In the late 1980s, McDonalds introduced a mascot into their family, Mac Tonight. The campaign was aimed at attracting more people to eat McDonalds for dinner. Mac Tonight was a fashionably dressed, crescent moon faced man. His name is a pun based on the classic song “Mack the Knife.” A bizarre juxtaposition of classic swing and playful 80s set design, The Mac Tonight ad campaign was an advertising risk that paid off well.

However, the Mac Tonight story has taken a truly bizarre and menacing turn in recent years. The image of Mac became the visual basis for a series of extremely racist jokes in the last ten years. Dubbed the “Moon Man,” the image quickly transitioned from edgelord joke culture to become a coded symbol for white supremacy. Culture Dumps tries to make sense of it all.