Worked at Rax as a manager while they were kicking this idea around. My GM and I said this was the dumbest idea ever but all they would say is, "We paid a lot of money to an advertising agency to come up with this so it has to be good." Showed us mock ups of him driving a car, walking with his briefcase, etc. All of them had his "catchy" phrase: 'You Can Eat Here!' It wasn't really the nail in the coffin as they were going down hill for awhile before that. They would have gone out of business with or without Mr. D. (Man, I haven't thought of that idiot for ages!) I would sit with my employees for hours almost every night with no customers. Then Hardee's bought them out, but that's another failure story.
It sounds like the real problem was incompetent management, and the commercials were simply another symptom of incompetent decision-making by incompetent managers.
@@joeschembrie9450 It could be, or people were liking Arby's better or anything. I would tour other Rax stores and they were pretty much the same. We'd have lunch rushes and, very rarely, dinner crouds and just nothing else. Every store was pretty much losing money all over the place. We had a good, loyal customer base for the first year or so I worked and it just started dropping away. Tried a "hot bar" with mashed potatoes, wings, nachos, etc. but that didn't work either.
As a Gen-X-er, and an animator, I find Mr. D hilarious. BUT in the 90s, that would not have driven me to ANY fast food chain. Not because he wasn't funny, but because Gen-X-ers didn't really love fast food restaurants by the time we got to our 20s. I don't think that advertising firm was wrong in designing that character, I just think that the industry was failing to realize that a Gen-X-friendly approach wasn't going to lead to widespread Gen-X patronage.
The then CEO of Rax was recently interviewed about this, and he said that this ad campaign was a big success. It did go viral, without the help of the internet. The problem is that Rax was already so deep in debt that Mr D ads just couldn't save the company. It was too little too late. Gen X humor? Gen X were mostly teenagers at this time. These ads 100% were trying to appeal to professional Baby Boomers. The ads did exactly what they were intended to do, it got people talking about the ads. Some people loved the ads, some hated them. Some loved the ads but acted like they were offended. BTW, the CEO said in his interview that he thought that the delicate surgery was for hemmroids, not a vasectomy.
Mr D was laying down the D in bora bora with those young ladies. He is on he's second marriage and don't need any pregnancy scares.. Hence the surgery.🤔
Gen X was born 1965-1980 and we started hearing about it in 1992. Most were in their 20s at the time, and more Hip-Hop and alternative than what Mr. Delicious was. We might have related in the late 2000s however, lol.
I googled rax... As of 2024, Rax is based in Ironton, Ohio, and has only six franchisee-owned restaurants still in operation.... That's why i didn't realise Rax was gone. I live where the last few stores are based. The strange thing is i don't recall the Mr D commercials at all.
Ironton is the next town over from me and I lived there briefly as a child. I had no idea that's where Rax is based now. Just goes to show the shape they're in as a business. It's all Arby's around here anyhow; I don't know how Rax is staying afloat.
@@Write-Stuff i am from coalgrove. i don't live there now but i used to help clean the carpets in rax on 3rd st. in ironton every friday night from 1995 till 2001.
Just seeing the commercials makes me slightly nostalgic for the late 70s/early 80s when every restaurant seemed to have a solarium with plants, a salad bar, and faux Tiffany lamps.
My hometown has the only Rax in the state of Kentucky. It's such a staple here that I didn't realize it was part of a defunct chain until a year or so ago.
I'm over in Lee Co VA and went to Harlan many times as a kid where my dad worked in the mines over there. My 90 yr old neighbor loves that place still to this day.
Wow, when people said that Rax 'didn't know what it wanted to be', they weren't kidding. The story of how it was founded already had red flags considering they couldn't even settle on a NAME when they first opened.
That said, Rax is apparently a mix of the chain's previous names, JAX and RIX. I could see how all the name changes led to branding problems. Four name changes in a decade (JAX -> RIX -> JAX again -> Rax) seems concerning, and probably made it hard to establish a consistent brand until Rax started expanding to areas where it hadn't been known as JAX or RIX.
My cousin owns the Rax franchise now. There are several restaurants in Southern Ohio & Northern Kentucky. After seeing this, I went yesterday & purchased a BBC. Delicious!😋 🇺🇸✌🏻😎
Rax existed in the Tampa Bay area, where I grew up. I remember the mediocre salad bars but, most of all, those awful solariums built into the front of each restaurant. Because peninsular Florida is basically a hotter version of a rainforest for most of the year, those solariums were miserable places in the building to eat and the plexiglass on them quickly became scratched and faded in short order. Basically, a terrible idea.
I feel like the challenge to marketing yourself as as a calmer, more mature place to eat fast food is that you're trying to thread the needle of people who both find other fast food venues too chaotic but haven't also selected to just take their food home, eat in their car, go to a public space or any other option. Couple that with trying to do that in the USoA, which has an extensive history and network of diners that do exactly that already and you're trying to pass a VERY tight market.
