For now, McDonald’s is benching its mascot.
In a statement on Tuesday, the fast-food chain announced that Ronald McDonald and his signature red and gold garb won’t be seen in public for a while, at least until America stops being so collectively terrified of his kind.
The chain’s more than 14,000 locations nationwide are “mindful of the current climate around clown sightings in communities” and “are being thoughtful in respect to Ronald McDonald’s participation in community events for the time being,” spokeswoman Terri Hickey said in an emailed statement to NBC News.
The announcement comes after weeks of reported creepy clown sightings across the United States that have led to something approaching mass hysteria, playground panic and even some arrests.
It first began in August, when residents of Greenville County in South Carolina called authorities to report a clown, or someone dressed like one, “trying to lure children in the woods,” said the property manager of an apartment complex in Greenville.
Sightings spread to North Carolina, then to Alabama and Kentucky. Soon, callers were reporting creepy clown sightings across the country — and even internationally. In the United Kingdom, authorities have responded to dozens of apparent clown sightings, including one in northeast England, where a man dressed as a clown and carrying a knife allegedly followed four children to school, reported CNN.
“We believe this to be part of a much larger prank which is currently sweeping across the USA and parts of the UK,” Durham neighborhood Sergeant Mel Sutherland said in a statement to CNN. “It is very alarming he was carrying a knife, however we do not think he intended to harm the children and as far as we are aware, this is part of the prank.”
Officials in Australia and Canada have also issued recent clown-related warnings.
In the United States, students have worn clown masks to class and a school district in Connecticut even banned clown costumes for Halloween. A Virginia middle school girl was arrested and charged with “one count of Threatening to Kill by Electronic Message” after she contacted an individual online whose profile photo was a clown and asked that person to murder one of her teachers.
Clown mask sales are up from 2015, by 300 percent. And in the most extreme cases, authorities have even arrested clown pranksters.