The Commercial that Killed a Fast Food Chain
Vložit
- čas přidán 7. 10. 2020
- I have been working on this video for like two years, I think about Mr. Delicious at least once a week. He sells aluminum siding, but also goes to Bora Bora with...sex workers? Maybe? He's on his second marriage. He spends too much time at a bar called The Rusty Anchor. He is both effete and signals that he is wealthy while also being working-class? He also likes to read ROMANCE NOVELS WHILE EATING RAX?! So I guess that's what in the suitcase???
You can watch the full Mr. Delicious documentary here: • The Infamous Mr. Delic...
----
Subscribe to our newsletter! nerdfighteria.com/nerdfighter...
And join the community at nerdfighteria.com
Help transcribe videos - nerdfighteria.info
Learn more about our project to help Partners in Health radically reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone: www.pih.org/hankandjohn
If you're able to donate $2,000 or more to this effort, please join our matching fund: secure.pih.org/a/be-the-match...
John's twitter - / johngreen
Hank's twitter - / hankgreen
Hank's tumblr - / edwardspoonhands
Listen to The Anthropocene Reviewed at www.theanthropocenereviewed.org
Listen to Dear Hank and John at www.dearhankandjohn.org
Book club: www.lifeslibrarybookclub.com/
Many people are coming to this video by way of reddit. Hi! Hello! This is the vlogbrothers CZcams channel. This will probably represent the peak of our Rax-related content, so if you are looking primarily for Rax-Facts, you may not want to subscribe.
You happen to be visiting in the midst of Pizzamas. Do you need a strange t-shirt featuring a mustachioed man in various incarnations? Well, then, have I got news for you: pizzamas.com -John
Been subscribed for years, but followed a link from Reddit. Didn't notice this was vlogbrothers and the voice of Hank until "John, I'll see you tomorrow."
Because of Reasons, they almost exclusively make 4 minute videos here
Also to the redditors: With the content of the video and this comment, you now consumed high literature, produced bt two NYT bestselling authors.
You can pre-order John's newest book, "The Anthropocene Reviewed" everywhere and stuff
I’m glad this only “probably” represents the peak of the Rax-related content on vlogbrothers-always good to stay flexible with your future content!
Hello! Good content here
“You can eat here” is hilarious. That would totally work today
It really would lol. I can see it being the next Arby’s ad
it's like "Nintendo Switch has games"
Honestly after last year's lockdown that slogan would fit so well for any restaurant
I did joke about that last night. "Mr Delicious here. With Covid I unfortunately can't tell you to eat here."
@Billy B you mean he’d be offering fake vaccine cards?
The real shame of it is that if Rax came out with ads like this today, it probably would be an instant hit. Rax literally discovered shitposting a generation or two too soon.
this.
There really is such a thing as being too ahead of the curve.
I’m going to the Rax in Joliet soon. I’m scared.
@@dogshakeLol small world
Time traveling
Imagine a world where Rax survived and a Mr. Delicious twitter account was going at it with Wendy's.
Rax is still around 😂😂
Don't worry he came back and worked for subway. Until the police got him.
Genius!
Imagine calling a restaurant "Rax".
too soon
@@LTPottenger
Mr. Delicious is absolutely goddamn hilarious, especially with the line delivery. He really does feel like a jaded 1950s vaccuum cleaner salesman who has no idea how to market roast beef sandwiches. I want him unironically to make a comeback.
I'm shocked Family Guy didn't make parodies of him sooner.
Repent
Yeah i love it
The funny thing is that these days, these commercials would've been so prime for meme material that their ads may have actually worked.
I was thinking the same thing.
You could say they were ahead of the time.
100%. I think the irony would have been taken to levels they cant possibly comprehend. I can already see it now.
Oh Snap, I can just imagine their social media
So Mr. Delicious was ahead of his time
In 2020, “you can eat here” is now a bold claim
oh wow yea that's actually fair hell a sad sack spokesman today might have even worked
I laughed out loud ...literally! It was a well-rounded, full-bellied laugh!!
Mr Delicious was a man ahead of his time lol
+
Oh god please no
-me and millions of people
The fact that somebody sold the idea of Mr. Delicious to a company is a testament to their marketing ability.
Honestly, I've known quite a few people in the marketing departments of large corporations... clearly the dumbest people in the room. It's astonishing what poor marketing choices they make.
@@davidaustin6962I’ve suspected so for years 😂
I’ve had an increasing number of ads that are way too long and yet at the end I still have no idea what they were trying to sell me. Even as a kid I thought I could do better. Dont seem like the brightest bunch.