I used to love going to Rax. The one closest to me finally closed permanently during the pandemic. They had changed the name to Rancher's Roast Beef a few years prior, but it was the exact same food.
I live in Ironton, Ohio. We have a Rax in town. My cousin bought the rights to the company. There several Rax restaurants available in Southern Ohio & Kentucky. I love the BBC sandwich & buy one a few times each month. Rax is so much better than Arby’s & Rax prices are lower than Arby’s. 😋✌🏻😊🇺🇸😎
I can't believe one of the few remaining locations is in Chicagoland. Growing up here, I never had heard of this place until seeing one downstate many years ago
Yes, thank you for that! I thought I was the only one that remembered Uncle Ally back when I was a kid in the 80s. Then the Rax in my area became a Wendy's in the mid 90s---funny enough, they left up the solarium, the salad bar configuration and the glass with the white embossed bamboo print until that Wendy's became a dunkin' donuts in the early 2000s
@@steve9833 The BBC was one of the most common sandwich with the cheese sauce as I liked to called it. Their Cheese melt was really the best thing they had. And yes it was better than Arbys at that time and Era
It's a perfect Gen X commercial. The problem is in 1992 there was a recession and most of young Gen X'ers were out of work and/or short on money. So even if the commercial was a success, its target demographic didn't have any money. It's a marketing failure, not so much a failure of the commercial.
@@garrettedwardspears Oh right, I forgot that recessions turn off like a light switch and there isn't any lingering effects for years afterward. That's why the recession had absolutely no effect on the 1992 election.... right??? Everyone loved George Bush Sr., didn't blame him for the recession and promptly reelected him.... right??? Just like how the Great Recession promptly ended in June 2009 and everything was back to normal in 2010.... right??? GTFO with your wikipedia history cut n paste, I actually lived it.
Thank you for showing this video. I remember when they put a Rax Roast Beef in the town, but it did not last long and was turned into a bank within like two years. When I ask people if they remember Rax Roast Beef, most people in the town do not. I then wondered what happened to Rax. Plus I started to question my own memory when others did not remember it. So thank you. :)
I watched a whole thing on RAX and it’s case in point for a CEO that refuses to listen to professionals and flip-flopping around til he bankrupted a business. His ideas for ads were so creepy and off-putting even the channels taking his money suggested he rethink them, which never happens unless something is vulgar normally. I worked for a dude like that, was painful being put in the middle of him not listening to everyone since I was basically his assistant. I eventually quit no notice at the end cause he’d gotten so out of line my health was deteriorating lol. Whew, no one is good at everything. Trust others even if you have to pay for their expertise. Better than going bankrupt for being stubborn.
Yeah, I loved the Philly cheese steak. I guess I was around when Rax was at their peak, then I moved out of the Midwest and there was no longer a Rax where I lived. I remember them fondly.
@@brulesrulesforyourhealth5928 you managed to make me happy for you and jealous at the same time! 😂🤣😂 Good for you! Please enjoy the shake for the rest of us out here crying when we drive past Arby’s. 🥰😂
One thing that I always thought was weird was that I knew of exactly two places where one could get a "jamocha" shake, and both of them were primarily known for roast beef sandwiches. Who copied who? (Rax also often had blueberry shakes, which were delicious and extremely rare anywhere else.)
I knew Rax wasn’t very popular, but I didn’t realize there were only 6 left! I’m an Ohioan and there are 2 Rax’s in my area which is pretty nuts considering that’s 1/3 of the entire franchise
Did that sign at the 6:09 mark really say starting pay was $16 an hour? I know what I see, but I find it so hard to believe that a fast food place payed that much back then. What fast food even pays that these days? They sure don’t where I live, anyway. I’ve seen some that pay above minimum wage, maybe $14 an hour, but $16 is crazy. Especially for when this took place. That’s insane.
That pics of the Illinois store, and only a couple years old. Rax as a company doesn't really exist anymore, but they're still around because one franchisee - Rich Donohue - bought what was left of the company instead of shutting down his restaurants 😆
2:51 This to me sounds like the real reason they ended as a fast-food chain, and it is a classic sign of a business overextending themselves (and likely going into debt trying to do so).The commercial is merely a symptom of their overall dysfunction.
As a member of GEN X… that commercial would have literally done nothing for me. The commercial, it’s self, the animation, feels like it came out of the 70’s, and far from in a good way.
McDonald's barely wants you ordering from a person, having those digital booths inside of them. It's pretty uninviting, even after the fact that I don't eat their food.
