Afternoon Delights: “The Commercial That Killed a Fast Food Chain”

I have never heard of Rax Roast Beef before this video. To be fair, it was a fairly regional restaurant chain throughout Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio—so it’s possible the reputation would never have made it to Massachusetts. But still, with all of the traveling and meeting different folks, I had heard of a bunch of other regional eateries that never made it to New England (looking at you, Fuddruckers!). But this excellent video from the VlogBrothers explains that it’s most likely due to the fact it essentially shuttered by 1992—and its corpse lays at the feet of a bizarre advertising campaign that featured the least enticing mascot since that toe fungus creature.

Hank Green lays out how the creation and proliferation of “Mr. Delicious” commercials put the final nails in Rax’s coffin. If people are generous enough and squint hard enough, it’s possible to see what the aim was for Mr. Delicious—this mix of Gen-X oddness with the curmudgeonly men found mostly in ‘70s and ‘80s sitcoms, with a pinch of tone deaf comedy and a soupçon of far too involved backstory that one would associate more with an intense Dungeons & Dragons campaign than a beefmonger.

Mr. Delicious was a major push to save Rax from decimation, and it was an awful gamble that did not pay off. There’s an extended (13 minutes) video that was sent to Rax franchises, news outlets, and more hyping up this milquetoast pitchman filled with bitterness and regret. But in the meantime, enjoy this quick overview of how Mr. Delicious lay waste to a kingdom of roast beef.