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The Commercial that Killed a Fast Food Chain

2020-10-08 · explainer · Hank · 3:57 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Economics (also: Pop culture) · mode: Explainer · tags: community lore

Recalling that he and John grew up going to Rax, Hank roasts the fast food chain's confused ads and its Mr. Delicious campaign, a sad spokesman that partly parodied advertising while courting 'grownups'; Rax filed for bankruptcy less than a year after his launch.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Growing up with Rax; its identity-crisis ads (eeny, meeny, miney; adults and kids)

  • ★★ Hank recalls that he and John grew up going to Rax on days they had been good, when Wendy's wasn't good enough, to split a soft, gooey cookie. — 00:00:00 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank says Rax, a roast beef place like Arby's, was in constant identity crisis, and its advertising mostly argued it wasn't like the other major fast food chains. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Many Rax ads excluded demographics to appeal to a core audience, then pushed back against it, such as promising it was good for adults and for kids who act like adults. (playful) — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Other bad Rax ads and the Mr. Delicious campaign clips

  • ★ Hank lists more bad Rax ads: a phone eating a sandwich (with an Orange Is the New Black actress), a giant chicken foot, and a woman who explodes over a meatball pita. (playful) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ As Rax kept losing focus and market share, trying an all-you-can-eat pasta bar, upgraded interiors and pizza, it went all in on Mr. Delicious, which Hank calls the worst idea ever. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank describes Mr. Delicious, the new Rax spokesman promising a more mature dining environment, as a low-energy Rodney Dangerfield and a sad man. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Hank is baffled that the ads hint at Mr. Delicious's empty Bora Bora trip with two young friends, a vasectomy and a costly analyst. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Hank calls the campaign's tagline, 'You can eat here', the worst or possibly best in fast food history. (playful) — 00:01:27

00:02:15 — Who Mr. Delicious was for: parody, target audience, the mini documentary, bankruptcy; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank sees parody in the campaign: 'you can eat here' parodies a tagline, and Mr. Delicious, not fun, happy or engaging, parodies a spokesperson. — 00:02:15
  • ★★★ Rax was also trying to identify with a core audience, fast food for grownups, which Hank sums up as misogynist, unfunny, alcoholic, sad grownups who gamble and see therapists. (playful) — 00:02:15
  • ★★ Rax's ad agency and management made a 15-minute mini documentary about Mr. Delicious's success; Hank doubts its claim that he speaks to problems we all face. — 00:02:44
  • ★★ Hank supposes the documentary was aimed at Rax franchisees, who he is sure were livid that the company was so dramatically mismanaged. (hedged) — 00:02:44
  • ★★ Hank finds it telling that the pro-Mr. Delicious documentary included a line calling Mr. Delicious obnoxious. (playful) — 00:03:13
  • ★★★ Rax filed for bankruptcy less than a year after launching Mr. Delicious, making the claim that he would be a classic advertising character seem off the mark. — 00:03:13
  • ★★★ Hank grants Rax had many problems in a cutthroat fast food era and Mr. Delicious didn't cause them all, but its gamble went even worse than Mr. D's trip to Reno. — 00:03:36

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description says Hank worked on this video for about two years and thinks about Mr. Delicious at least once a week. — video description
  • ★ In a channel comment John welcomes the many visitors arriving from Reddit, warns this is probably the peak of their Rax content, and points them to Pizzamas. — creator comment · Reddit, Vlogbrothers, Pizzamas

Humor (significant)

  • Hank paraphrases a Rax ad that excluded a demographic and then took it back — 00:00:29

    “Rax, it's good for adults and also kids, but only kids who act like they're adults.”

  • After the ad's oblique line about Mr. Delicious's 'delicate surgery', Hank reacts — 00:01:27

    “Did we just hear about Mr. Delicious's vasectomy?”

  • Hank describes the 'grownups' Mr. Delicious's fast food for grownups was meant for — 00:02:15

    “Misogynist, unfunny, alcoholic, sad grownups who gamble too much and go to psychotherapy.”

  • Hank sums up Rax's failed bet using the spokesman's own vices — 00:03:36

    “it went even worse than Mr. D's trip to Reno.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Mr. Delicious · Rax Restaurants

Also: People: Rodney Dangerfield

Works: Mr. Delicious mini documentary · Orange Is the New Black

Organizations: Arby's · Wendy's

Concepts: advertising · bankruptcy · Fast food

Places: Bora Bora · Reno, Nevada

Only in the description or credits: Pizzamas · Reddit

Also centred on Rax Restaurants: The Rax Guy · The P4A 2023 is The Hottest Club on the Internet · Hank and John Reunited WITH RAX

Later videos replying to this one

  • 2020-10-09 · The Rax Guy (John) — continues (retell on Hank and John grow up going to Rax restaurants (childhood)) — John recalls the Rax of their childhood and the Rax Guy, whose conspiracy signs, seen at seven and eight (1985), shaped his particular obsessive fear that others were aliens in human costumes, though they did not cause his OCD; information feeds shape us. (00:00:29)

Part of an exchange of 5 videos, 2020-10-02 – 2020-10-09.