I LOVE how most of your stock photos of Rax are of the one in Joliet IL where I grew up and was my go to fast food. There is even an Arby like across the street from it and Rax is still the local favorite. Yeah, it doesn't have the salad bar, but I still go there, the locals still love it and its still beloved and talked about on the Joliet facebook page. It's a gem. I'm 36 and I've been eating there since I was a kid. ❤️ Rax over Arby's any day
LMAO holy shit. Wow. I gotta say that today is the first time that I ever heard of Rax in my life. I guess I can see why. I was a very young child in the early 90s, which is where the narrator says that the company became obscure. That Mr. D character reminds me of something you would have seen as an adult cartoon on Comedy Central in the 90s.
“You can eat here” as a tagline for a restaurant would be like Co-Cola going with “Mostly carbonated water, okay to drink” or any car company going with “It’s got four wheels and it moves.”
You mean you are an American who happens to have some Italian heritage? I hardly think that an Italian would find such degrading and disrespectable appropriation the least bit acceptable let alone humorous.
@@victorconway444 All americans do is mock things and persons different from they are all the time. ALL THE TIME! Our sense of humor is not to make others the subject of fun at expense of they or marginalize persons who are of the minority. Pleased to have explain how that is good humor.
I’m sorry I didn’t see this message until three days ago. I think he would be successful today because you have cartoons on adult swim that mimic this character and I work for Walmart that’s why I made that comment about the straight talk mascot because they kept playing the same stuff on their televisions in the store to try to get rid of Motorola phones that were not selling. But then again I’m gonna make up a joke. Maybe Walmart should resurrect this character and then that can be their mascot and let’s see how they do.
I definitely miss the old, simple Rax Roast Beef sandwich and their excellent fries. Their roast beef was every bit as good as Arby's and all they had to do was not "complicate" the menu. I'll never understand the "suits" who come in to a successful fast food restaurant then, wreck it by adding garbage nobody asked for or wanted and change the perfect foods that do not need changing...WENDY'S! IM LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU! Wendy's was once my favorite American Burger place. They had the best, most tastiest beef patties and THE BEST FRENCH FRIES IN THE BUSINESS. That's right, I said it, Wendy's Fries were even better than McDonald's fries and that's saying something even if most people disagree. As long as Dave Thomas was around Wendy's succeeded and thrived in a most competitive marketplace because of the simplicity and outstanding quality of their menu and Wendy's ORIGINAL French Fries were as important as their awesome burgers. After Dave passed away some jackass in a suit decided they should change the Fries, probably to save a few pennies and thus began the slow, steady decline and ruination of my favorite Burger Place. Yes, the Fries are that important because together with the beef patties & Frosty they created their own unique "Flavor Profile". As soon as you change one of those items you change the entire Flavor Profile and not for the better. And now Wendy's is doing breakfast.....and I don't give a ding-dang-doodly darn about that garbage. I'm from the 1970s, I'm fit, strong & healthful and I don't eat breakfast and I WANT MY SQUARE BURGER & MY ORIGINAL FRIES BACK! So, thanks for nothing, Wendy's suits. You've ruined an American icon & destroyed the work & passion of Dave Thomas who gave us quality burgers & Fries & the Frosty. May your greed and lack of vision lead you where you deserve to be....jerks.
As I’m watching the history of rax roast beef the moment things went downhill was the moment they tried being everything that’s what happens to most businesses they try to be everything and then it becomes a failure. The cartoon character of the commercials is actually pretty funny.
I used to really like Rax, but they disappeared from Indiana quite quickly. I think the takeaway here is that quirky, funny ads can be cute, but you've got to advertise the product. What an awful ad campaign.
I dunno, Mr. D is pretty great. I think it's the name (sounds like a discount clothing store, maybe an offshoot of TJ Maxx) and the terribly dated signs.
Say what you want about their business model and ad campaign, but those Rax BBQ sandwiches were *_incredible._* One day, I literally could not stop eating them. I ate about 8 or 10, and would've kept going if I didn't have some school function to attend. It wasn't just plain roast beef "sheets" like Arby's has. It was some sort of chopped brisket, _soaked in sweet BBQ sauce_ and slapped onto a fresh, soft, sesame seed bun (which would itself soon become soaked in sauce). Gah, if anyone here knows of another restaurant chain (preferably with a drive-thru) that makes that kind of sandwich, DO TELL. 😋 (...I'm near Kansas City)
So my childhood Wendys was previously an Rax, guessing from how it was built with that same glass roof in the front. It was our teen hang out spot when it rained, and we had to wait to walk home. Also seeing that drive thru menu was another confirmation and him saying they bought the company completed the mystery full circle. Thanks !!
They should have marketed the 1967 grand opening with the slogan _‘You’ve heard of summer BBQ, well Rax Roastbeef is here to serve you through The Long Hot Summer’!_ and then it shows a hooded figure being shooed away from the patio ‘We don’t burn things black around here!’
