In 1971, McDonald’s threw open the gates to McDonaldland, a fantasy world populated by spokesclown Ronald McDonald and his Golden Arches-loving friends. Shepherded by advertising firm Needham, Harper & Steers, the McDonaldland ad campaign bears all the gently psychedelic traces of a massive corporation courting post-Woodstock consumers: hallucinations-cum-mascots like Mayor McCheese (the star of a recent Comics Page miniseries) and Officer Big Mac, a sunshine-pop soundtrack, and talking wastebaskets straight out of the mailbox sketch that shocked America. (Don’t you get it? The wastebasket was Haldeman!) It was inventive, ready to merchandise, and totally unlike any other sales pitch for the burger chain’s competitors.
It was also a flagrant example of copyright infringement: As eventually ruled by the United States Court Of Appeals, the McDonaldland concept bore a distinct similarity to Sid and Marty Krofft’s Saturday-morning hit H.R. Pufnstuf. Among the information divulged during the multi-year court battle between the restaurant and the TV producers: Needham, Harper & Steers had consulted with the Kroffts in the process of winning the McDonald’s account, yet denied them a payday through the nefarious strategies of a) lying about the campaign’s cancellation, b) poaching former Krofft employees, and c) adding some suspiciously familiar flourishes to the McDonaldland characters. Both a jury and the appeals court eventually found in the Kroffts’ favor, the latter declaring—in a money quote later cited by The Straight Dope—that “We do not believe that the ordinary reasonable person, let alone a child, viewing these works will even notice that Pufnstuf is wearing a cummerbund while Mayor McCheese is wearing a diplomat’s sash.” Judge for yourself—as the jury that awarded the Kroffts $50,000 did—in this side-by-side comparison.