@@davidaustin6962 New Coke, Arch Deluxe, and so on.
This can't have been sold from bottom up.. It's a Nepo-Placement or C-Suiter who always wanted to be a comedian, guaranteed.
Side note: It has a Pat Paulsen imitator feel to it.
@@Alvan81 Sadly that seems to be most marketing departments
First, I just want to say that I REALLY appreciate how short this video is. Videos like this, on topics like this, are often 10-30 minutes in length and it's totally unnecessary. So thank you.
Second, I don't actually think this was a bad ad campaign, it was just WAY ahead of its time. It was all about subversion, and if this had hit in the late 90s or after I think it would have done pretty well.
Amen
no amount of advertising is going to help you sell product if it's not good enough in the first place. McD has run a bunch of totally boring ads over the years but people flock to their food. Why? It's good!
@@adotintheshark4848 Counter to your point though, McDs food is fucking terrible.
@@adotintheshark4848 seriously? No it isn't, McDonald's has always been known as the last place to go if you have no where else to eat
Well, I guess we'll never know, will we?
"You can eat here."
Truly one of the restaurants of all time.
🤣🤣🤣
tbh its kinda aged well because some fast food joints like chic fil a are sarting to just be souless drive thrus now
It sort of made sense, because they were trying to say that they had a nice, clean, comfortable dining area, rather than being a place where you'd walk in, buy your food, and get the heck out as fast as possible. Which was a contrast with the direction a lot of fast food places where going in.
Hungry for Apples?
@@nonanimeprofilepic Just like your mom when she turns tricks, huh?
this gives me strong adult swim vibes, the jazz in the background, the salesman randomly talking about therapy and the weird tag line.
Adult Swim or GTA
@@Mcgif21 both
It’s like if Joe Pera was Colonel Sanders
Definitely a fever-dream scenario 😂
HTAF
Mr. Delicious looks like Hank Hill as a 1960's door-to-door vacuum salesman and sounds like Carl Sagan if he weren't enthusiastic about anything.
R/oddlyspecific
Looks more like Richard Nixon to me
You did it. You killed him. He is dead now.
The fact that Mr. Delicious arrives in the infamous Corvair, the car deemed 'unsafe at any speed' adds another meta element to the character.
It wasn't really though, just targeted. In Nader's case, the targeting worked, but this commercial is the exact opposite, not clearly defining a target.
Rax : You'll not gonna get the joke, but your grandchildren will love it
Back to the future reference ❤️
Back to the future 😆
ara ara
No we dont
You’ll’re’ve spellcheck
"You can eat here" was a terrible catchphrase. It should've been "Give money, get food"
Lol that is just as stupid as the Rocket Mortgage catchphrase.
“Push button, get mortgage.” 🤦♂️
Yeeeeah, don't ever suggest catchphrases again please.
I like it =D
give money get food peepee poopoo
PHONE EAT SANDWITCH.
ME:
(ಠ_ಠ)
Honestly, Mr D seems like another case of being ahead of your time can be just as lethal as being behind the times.
The fact mr delicious has a 15 minute long documentary is insane
The fact that mr delicious has a 15 inch long dong is insane
I gotta be honest, I think Rax might’ve been a bit too ahead of their time. I feel like Mr. D exhibits traits of a lot of edgy meme culture, and I feel like this kind of campaign would be much more successful with the advent of the internet.
100% agree
That's exactly what I was thinking watching it.
I think it would be a hit today.
It’s similar to the approach OK Soda attempted.
We're all thankful you were being honest and this opinion was not a lie.
My first job was at Rax.
My boss stole my idea for a nacho bar on the salad bar. I overheard the district manager praise my boss for what a great idea he had and how well it was doing franchise-wide.
I was fresh from Hotel restaurant management school, and it was an eye-opening experience for me.
I'm glad they're gone. Karma will get you.
Always.
But they are not gone totally. There's 13 left 9 are in Ohio.
Sadly, that pretty much sums up most businesses, though.
I hope you got a job where they respected you, and your cheesy ideas. It was nacho time. 👍😢🌮
@@AlexBabcock-hw9iz of course they are in Ohio we still have big boys too 😂. I love your name 😂
@@nowaynoway915 I live in PA and my mom loved taking us to Big Boys in the 90s and when our’s closed she thought they all closed. but recently we were in Ohio for a medical appointment and we decided to do some shopping afterwards… and there. He. Was. 😂 we ended up grabbing food there lol, it was so weird! It was not worth the 2 decades of hype, lol
Thank you for making this video short and to the point. Tired of 90 minute sagas just to answer one or two basic questions. Cheers.