0:31 I used to work at Rax restaurant on the turnpike in Vickery Ohio many years ago. They tore down the building where the Rax restaurant used to be. And it’s completely changed since then. They have many different restaurants there now.
1. those six stores should band together and come up with a new logo that doesn't smell like secondhand tobacco 2. your channel name sounds like the brand of some generic power strip, wall shelf, or aftermarket vacuum cleaner part on amazon 3. your sticker cuts off the "mr. d" on his suitcase a good video, thank you.
6:15- Given the dates of the bankruptcy and whatnot, that picture would of been taken circa 1992/3. So $16/hr pay is about $35 in 2024 dollars. That would be one of the big reasons they weren't making much profit.
Worked at Rax as a manager while they were kicking this idea around. My GM and I said this was the dumbest idea ever but all they would say is, "We paid a lot of money to an advertising agency to come up with this so it has to be good." Showed us mock ups of him driving a car, walking with his briefcase, etc. All of them had his "catchy" phrase: 'You Can Eat Here!' It wasn't really the nail in the coffin as they were going down hill for awhile before that. They would have gone out of business with or without Mr. D. (Man, I haven't thought of that idiot for ages!) I would sit with my employees for hours almost every night with no customers. Then Hardee's bought them out, but that's another failure story.
Comment Pinned. Thank You for the explanation.
It sounds like the real problem was incompetent management, and the commercials were simply another symptom of incompetent decision-making by incompetent managers.
@@joeschembrie9450 It could be, or people were liking Arby's better or anything. I would tour other Rax stores and they were pretty much the same. We'd have lunch rushes and, very rarely, dinner crouds and just nothing else. Every store was pretty much losing money all over the place. We had a good, loyal customer base for the first year or so I worked and it just started dropping away. Tried a "hot bar" with mashed potatoes, wings, nachos, etc. but that didn't work either.
'You Can Eat Here' sounds like a lack-luster movie review.
Checkers's 'YOU GOTTA EAT!' came along with their command statement and nailed it.
As a Gen-X-er, and an animator, I find Mr. D hilarious. BUT in the 90s, that would not have driven me to ANY fast food chain. Not because he wasn't funny, but because Gen-X-ers didn't really love fast food restaurants by the time we got to our 20s. I don't think that advertising firm was wrong in designing that character, I just think that the industry was failing to realize that a Gen-X-friendly approach wasn't going to lead to widespread Gen-X patronage.
Mr. D would work as an Adult Swim bumper. No idea how he was supposed to make anyone want fast food though.
that's exactly what was going through my mind when I saw that. I was thinking that he seemed like an adult cartoon from Comedy Central in the 90s.
My feelings exactly!
10 years ahead of its time
I've worked at Adult Swim. Maybe that's why I find him funny.
Exactly he would make you realize you don’t want to end up like him and make better choices.
I had never heard of Rax until today. 😨
Subscribe if you want to hear more stories like this.
Same
Me either…
Me either
I often passed by it in my hometown (where it surprisingly still is to this day), but never went inside
Mr D would be a hit today with Millennial self-depricating humor and Gen Z's post irony aesthetics. Truly ahead of its time.
The "You can eat here" slogan would be a hit today as well
@@gzylyIt’s so stupid; I love it!
@@gzylyYou can eat here, but you don’t have to.
That’s depends if Rax’s was still around today.
I mean the Arby’s in my town closed down a while ago…
@@phoebevolz2291 I’m so stealing this
Looks like Mr. D belongs in the 1950s and sounds like he belongs in a 2015 Adult Swim sketch.
Yup
The whole campaign sounds like an Adult Swim show. I'd totally watch!
Same thought.
The voice actor reminds me of Jack Webb, he sounds a bit like him.
@@williamking3301 It gave me more of a Ben Stein vibe.
The then CEO of Rax was recently interviewed about this, and he said that this ad campaign was a big success. It did go viral, without the help of the internet. The problem is that Rax was already so deep in debt that Mr D ads just couldn't save the company. It was too little too late.
Gen X humor? Gen X were mostly teenagers at this time. These ads 100% were trying to appeal to professional Baby Boomers.
The ads did exactly what they were intended to do, it got people talking about the ads. Some people loved the ads, some hated them. Some loved the ads but acted like they were offended.
BTW, the CEO said in his interview that he thought that the delicate surgery was for hemmroids, not a vasectomy.
I though it was hemorrhoids, too. Mr. D wasn’t getting any, so why would he need a vasectomy?
@@Jaelismyhomegirl he did go to Bora Bora with this two young ladies. So I think he was getting some action.
Mr D was laying down the D in bora bora with those young ladies.
He is on he's second marriage and don't need any pregnancy scares..
