company's first logo before the iconic Golden Arches design was launched later that year.

The mascot was called Speedee, but unfortunately its life was short-lived as people were soon confusing the hamburger-faced chef with medicine company Alka-Seltzer's own mascot, named Speedy, according to Delish.

As well as this, Alan Hess wrote in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians that it was removed due to the lack of connection it had with consumers, according to his research.

The journal read: "Market research showed that people identified McDonald's primarily with the golden arches [instead of Speedee]."

Speedee can still be seen at the oldest McDonald's outlet in the world though, which is situated in Downey, California, for a truly retro experience.

The original mascot can only be seen at one branch in the world. (McDonald's fandom)

But what about our old pal, Ronald?

A certain social media trend seemingly ruined his reputation forever, back in August 2016.

It's not the mannequin challenge, instead, it was the serial killer clown craze that seemed to take the world by storm, eight years ago.

People carried out acts of violence while wearing clown masks in what started as a publicity stunt for an upcoming horror movie, but which quickly spiralled out of control.

That year in Florida, a family were attacked by a group of 20 people in clown masks as one of many incidents in countries such as the UK, US, Australia and Canada that seemingly ruined clowns for the general public, forever.

McDonald's released a statement at the time, which read: "McDonald's and franchisees 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."

You won't see much of him anymore. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

A different statement on the UK McDonald's site also read: "We're afraid that Ronald McDonald no longer appears in McDonald's UK advertising, but he is still very busy working for us.

"He often travels up and down the country to help promote some of our exciting new activities and visits our restaurants to make sure everyone is enjoying their meals."

Topics: McDonalds, History, Social Media, Food And Drink