Yeah, this was the same identity crisis that Ponderosa went through, iirc. It's almost like, were they a Steakhouse? Were they a Tex-Mex restaurant? Were they an all you can eat buffet? Yeah, I think I see where THAT chain had trouble, too.
Rax: a fast food restaurant for adults.
This sounds like a combination of Arby's and Hooters.
That sounds like an even worse idea
OMG!!! You nailed it!!
Fitting. One restaurant for the shirt and one for the undies.
I’d eat brisket served by girls in short shorts. If the brisket was really good.
That is the best franchise idea I've ever heard.
I'm genuinely concerned for the guy that said "Mr. Delicious reminds me of my dad".
It is the only genuinely good part of the documentary.
I wonder where he is now.
It’s really too bad I’ll probably never get to see the full documentary
@@The_SOB_II Link's in the description!
@@clay3440 😂
I feel like this would be a genius level advertising scheme if put out today. That was hilarious
it would work for a rather specific audience, which is good enough on a market with too many competing options
you could be right, based on some of the totally bland and overproduced ads out today.
I like that the slogan isn't even "You should eat here"; it's simply, "You can eat here"!
"You can eat here" is one of the best slogans I've ever heard
I'm sold. Tells me everything i need to know
Other companies should do that.
Nike- You can wear these.
Gatorade- You can drink this.
Walmart- You can buy stuff here.
Reminds me of Louis C.K. saying CVS's slogan should be "CVS. Sometimes you gotta come here"
That level of cynicism is just hilarious
McDonald's could never compete...should have upped the stakes: "You can sleep here" 🤣
2020: “You can eat here, no not really, but we do offer takeout.”
I just Wikipedia'd this and am dying laughing at this paragraph:
At its peak in the 1980s, the Rax chain had grown to 504 locations in 38 states along with an unknown number of restaurants in Guatemala.
From what I hear, random Guatemalans were just opening a Rax wherever they felt like it. My source says at least two amateur restaurateurs had fully functional Rax kitchens in their garage, with take-out-only service from a window on the porch (of course they had a limited menu). How are you going to count that kind of thing? It's just an unknown number...
38 states. I’m guessing that my state was one of the 12 that didn’t have Rax, because I was a kid in the 1980’s, and this is the first time I’ve ever heard of them.
According to legend, you can still find Rax locations in remote corners of Guatemala
@@tdp301 No, not anymore...
@@rebecca8525 Same.
Mr. Delicious visits me at night when nobody else is awake; he says not to tell anybody about our "special" time together. 🙂
You weren't supposed to tell!
Wtf
It was great to meet you two at the Rax in Dayton! Thank you for making time for everyone who came and signing my Anthropocene Reviewed. I hope the food was good! DFTBA!
the imnotlikeothergirls of food outlets
The pick me of restaurants
Beat me to it
Wat
You're not like the other's? Ok what are you like then? Lol
Mr. D: Delicious...
Yah, I wanna do it all.
Mister Delicious was about 30 years ahead of his time. I feel his oddball sense of humor would work in 2004-2010
Sounds right, people would totally "You can eat here!" at a Rax if it still existed, entirely out of irony. Much like someone wearing the Burger King crown with pride.
Be better in 2020, Rax we got everything but covid
I don't know: Wendy's did pretty good with an old lady saying "Where's the beef?" That is until they were caught serving a FINGER in their cup of Chilli**😂😂😂
**Note to Wendy's executives and/or lawyers on retainer: The finger comment was A JOKE. (Still you have to laugh at that yourselves... And even admire the thought that went into that SHAKE DOWN attempt on the Wendy's establishments😶😏)
In fact I well let you know I woud rather eat at Wendy's because "Dave" was a lot more likable than the clown McDonald's utilized, or even that "Good ol Boy" KFC utilized
Still, "Jack" is kind of cool for Jack In The Box...So you might want to give Wendy a makover....Maybe even turn her into an rotund African Amrican gal...Like Aunt Jemimah?😂😂😂😂 Note to NAACP: Sorry, I couldn't resist that one either.😂
Agree that shit would be well accepted right now
I guess it's "all in the eye of the beholder." As for me, Mr. D was so lame, he he were a horse I would have shot him to put him out of my misery.
Rax!!! I've been trying to remember the name of this restaurant for years! I remember as a kid, my parents driving us 30 minutes to go eat a terrible, tiny buffet. I kept thinking it was some weird Wendy's or something, but no! it was Rax
We have a Rax here in Joliet, Illinois still thriving. It may very well be the last one but it’s been successful in that same location , same older motif since the 80’s. Baked potatoes are still the best ..
