Where's The Beef - This Day In History

On this day (January 9th) in history in 1984, Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's.

Peller's "Where's the beef" line became an instant catch phrase across the United States. The diminutive octogenarian actress made the three-word phrase a cultural phenomenon, and herself a cult star. At Wendy's, sales jumped 31% to $945 million in 1985 worldwide. Wendy's senior vice president for communications, Denny Lynch, stated at the time that "with Clara we accomplished as much in five weeks as we did in 14½ years." Former Vice-President Walter Mondale also used the line to effectively demolish rival Senator Gary Hart in a bid for the Democratic nomination in the 1984 presidential campaign (Mondale eventually lost in a landslide to President Ronald Reagan).

While hugely popular, the advertising campaign proved to be short-lived, at least for Wendy's. Peller had made actor scale wages - $317.40 per day - for the initial Wendy's TV commercial of the campaign in January 1984.

At least all this made for a good excuse to run to Wendy's for a late night snack! And for what it's worth, even though this was one of Wendy's Value Menu Triple Stack burgers, it was very beefy!

Shot spex: Jpeg Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 130mm, f19, 1/90 sec., flash aimed directly behind me with an Omni-Bounce attached.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened, Went to Channels and adjusted each channel individually to make the burger look more appealing. Adjusted Contrast and Brightness.

Tunes listened to while editing: Lovetap - There's This Girl. Great album - kind of a modern approach to classic 50's rock (IMHO).