To advertise McDonald’s speedy service, they came up with the mascot Speedy, which Daily Mail describes as, “a jaunty, pudgy, winking little chef with a hamburger for a head and a chef's hat”. However, Speedee was retired in 1962, and by then people had started identifying McDonald's with golden arches. Thus, Speedee was soon replaced by Ronald McDonald with a focus on arches.

Lucas Petersen described his “pilgrimage” to the oldest McDonald’s outlet in Downey, California where he came across “a fat little moon-faced chef mascot parading around on top of the sign”, the original mascot, Speedee. Another writer on BurgerWeb lamented how the Speedee McDonald's in Green Bay is one of the two remaining in existence.

However, commenters informed that other Speedee McDonald's are still around, in places like Montrose, Colorado and Apple Valley, Minnesota. While Speedee's usurpation by the clown was probably necessary to the brand to a global level, the image of the old McDonald's owned by the brothers McDonald still lingers as nostalgia.