Hence the surgery.🤔
Gen X was born 1965-1980 and we started hearing about it in 1992. Most were in their 20s at the time, and more Hip-Hop and alternative than what Mr. Delicious was. We might have related in the late 2000s however, lol.
Who wants to think about either of those things while eating roast beef?
Mr. D feels like he belongs in Daria
He's Daria's uncle that by the end of the show she actually gets along with.
totally lol
Like he is Daria's husband in the future. All monotonous.
Daria’s father!!!!:/
good call
Honestly if Mr. Delicious came out five years later he have been a big hit
I grew up in the 80s and I can verify people exploded because of meatball pockets
lol
Mom's spaghetti
Oh shit 😮
I googled rax... As of 2024, Rax is based in Ironton, Ohio, and has only six franchisee-owned restaurants still in operation.... That's why i didn't realise Rax was gone. I live where the last few stores are based. The strange thing is i don't recall the Mr D commercials at all.
If I lived near a Rax I would definitely try their roast beef sandwich
@@gzyly i get a "classic w/ no red ranch". they are super good.
Ironton is the next town over from me and I lived there briefly as a child. I had no idea that's where Rax is based now. Just goes to show the shape they're in as a business. It's all Arby's around here anyhow; I don't know how Rax is staying afloat.
@@Write-Stuff i am from coalgrove. i don't live there now but i used to help clean the carpets in rax on 3rd st. in ironton every friday night from 1995 till 2001.
The only Rax I know is in Circleville Ohio.
It looks really sketchy. 😳
I wouldn't eat there. 😜 Ha!
I’m dying at the “There ain’t no Mo” campaign 😂
That was hilarious! The adding of all the different food was silly!
Just seeing the commercials makes me slightly nostalgic for the late 70s/early 80s when every restaurant seemed to have a solarium with plants, a salad bar, and faux Tiffany lamps.
Indeed 🥹
Yeah… I miss those days.
I think when I was a little boy in the 90s there were still fake Tiffany lamps in fast food restaurants.
Pizza Hut had a great salad bar
The salad bar reminded me Roy Rogers.
My hometown has the only Rax in the state of Kentucky. It's such a staple here that I didn't realize it was part of a defunct chain until a year or so ago.
Ashland, KY? I'm here in Huntington and just went to the Rax in Ironton lol
@@brulesrulesforyourhealth5928 Harlan
@@brulesrulesforyourhealth5928 It's Harlan, Kentucky.
I'm over in Lee Co VA and went to Harlan many times as a kid where my dad worked in the mines over there. My 90 yr old neighbor loves that place still to this day.
Wow, when people said that Rax 'didn't know what it wanted to be', they weren't kidding. The story of how it was founded already had red flags considering they couldn't even settle on a NAME when they first opened.
That said, Rax is apparently a mix of the chain's previous names, JAX and RIX.
I could see how all the name changes led to branding problems. Four name changes in a decade (JAX -> RIX -> JAX again -> Rax) seems concerning, and probably made it hard to establish a consistent brand until Rax started expanding to areas where it hadn't been known as JAX or RIX.
The name changes aren't !Red Flags! that signalled the doom of the company.
I feel like Mr Ds personality would convince me to eat there genuinely
Yeah, I appreciate his candor.
You can eat there... If you go to one of the remaining locations.
damn your easily led
No, you just think you're a edgy nihilist. but you're just another dumb zoomer scrolling tiktok for Palestine videos.
@@ronalddavis My easily led? That makes no sense.
When I clicked on the link I was expecting to see some really bad commercials and you guys did not disappoint me.
There is one more bad commercial about a soda coming soon😅
Where's mo there aint no mo ok thanks for the update
you can go back to bed now
Mr. D needed his own show.
Mr D and his slow sluggish downward spiral
That probably could have saved it
Grew up in the 80’s - never heard of Rax. 🤷♂️
Same, I was born in ‘81 and never heard of them until this video. They must not have had many locations near where I grew up or traveled as a kid.
They had a lot of them in Ohio.
Born in the mid-60s. Never heard of Rax until this video.
I live in Canada. This is news to me too.
@@N_A_Lunddid you see Jared Fogel at the beginning? Lol
My cousin owns the Rax franchise now. There are several restaurants in Southern Ohio & Northern Kentucky. After seeing this, I went yesterday & purchased a BBC. Delicious!😋
🇺🇸✌🏻😎
I love the salad bar concept. Either way it looks delicious tell him open one in Madison wi
Rax existed in the Tampa Bay area, where I grew up. I remember the mediocre salad bars but, most of all, those awful solariums built into the front of each restaurant. Because peninsular Florida is basically a hotter version of a rainforest for most of the year, those solariums were miserable places in the building to eat and the plexiglass on them quickly became scratched and faded in short order. Basically, a terrible idea.