I think Rax was just a parody fast food company full of satire trying to see how long they can last
Nah it was real, it was a casual dining restaurant went belly up about the same time Chi Chi's Mexican Restaurant closed it's doors becoming retail only
@@michaelmckinnon7314 Why not a real parody?
Sorry, I was a big fan of Rax.
... maybe they were working the 'tax write-off' angle?
The ‘meatball pita’ really convinced me this was some kind of tax shelter.
This came 30 years too early.
In the age of Post-Post Meta-Irony, this restaurant slaps hard.
I agree. At the right time, this would have had ironic hipster appeal.
Yup. WAY ahead-of-its-time. If only Mr. D. were a mascot (Jack in Box) w/an obnoxious nemesis (Wyl E. Coyote) who simply WON'T let D. just sit down & enjoy his fr1gg!n burger.
Have you ever heard of OK SODA? It was a coke's attempt to appeal to Gen-X in the early 90's by trying to create the "Nirvana of Sodas". I think Mr. Delicious is more a precursor to that kind of irony.
@@henryrichham5028 Indeed, it is close in style(post-modern advertising both times).
@@henryrichham5028 Both full of insincere, ironic self-loathing; Mr. Delicious was brought out the year before OK Cola. Others tried, but often only The Simpsons successfully capitalized on the growing irony, cynicism and sarcasm of the Nineties.
This is brilliant. He was waaaaaay ahead of this time.
So ahead they folded?
I'm a truck driver and I see one of the few Rax left in existence. It's on US-23 somewhere south of Columbus but before Chillicothe. I might need to risk a ticket and try and get some food there one day.
I live near one of the very few surviving Rax restaurants, and I still go there on occasion. It’s like walking through a portal into the early 90s, literally nothing has been updated since. The food and pricing is still pretty decent though!
Is Mr delicious still a thing in that time capsule?
Where? I have to try it.
I heard it's not very good.
Ironton Ohio? I worked in Ironton for 2 years and ate there often. I thought the food was top tier fast food. Way better than Arby’s.
One of the last surviving Rax restaurants is in my birthplace, Harlan, Kentucky.
No idea why, but the slogan “You can eat here.” is really funny to me.
it sounds like a line form the simpsons
It reminds me of "It is your birthday." from the office ROFL
Giraffe they were too early to the game of shitposting, lets be honest
It's like McDonald's saying, "It's food, we promise."
It's exactly my kind of humor, where you laugh without having an idea why.
What has five toes but isn't your foot?
My foot.
I've never heard of any of this, probably because I'm Canadian, but honestly? I think Mr.Delicious is pretty cool as a parody of a mascot, and I LOVE the tagline (again, with the idea that it's a parody of a tagline). I'd unironically eat there at least once, if there was one near me. Then again, I'm approaching the end of my third decade on Earth, and I don't know if young adult me would have appreciated this nearly as much.
I swear this feels like a 15 minute mini-video essay. Probably one of the best short-form videos on the platform.
I’m all for therapy but uh “Mr. Delicious recommends some twisty fries and a shake after therapy!” is.... bleak
I'd say his analyst recommending that he keep his hostility towards various things all locked up inside is incredibly bleak (and damaging, but *shrug*)
I used to have therapy in an office building above a cafe that served amazing mac n cheese that they could prepare in like 5 minutes... This reminded me of that trap.
Twisty fries and a shake ARE my therapy. Probably why it isnt working.
Mr D evidentently just decades ahead of his time with brands on Twitter pretending to have existential crises for retweets
Honestly, when I started therapy, I'd totally bribe myself with food afterward. That bribe was an Oreo shake at least twice. Should have added twisty fries...
Mr. Delicious was wayyy ahead of his time, if he existed now, he'd be by far, the most popular burger mascot. With his meta, deadpan, cynical humour. He'd be a hit with all the millenials
And that vacation he took to Bora Bora with those two young......"friends".....well, that left Mr. Delicious feeling empty and unfulfilled.
No. Millennials would be protesting the idea that Mrs. D cook.
@@docsavage8640 Sounds like you've got millennials mixed up with gen Zs. I get it though, it has always been cool to hate on millennials for some reason.
Baby Boomers were called long-haired hippies that engage in depraved sex & drugs
A Ron Swanson / Mr. Delicious would 100% work. Same deadpan delivery but with actual charm.
Mr. Delicious was AWESOME. His decision to get a vasectomy was quite responsible, and set a good example for fast-food goers.
