Today in 1992, the fast food chain Rax filed for bankruptcy, months after launching an ad campaign featuring the fast food world’s first smart-alecky, ironic and probably extremely depressed mascot, Mr. Delicious.
Rax is a roast beef chain that started in the 1960s.
At its peak, it had more than 500 locations.
The concept was fast food prices and fast food speed, but a little more upscale. Think Arby’s with a salad bar.
But by the late 80s, other fast food chains were, you might say, eating Rax’s lunch.
The other guys were flashier, more colorful, and more family-friendly, thanks to their cartoony mascots.
Rax wanted a mascot, too, but one that fit with its fast-food-for-adults approach.
And so an ad agency came up with Mr. Delicious, a middle-aged guy with glasses, a plaid suit and a bowtie, who told audiences that Rax’s food was as good as his life was bad.
Seriously, he would go on these tangents about visiting his analyst, or how his marriage was problematic, or how he had a midlife crisis a couple years back.
In one ad he talks about having just had quote “delicate surgery” (TMI, Mr. Delicious).
Nothing sells fast food sandwiches like a middle-aged guy trauma dumping on TV and radio!
This was supposed to be a kind of post-modern commentary, the advertising character who’s kind of mocking advertising.
But this was a tricky tightrope to walk even in the heyday of irony that was the 90s.
Bart Simpson could mock pop culture on his show, but when he was selling Butterfingers, he wasn’t reflecting on his poor life choices, he was playing up the product!
Depending on who you ask, Mr. Delicious helped improve Rax’s fortunes for a bit, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide.
Or the mascot was just one more wrong turn in a long series of them; Rax still operates a few locations, mostly in the Midwest, but its trajectory has been almost as troublesome as Mr. Delicious’s life story.
And after the bankruptcy filing, the chain replaced Mr. D with Uncle Alligator, a kid-centered mascot who pointedly did NOT bring up his personal problems in fast food ads.
Here’s something I wouldn’t have expected to happen in the Miss Mundo Chile pageant.
For her part in the talent section, contestant and eventual pageant winner Ignacia Fernández used her time in the talent portion of the contest to perform an original death metal song, complete with roaring throat singing.
If you’re wondering, yes, while she sang she wore a fancy dress, and yes, it was black.
The Short, Sad, Strange Life of Mr. Delicious (NathanRabin.com)
Miss Chile Contestant Stuns Audience With Original Death Metal Performance (My Modern Met)