Mr D is the Andy Kaufman of ads: Ahead of his time.
This is Kaufman here. I object. I was never ahead of my time, I was perfectly timed. And now I'm out of time.
@@TheAngryIntellect- Forgive me, Mr. Kaufman! I stand corrected! 😊😉
Not really ahead of his time when Mr D is like something out of a 1940's advertisement.
Finally, a mascot I can really get behind.
If a brand did those ads today it would go so much better. I found them hilarious.
What a bizarre ad campaign.
only in ohio
With a name like that , they didn't even think of trying to compete with Hooters??
🎯🎯🎯
The would have needed a new mascot. Miss DD
Nailed it
Or be a bbq rib joint
needed the added three X's to be "Raxxx" and it'd sound like a Hooters ripoff they'd have in a Grand Theft Auto game.
I feel like the challenge to marketing yourself as as a calmer, more mature place to eat fast food is that you're trying to thread the needle of people who both find other fast food venues too chaotic but haven't also selected to just take their food home, eat in their car, go to a public space or any other option. Couple that with trying to do that in the USoA, which has an extensive history and network of diners that do exactly that already and you're trying to pass a VERY tight market.
That's a really good analysis of the issue
Ronald McDonalds soul is in the suitcase like Marcellus in Pulp Fiction
Nah, you mean the Burger king's soul.
Ronald Mcdonald lives in a box in Arby's basement.
I used to love going to Rax. The one closest to me finally closed permanently during the pandemic. They had changed the name to Rancher's Roast Beef a few years prior, but it was the exact same food.
Starting pay at $16/he when min wage was 5.15. Now, that's being ahead of your time.
Mr. D is awesome. We just weren't ready for him yet.
2:35 That's an old Shoney's building! Now *there's* a restaurant that I'm nostalgic for. Their french toast sticks were too good!
This generation will never understand how popular pita pockets were. Every fast food place had one.
Mr D walked so the Clear Eyes guy could run!
Ahh Ben Stein. Back before we all knew he was a racist conservative. I apologize for saying the same thing twice.
What’s wrong with being conservative?
@@ParanitisWhat did he say or do that was racist?
@@Paranitis Conservatives can't be racist. It's just impossible.
What's wrong with being a racist?
Fascinating. I like many of the ads, Mr. D is weird, but I liked the fun exploding lady ad.
An ad campaign ahead of it's time. It was the only fast food place you could get a baked potato instead of fries
no doubt about how good their food was, It is just mismanagement and lack of identity
You definitely bring up a good point regarding lack of identity and trying to be "everything to everyone"
Didn’t Wendys have baked potatoes back then?
@@Blueberryyymuffin They did, indeed. Introduced in 1983. Wendy's didn't really expand in my area until Rax was well into it's unfortunate decline
Its* time.
I live in Ironton, Ohio. We have a Rax in town. My cousin bought the rights to the company. There several Rax restaurants available in Southern Ohio & Kentucky. I love the BBC sandwich & buy one a few times each month. Rax is so much better than Arby’s & Rax prices are lower than Arby’s. 😋✌🏻😊🇺🇸😎
I can't believe one of the few remaining locations is in Chicagoland. Growing up here, I never had heard of this place until seeing one downstate many years ago
You should try it
Its in Joliet Illinois on Jefferson Ave off Hammes
Mr. D was ahead of his time, like Marty Mcfly said, "Your kids are gonna love it"
I miss Rax. I loved their BBC sandwich. One minor correction is that Uncle Alligator was around in the 80s.
Yes, thank you for that! I thought I was the only one that remembered Uncle Ally back when I was a kid in the 80s.
Then the Rax in my area became a Wendy's in the mid 90s---funny enough, they left up the solarium, the salad bar configuration and the glass with the white embossed bamboo print until that Wendy's became a dunkin' donuts in the early 2000s
Their. What?
@@evanchismark3092 Big Black Cocktail sandwich?
@@steve9833 The BBC was one of the most common sandwich with the cheese sauce as I liked to called it. Their Cheese melt was really the best thing they had. And yes it was better than Arbys at that time and Era
Their WHAT sandwich???? Nooooo 💀💀💀
It's a perfect Gen X commercial. The problem is in 1992 there was a recession and most of young Gen X'ers were out of work and/or short on money. So even if the commercial was a success, its target demographic didn't have any money. It's a marketing failure, not so much a failure of the commercial.
The recession in the 1990s was from July 1990 to March 1991.
@@garrettedwardspears Oh right, I forgot that recessions turn off like a light switch and there isn't any lingering effects for years afterward. That's why the recession had absolutely no effect on the 1992 election.... right??? Everyone loved George Bush Sr., didn't blame him for the recession and promptly reelected him.... right??? Just like how the Great Recession promptly ended in June 2009 and everything was back to normal in 2010.... right???