I can’t believe this was only three years ago. It feels like a classic video. Damn. I miss this side of vlogbrothers so much.
1979, Colombus Ohio.
I was sitting in a Rax and for some reason they had the drive thru speaker turned so loud you could hear it through the whole place. A voice booms, "Yeah, give me one of those roast beef sandwiches but leave that sauce off. Last time that shit made me puke."
The whole place started laughing. I've never forgotten it.
Nice 😂 I've always felt the same way about Arby's "red sauce".
Lol I was so not born I never heard of this place I was in 1990😂😂😂😂
This is one of the most amazing things I've read in a CZcams comment. 🤣
@@mmseng2 My friend used to purposely get the Horsey Sauce to get diarrhea, he loved it!😂🤢
Oh, to have been there...
I'm reminded of when I went to an In-And-Out in Las Vegas and inadvertently let out a huge belch, and just then, a mother hollered out to her son "AUSTIN!". Now THAT was funny! (Perhaps you had to be there.)
So what you're telling me is that Rax is basically the “not like other girls” of restaurants.
absolutely...because in the 80's nobody gave a shit.
@@KB-ke3fi nah back in the 80s everyone was bootlicking ole ronny reagan real dang hard. so hard he convinced all the boomers that trickle down economics isnt a pyramid scheme lmao. the 80s in america was all about conforming and group think
@@bitchface235 thats what twitter and the left is all about and some right people that are religious
@@bitchface235 The 80s is the most overrated fucking decade in history. The music was shit and it was an abysmal decade for animation.
Suuuure
Very perceptive doc! Thanks.
I was so young and didn't understand why Rax was gone... I loved it, and I dreamed of that ice cream shake with chocolate chips, the dinosaur cups... I feel my childhood sadness back again. I have somewhere in my childhood psyche seriously wondered what happened to my fave fast food joint. :(
After reading more about RAX (a chain I had never heard of) I am almost entirely convinced that this was an early case of intentionally bad advertising. The company was already on the verge of bankruptcy, and their ad agency may have had hopes of creating something so terrible that it got people's attention. And even negative attention could bring them awareness they were losing. The mini-documentary was likely a part of this: hype up the character as "the greatest animated character in advertising" (a line which is too hyperbolic and delivered too ironically to have been serious). This strikes me as a last, final gamble when they had little to lose.
Intriguing theory
Maybe they even shorted it
They should of shorten his name to Mr. D
"This strikes me as a last, final gamble." You mean, like...a final fantasy? (To those who don't know, Squaresoft was on the verge of bankruptcy with the first Final Fantasy being a hail mary to make or break the company. Lucky for them, it paid off and the rest is history).
@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley Unfortunately, while that sounds cool, Final Fantasy was not conceived that way, it was another franchise made by Square, I believe the creator himself stepped forward and slashed this theory. It's been confirmed to be a fake story for a few years now.
I cannot be the only one who thought this mascot was utterly hilarious. The delivery style, the self awareness, the voice actor sounding like he got called in during a bad hangover and he’s upset because he’s double parked. I legit was laughing. This was ahead of its time.
I thought it was great. I hate that what I like is too offensive to the rest of society. It's as if people like me can never be any company's target market because there aren't enough of us.
@@TheEgg185 Boomers ruined the world. That's why.
No replies will be seen or read.
Mr D almost reminded me of a MeatCanyon character (though a little less horrific) and the obviously fake interviews remind me of Supermega "interviews". If a company did this kind of commercial today, it would be talked about because it's weird but the weirdness oddly makes it less elusive, if that makes sense.
There's also just the fact that most people wouldn't take their time to think about it that deeply
Right, but did it make you eat there?
Thumbs up 👍 for the funny editorial voice and the lack of “CZcams advertising” in the video
A Rax commercial with Mr. Delicious and the tagline “You can eat here” is beyond parody. It’s what I would imagine Adult Swim would make as a parody fast food commercial.
"You can eat here" has the same energy as Crisco's old tagline, "It's digestible!"
your comment made me laugh out loud... Hahaha
It's...Food!
Made of real ingredients
Checker's uses "Ya gotta eat" which is just about the same sentiment.
Food!
Mr. Delicious looks like he's the Pep Boys' long-lost brother...
I wish that I could go back in time and try Rax. Mr. Delicious is so perfectly terrible that the food must have been good... Right?
Right...
I have a Rax 10 minutes from me In Joliet, IL. The building and decor hasn’t changed in 30 years, but the food is delicious; much better than Arby’s or McDonald’s.
