Three older women sit at a counter and are served an enormous hamburger bun from a fictional fast-food chain called “Big Bun.” Inside is a tiny patty. One of them, played by Clara Peller, lifts the top, peers in and asks the question that made her famous: “Where’s the beef?”
The commercial first aired on January 10, 1984. It was created for Wendy’s by the agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample and directed by Joe Sedelmaier, who cast Peller, a manicurist from Chicago who had been appearing in regional commercials for 13 years. She stood only 4 feet 10 inches tall, and her gravelly delivery of the line sounded like real annoyance rather than a script.
The phrase escaped the commercial almost immediately. During the 1984 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Walter Mondale used it to question a proposal from his rival Gary Hart, which showed how far a fast-food slogan had travelled. It also made money: Wendy’s business reportedly grew by about a third, and its annual revenue rose 31 percent to $945 million worldwide in 1985.
The story ended awkwardly. In 1985 Peller appeared in a Prego spaghetti sauce commercial saying “I found it. I really found it,” and Wendy’s dropped her, saying the ad undermined her as its spokesperson. She died in 1987. Even so, the spot remains one of the clearest examples of an ad that turns a complaint into a catchphrase, and it still helps to explain why a small, funny, human idea beats a big promise.
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