GTFO with your wikipedia history cut n paste, I actually lived it.
@@garrettedwardspears
Wow, so Gen Xers got to feel like how Millennials today feel for less than a year
@@coyotelong4349yes😢
Your comment is why people should never take RUclips comments seriously lol!
the billy squier rock me tonight of fast food commercials no coming back from this🤣
Mr. Delicious seems like a one-off Beavis and Butt-head side character
I’d take any of these commercials over the crap they put out today. I’d love Rax back too!
Thank you for showing this video. I remember when they put a Rax Roast Beef in the town, but it did not last long and was turned into a bank within like two years. When I ask people if they remember Rax Roast Beef, most people in the town do not. I then wondered what happened to Rax. Plus I started to question my own memory when others did not remember it. So thank you. :)
I’m sorry, it sounds like Mr Delicious was before his time.
I watched a whole thing on RAX and it’s case in point for a CEO that refuses to listen to professionals and flip-flopping around til he bankrupted a business. His ideas for ads were so creepy and off-putting even the channels taking his money suggested he rethink them, which never happens unless something is vulgar normally.
I worked for a dude like that, was painful being put in the middle of him not listening to everyone since I was basically his assistant. I eventually quit no notice at the end cause he’d gotten so out of line my health was deteriorating lol.
Whew, no one is good at everything. Trust others even if you have to pay for their expertise. Better than going bankrupt for being stubborn.
When I saw this I could swear I had seen another whole doc on Rax but now I can't find it. Do you recall what it was called?
That's too bad. Their roast beef sandwich was good. My favorite though was the Philly cheese steak. They should have stuck with what they were best at
Yeah, I loved the Philly cheese steak. I guess I was around when Rax was at their peak, then I moved out of the Midwest and there was no longer a Rax where I lived. I remember them fondly.
Rax was so much better than Arby’s. I still miss their milkshakes.
Mint Chip Shake is the bomb. I just got one from the last Rax still open in Ohio.
@@brulesrulesforyourhealth5928 you managed to make me happy for you and jealous at the same time! 😂🤣😂
Good for you! Please enjoy the shake for the rest of us out here crying when we drive past Arby’s. 🥰😂
@@brulesrulesforyourhealth5928 i only ,ive a few hours from that rax i plan on driving up to try them
One thing that I always thought was weird was that I knew of exactly two places where one could get a "jamocha" shake, and both of them were primarily known for roast beef sandwiches. Who copied who? (Rax also often had blueberry shakes, which were delicious and extremely rare anywhere else.)
@@ptorq the blueberry shakes were good! I really don’t know who the copycat was, but that is an excellent question!
We have one of the Rax here in Lancaster, Ohio. I wasn't aware of how few there were. Used to see them more than Arby's when I was a kid.
“THERE AIN’T NO MO!” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I’m Mr Delicious and you have my apathy
I knew Rax wasn’t very popular, but I didn’t realize there were only 6 left! I’m an Ohioan and there are 2 Rax’s in my area which is pretty nuts considering that’s 1/3 of the entire franchise
Did that sign at the 6:09 mark really say starting pay was $16 an hour? I know what I see, but I find it so hard to believe that a fast food place payed that much back then. What fast food even pays that these days? They sure don’t where I live, anyway. I’ve seen some that pay above minimum wage, maybe $14 an hour, but $16 is crazy. Especially for when this took place. That’s insane.
That pics of the Illinois store, and only a couple years old. Rax as a company doesn't really exist anymore, but they're still around because one franchisee - Rich Donohue - bought what was left of the company instead of shutting down his restaurants 😆
Not all heroes wear capes.
Paid*
‘You can eat here.’
That’s the most insecure and desperate food slogan I think I’ve ever heard.
2:51 This to me sounds like the real reason they ended as a fast-food chain, and it is a classic sign of a business overextending themselves (and likely going into debt trying to do so).The commercial is merely a symptom of their overall dysfunction.
Mr. Delicious looks like a chacaricature of Jared Fogel.
Watching this at my local Rax rn
my son's name is also Bort
No way
As a member of GEN X… that commercial would have literally done nothing for me.
The commercial, it’s self, the animation, feels like it came out of the 70’s, and far from in a good way.
Mr. delicious would make the perfect spokesperson for what Mcdonalds has become now. Bland and boring... kinda like it. ahead of its time
McDonald's barely wants you ordering from a person, having those digital booths inside of them. It's pretty uninviting, even after the fact that I don't eat their food.
i learned that too many choices makes people can't choose. when people can't choose, people can't buy.
I am born in 1984 and never heard of this company.