It really does
@@hey_buddy_waz_up awesome help keep it alive
@@wage7621 lol Mr. Delish speaks his cartoon mind doesn't he?
That sounds like a fast food slogan from Smiling Friends or something like "You... Can... Eat Here"
Reminds me of a tagline for Crisco " it's digestible"😂😂😂😂
Maybe Rax was just ahead of their time because in 2020 the tag line “you can eat here” certainly holds up. 😂
Yeah, I feel like that commercial would slay today
Yes, but it would be dishonest.
vlogbrothers certainly. Stay indoors, y’all! 😷
@@vlogbrothers Aren't all fast food advertisements dishonest?
@@vlogbrothers Ouch. When 2020 is even more depressing than Mr Delicious.
A commercial I never knew existed for a restaurant chain that I never knew existed.
My to, it is a mandela effect.
Facts lol.
Same here.
@FBI grooms Kids liar
You missed out
I'm a little too young to have ever seen a Rax, but some of the other fast food places from my childhood went that way. I just checked, and it looks like Roy Rogers now only has 41 locations, Checker's is no longer considered fine dining for poor kids on special occasions, and Chi-Chi's now only has one location (in Vienna for some reason). Sad times for tired, almost-poor families who want to spoil their kids once in a while on a tight budget.
That briefcase with the huge lettering proclaiming "Mr. D." would definitely have a different meaning today! Too funny...
"You can eat here" is one of those sentences that means something different if you change emphasis from word to word:
YOU can eat here
you CAN eat here
you can EAT here
you can eat HERE.
But which did they mean?
It sounded like the narrator put the emphasis on "eat"
YOU CAN EAT HERE
I think about this often with "I didn't steal her purse." But "You can eat here" is so much more... mystifying. I want to delve into its linguistic secrets.
@@ShakeyBox 😂
YoU cAn EaT hErE
"Rax" sounds like what "Hooters" might have been called.
That's actually not bad, but without your pun "Rax" just sounds like something you'd use to clean a blocked drain!
It sounds like a restaurant that would COMPETE against Hooters.
i loved rax and hooters too. they had good wings,cheap beer i was 21, 3 of my friends worked there it was a wednesday evening thing. Rax was at least once a week,sometimes more. . westside indianapolis.
😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
If they sold ribs instead of chicken
“My Job? To ruin this business with my dry boringness.”
I'm pretty sure "Eenie" at 0:37 is Ethan Phillips, American actor and playwright who played Neelix on "Star Trek: Voyager".
"Two young.................. friends" WhAt?!
"Just had surgery" WhY?!
"If it went well I'll be able to put it in my pocket more delicately"
WHAT
@@The_Google_User I laughed at that so hard I nearly spit out my coffee.
MR. DELICIOUS HAD A 3 WAY WITH SEX WORKERS. AND THEY JUST. LET THAT INFO OUT IN AN AD. WHAT THE HELL, RAX?
They left him unfullfilled! Theres whole fanfics in those 2 sentences!
@@LynnHermione yeah I think the two stories are connected
This commercial may have ended the company but in my town it was the two molotov cocktails from the pizza place down the street that did it in.
Holy shit
Guess they didn't fill Me Delicious' briefcase with his regular protection money.
I paused the video after being stunned by Mr. Delicious' medical oversharing and now I'm seeing this. My first coffee this morning hasn't even fully digested and I'm already wondering what alternate reality I've stumbled into.
Rax still exists. i just went to one in Circleville, Ohio. had me a King Rax w/ horsey sauce. it’s sooo good
@@russiaprivjet Only In Ohio
I must be missing something. In the last 65 years, I never even heard of this place or even saw one of it's commercials on tv. What part of the country were they in? I don't remember them in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Shreveport, Baton Rouge or in any city or town in Texas or Louisiana.
I can add ditto for the places I've lived down in the region -- Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina. Must have been more of a northern or western thing.
This is the classic tale of a business that once had a successful business formula and completely changed it with disastrous results. When you focus on keeping your loyal customers happy you don’t need to jazz up your commercials or diversify into things that aren’t your strong suit.
A slogan that just says "you can eat here" and a mascot that is the antithesis of what a food mascot should be. Its so bad the irony could actually be pulled off today if done right. Pure meme material
I worked at Rax my senior year in high school. Because it was a low visibility brand, I was able to use that job as my culinary experience to get an entry level Cook position at a Hilton Hotel after graduating. I’ve been an Executive Chef in fine dining, I’ve been a Food Service Director in Senior Living, and now in my old age I’m a Certified Dietary Manager, working for a private high school. Thanks Rax! The Jamocha shakes were bangin’!
