Mac
Tonight was a mascot introduced by Macdonald's restaurants
with the intention of advertising their late-night hours to adult
patrons after the kids had gone to bed. Doug became Mac Tonight
in 1986 (although he did not provide the voice), and ended up
playing the character through 27 commercials, making the character
famous throughout the world.
Mac Tonight, with his crescent
moon head, dark glasses and dapper formal suit, was rumoured to
be a jazz afficionado, and when he wasn't playing his grand piano
and singing his song to the tune of 'Mack the Knife' under a star-lit
sky, could occasionally be seen riding his jet-ski, flying his
plane over McDonaldland, or driving his convertible to his favorite
late-night hang-out under the Golden Arches.
Doug Jones Remembers ... Mac Tonight
The campaign was created
locally for the west coast, and to bring up the after
4pm dinner business. The first 4 spots were shot in
late 1986, with the first airings in early 1987. So
I was the originator of Mac's physical character. With
the crazy success of these spots on the west coast,
McDonald's spread the campaign nationwide in the U.S.
in the summer of 1987, and shot 2 more spots to add
to that run. With more crazy success nationwide, more
and more spots were shot, and the campaign went throughout
all the free world by 1988.
This initial blast lasted
over 3 years through spring of 1990, with a re-visit
to the character, including newly produced commercials
in 1996 and 1997.
There were only 2 commercials
in which I did not play the character, and they were
filmed with a replacement actor when I was in China
working on "Warriors Of Virtue" in early 1996.
So the total campaign over all these years included
29 spots, with my gangly limbs gracing 27 of them.
This was only my 4th commercial
booking when it started, so you can imagine how excited
I was to get involved with a campaign that had this
much exposure and success for so many years. And I truly
loved the character of "Mac". He was so smooth,
hip, cool, and never felt the need to impress anyone
… he just sat at his piano, spinning on a giant
burger, or floating on a cloud, entertaining himself
in the solitude of the open night sky. If the public
wanted to join in on the fun, they were very welcome,
with his "love ya babe" attitude.
Doug Jones Los Angeles, April 14th, 2006
Why
not enjoy a blast from the past and check out Mac Tonight!!
