This McDonald's Commercial From The '80s Is Truly Creepy (How Did It Get Made?)

The 1980s were an interesting time for American foodies. From the kitchen aesthetics found in millions of homes to a grocery shopping experience that can feel a world away from what we have now, it's easy to see why many people say the past is another country. But the decade that gave us iconic foods like Nerds and Cool Ranch Doritos also served up one of the creepiest McDonald's commercials ever to hit the small screen. Inspired by one Los Angeles advertising executive's near-obsession with pairing the song "Mack the Knife" with McDonald's, his company's major client, the 1987 ad features a man at a piano, singing along to a tweaked version of the song, which became a 1959 Bobby Darin chart-topper. But that's just the start of the weirdness.

Set against a night-time, rooftop skyline peppered with billboards advertising Micky D's menu items, the piano sits atop a spinning Big Mac (because why not?). Meanwhile, the man has an oversized, pale crescent moon for a head, complete with a slightly moving bottom jaw. And he's wearing sunglasses. The character, called Mac Tonight, bops along to lyrics including "When the clock strikes / Half past six babe / Time to head for / Golden lights," before a giant box of French fries rises up among the buildings.

Creepy, sure, but it reportedly performed quite well and some people still remember Mac Tonight quasi-fondly. "You either die Mac Tonight, or live long enough to see yourself become Moonman," snarked one YouTube commenter, while another pleaded: "You don't even know how many times this commercial saved my family from my moms meatloaf." A third quipped, "Man, I would love to see the alternate timeline where McDonalds fully embraced this aesthetic."

It turns out this fever dream of a commercial was deliberately conceived to put McDonald's ahead of its competition in the ruthless fast food space. They were a step-change from the brand's previous, wholesome ads and targeted older customers, who would hopefully be hooked by the rearranged song. The agency's creative director, Peter Coutroulis, said in a 1987 New York Times interview that the aim was to create a "whimsical and fantasy-like" ad that drew inspiration from cult show "Max Headroom, while the sunglasses would make the Mac Tonight character appear hip and cool.

As for who played him? In 2017, actor Doug Jones admitted it was indeed he who sported the mask. "[Three] years and 27 spots bought our first house, and marked me as the tall, skinny fellow who moves well and wears a lot of rubber on his head," he wrote on Facebook. Although the American Mac Tonight ads ended in 1997, the character was revived for an Asian campaign in the early 2000s and also featured on the cover of Saint Pepsi and Luxury Elite's 2013 album, "Late Night Delight." In recent years, the character has unfortunately been linked to a hate-filled meme that has nothing to do with its original creators. As Jones told Mel magazine, "All I have to say on this subject is that this is not what Mac is about. He's a cool cat who sings about McDonald's. Period, the end."

Mac Tonight may have joined the ranks of McDonald's items we're glad we'll never see again, though, as creepy as it looks to our 21st-century eyes, the commercial could have been even stranger. One of Coutroulis' discarded ideas, apparently a riff on a famous shot from Steven Spielberg's "E.T the Extra-Terrestrial," would have included astronomers witnessing Mac Tonight driving a 1959 Cadillac convertible across the sky.