As a former food service worker of over 7 years, THANK YOU for your service 😎👍
I have no idea what point you're trying to make.......
I assume that list of jobs is considered successful for the food service world?
Thank you for making our food safe 🫡
@@yeah_right88It doesn’t matter what his point is, it’s just that he’s sharing his fast food career experience turned lifetime career.
Wait so Rax did turn into Arby's? They have the same shake.
My life hasn't felt the same after realizing Mr. Delicious is literally me
I never saw these commercials but was 14 or 15 years old when they aired. I recognized this type of humor for the mid to later half of the Gen X crowd. We were really into ironically enjoying 1950's nostalgia.
I feel like every one of these commercials could be brought back in the modern era, completely unchanged, and build this restaurant back from nothing.
I agree. Mr. D is epic. These commercials are fucking hysterical, alas I feel it was an idea that was too far ahead of it's time.
2nd that.
If they get George from Seinfeld to be the live-action version of the spokesman, they would really have something.
Ironically, this video is doing a better job at marketing Rax than Rax themselves.
This video did make me want to try it.
where can I shop at this restaurant? I'd like to know
Rax revival begins now
Also we need to rule 34 Mr. D
@@iceink hades
I looked these guys up. There are seven restaurants still open throughout the Midwest
Rax was already on it's death bed, Mr. Delicious pulled the plug
They died so horribly, apparently, that I literally had never heard of this place until I watched this CZcams video just now
because you are underage get off the internet.
@@jamesduret3364 Ok Boomer
@@jamesduret3364 current 18 year olds were born in 2004 (oops I mean 2002 god forbid I make a minor mistake that doesn't affect my argument) , 12 (10) years after Rax filed ch 11 bankruptcy. Not to mention that Rax is Midwestern, and there is a good chunk of people who don't even live in the US
Same here never heard of it
@@jamesduret3364 I'm 38. I was born in 1982. That's how pathetically and thouroghly they died.
I'm in UK and have never heard of them. But "you can eat here" totally works as a slogan, which just shows how much the world has change.
I'm American and never heard of this lmao
I'm also an American. This is the first time I've heard of them. Clearly wasn't a nation wide franchise.
I looked it up. At the peak it was in 38 states. But it seems like it's peak was pretty short also. Also Mr D was long after it had already been declining from bad business decisions. It sounds like the classic case of management chasing a customer that doesn't exist and alienating their actual customers.
Yeah I like the slogan and the campaign; I'd eat there. Sadly I'm not American and I've never heard of Rax.
Never heard of them before either 🤔 then again there's plenty of fast food places I've recently come across that apparently have been around for quite some time I just didn't know because I wasn't living in this area of the country growing up 🤷♂️ ...not that I was missing much, it's all given me terrible digestive issues 🤭 I'm better off at home where the real food is.
Or it should've opened in the UK
This ad campaign was so ahead of its time. If I saw these ads now I would absolutely eat there.
I feel like these ads would slay today. Mr D is amazing, I mean I get it isn't satire but as satire it is fantastic. This is brillianr.
Their number one problem is they called their fast-food place "Rax." That name sounds like something that you'd see on a box of pest control poison or something.
Anthrax
@@mathewhorodner2000 - That too.
😂
No, no, sounds like an off-shoot of Hooters.
@@gorillaau you beat me to it hahaha
Rax was ahead of its time, was trying to find an audience that hadn’t existed yet lmao
I have to totally agree with that, nowadays it would've popped off.
People back then were not cynical or nihilistic about everything.
Nope, just boomers living in the perfect world they made for themselves
@@eduardoandrade8298 The heck they weren't. They just self-medicated and in denital instead of expressing it freely. It feels like you weren't there. If you were, you're still there.
Plot Twist... maybe Rax was just an experiment that created the audience instead of attracting it.
Mr delicious seems like the kind of guy who shows up to the trap house in a TCAP sting
Three years later and I still love this video. Never been to a Rax myself (We had Roy Roger's, which had decidedly fewer choices but I remember enjoying their roast beef) but I still get a kick out of how a company used a depressed middle aged man to promote their food.
I unironically love the "You Can Eat Here" slogan. I ironically love it, yes, but I also unironically love it.
This reads like a Mitch Hedberg joke.
Correct
It's like that Coke commercial from that Ricky Gervais movie "The Invention of Lying."
The commercial is just Jimmi Simpson saying "Coke it's very famous," because you can't lie in this movie universe.
I got a major Mitch Hedberg vibe out of this too!
My dad liked Rax and I remember visiting a Rax on almost every long distance road trip we took as a kid in the 80s and 90s. I remember one time in particular, my dad got a bowl of what he thought was banana pudding. He ate a spoonful then calmly said, "This is butter. This is melted butter."
Edit: thanks for the likes! He did NOT finish the bowl of butter/pudding.
Dude I am dying lolol!!😂
Omg this had me rolling 😂 underated comment
Your comment made me laugh more than this video. Thank you
Then he proceeded to finish his butter.
@@ProctorSilex I mean it's good butter man.
I loved those Old 80's and 90's Commercials. Such Nostalgia. I miss them.😄👍💯
I don’t know when I don’t know how but Mr Delicious will go viral some day there is no doubt about it.
They were waaaay too ahead of their time. Mr. Delicious deserves a second chance.
This type of advertising would work in 2022.
@@chaost4544 I don’t think it would. It’s still boring, and would be drowned out by others. It needs more flair for the TikTok generation
It would work I see it, I see it...
I'd go for this place
@@4477superman dude Tik Tok doesn't define an entire generation
The funny thing is- I feel like if a company tried something similar today it might work as long as it was just slightly more self aware. It kind of lines up with absurdist millennial and gen z humor /just/ enough. Like, the "you can eat here" slogan is gold.
Can you imagine the Twitter exchanges between Wendy and Mr D?
@@sasukesarutobi3862 ooohhhh my gosh 😂 I want to live in that alternate universe
Yep. After finishing the video and browsing comments, I said to the room, "This is hilariously absurd, just short of ridiculous, and I love it."
@@sasukesarutobi3862 Wendy loves the Big D. :D
I was thinking this exact thing! I know nothing about this company outside of this video but I genuinely think the absurdity of it would be highly successful these days. 😂 They were ahead of their time
2:54 The way Hank delivers his line is simply tremendous.
with the corvair in the commercial? poetry.
I have never seen a commercial so memeable take itself so seriously.
People in the early 90s had very little self awareness, largely because once a piece of media came and went, it was largely gone from the world.
@@blakewilkinson8911 lawl, you're clearly just a kid because I remember the early '90s very well and I remember we all knew media would hang on forever, except we felt like they would be unforgettable because we recorded them all on VHS tapes or cassettes or we'd clip them out of newspapers or magazines and save them that way.
The '90s was an era when advertising agencies "advertised" by doing exactly the opposite of what people expected from advertising, including using irony and reverse psychology. And anti-spokespeople such as Mr. D.
@@blakewilkinson8911 People have even less self awareness now
we should make this a meme, like.. right now!
I feel like "You can eat here" was an attempt to convey that they were fast food with a more enjoyable dine-in experience. Like this was the place where middle managers could have business lunches over endless salad bar. Not one of those "burger in a bag" places where you'd rather eat in your car because at least there you could control the radio. No, Rax was fast food for those who aspired to more.
I guess I can see that! I can see an ad exec selling someone on this message. Like, "Ah...a place where I can actually sit and eat!" But it sounds like, "We have food, I guess?"
I get that but I'm not so sure the ads do a good job of selling that idea. Instead it comes off as just what it says.. this is a place that has food that you can eat. Nothing remarkable or memorable, just food.
@@vlogbrothers The best part is that it doesn't even say anything about their food, like they could just be inviting people to bring their own food and eat it inside of Rax.
The slogan would work just as well for a park bench. Better, even.
+
Yeah your comment did a better job of selling that idea than the ads lol
"You can eat here" is right up there with Crisco's "it's digestible" as one of the ad slogans of all time.
I have literally never heard of this place in my entire life till now. And I was around during the 90's too.
“Rax: you can eat here” sounds like something out of an SNL skit
I can see Will Ferrell and Cheri OTeri saying it
Sounds like it was thought up by Jerry
sounds like something out of Night Vale
The whole thing seems like an SNL skit.
Reminds me of their Sticky Buns sketch: "Welcome to Sticky Buns! Will you eat?"😂
“You can eat here” is easily my favorite fast food slogan now.
"We have food".
Marketing genius. I've fired our marketing consultants and now rebranded all my petrol stations at significant cost.
"We sell petrol" is what I came up with.
So passive aggressive towards the competition. I love it.
Okay no, this was just WAY ahead of its time. This was a whole ass genre of commercial in the mid-late 2000s, if this had released just a little bit later, we would be crediting it with revolutionizing advertising. People just didn't get it yet.
Think of all the monotone announcers you saw in the 2000s, this guy would have been King of that crowd if he had released around that time instead of in the 90s.