🤣 I was born in 1978 and never heard of this food place either 🤷♂️
I was born in 1966 and never heard of this company. 🙃
I was born in 2001 and ive never heard of this
I LOVE how most of your stock photos of Rax are of the one in Joliet IL where I grew up and was my go to fast food. There is even an Arby like across the street from it and Rax is still the local favorite. Yeah, it doesn't have the salad bar, but I still go there, the locals still love it and its still beloved and talked about on the Joliet facebook page. It's a gem. I'm 36 and I've been eating there since I was a kid. ❤️ Rax over Arby's any day
lol I noticed that too. Still live there and have never been to our Rax. Gonna have to fix that 👍🏻
LMAO holy shit. Wow. I gotta say that today is the first time that I ever heard of Rax in my life.
I guess I can see why. I was a very young child in the early 90s, which is where the narrator says that the company became obscure.
That Mr. D character reminds me of something you would have seen as an adult cartoon on Comedy Central in the 90s.
“You can eat here” as a tagline for a restaurant would be like Co-Cola going with “Mostly carbonated water, okay to drink” or any car company going with “It’s got four wheels and it moves.”
Oh man, allow me to introduce you to "OK Soda." And yes, it was a Coka-Cola brand.
Rax was like an upper-middle class Arby’s. And unsurprisingly it went the way of America’s middle class.
“He’s a cartoon, and cartoons are mostly for those who wet their pants”
There’s no way this mf really said Animation is for kids before everyone else
I enjoyed Rax. I thought their "Stuffa-you-face" pasta promotion was pretty funny, I'm also Italian!
You mean you are an American who happens to have some Italian heritage? I hardly think that an Italian would find such degrading and disrespectable appropriation the least bit acceptable let alone humorous.
that does sound funny.
@@stevekov6740 Maybe some people in italy have a sense of humor
@@victorconway444 All americans do is mock things and persons different from they are all the time. ALL THE TIME! Our sense of humor is not to make others the subject of fun at expense of they or marginalize persons who are of the minority. Pleased to have explain how that is good humor.
@@stevekov6740Don’t Italians make fun of Milanese and Sicilians?
I absolutely loved the ad. Ahead of its time.
Mr. D reminds me of the straight talk mascot years ahead of his time
So you think Mr. D would be successful today?
I’m sorry I didn’t see this message until three days ago. I think he would be successful today because you have cartoons on adult swim that mimic this character and I work for Walmart that’s why I made that comment about the straight talk mascot because they kept playing the same stuff on their televisions in the store to try to get rid of Motorola phones that were not selling. But then again I’m gonna make up a joke. Maybe Walmart should resurrect this character and then that can be their mascot and let’s see how they do.
Rax sounds like the name of a company that cleans hotel carpets.
TBH I kinda like the ads.
We all like it
Hoping we can all say the same for McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell and similar others that America does not need......
So basically Rax went from being Arby's to Golden Corral 😂
I don’t think it’s so much nihilistic as it’s a existential crisis
I definitely miss the old, simple Rax Roast Beef sandwich and their excellent fries. Their roast beef was every bit as good as Arby's and all they had to do was not "complicate" the menu.
I'll never understand the "suits" who come in to a successful fast food restaurant then, wreck it by adding garbage nobody asked for or wanted and change the perfect foods that do not need changing...WENDY'S! IM LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU!
Wendy's was once my favorite American Burger place. They had the best, most tastiest beef patties and THE BEST FRENCH FRIES IN THE BUSINESS. That's right, I said it, Wendy's Fries were even better than McDonald's fries and that's saying something even if most people disagree.
As long as Dave Thomas was around Wendy's succeeded and thrived in a most competitive marketplace because of the simplicity and outstanding quality of their menu and Wendy's ORIGINAL French Fries were as important as their awesome burgers.
After Dave passed away some jackass in a suit decided they should change the Fries, probably to save a few pennies and thus began the slow, steady decline and ruination of my favorite Burger Place. Yes, the Fries are that important because together with the beef patties & Frosty they created their own unique "Flavor Profile". As soon as you change one of those items you change the entire Flavor Profile and not for the better.
And now Wendy's is doing breakfast.....and I don't give a ding-dang-doodly darn about that garbage. I'm from the 1970s, I'm fit, strong & healthful and I don't eat breakfast and I WANT MY SQUARE BURGER & MY ORIGINAL FRIES BACK!
So, thanks for nothing, Wendy's suits. You've ruined an American icon & destroyed the work & passion of Dave Thomas who gave us quality burgers & Fries & the Frosty. May your greed and lack of vision lead you where you deserve to be....jerks.
Execs don't understand......just make the food good! If people like the food, they'll come back.
Its not rocket science
As I’m watching the history of rax roast beef the moment things went downhill was the moment they tried being everything that’s what happens to most businesses they try to be everything and then it becomes a failure. The cartoon character of the commercials is actually pretty funny.
The way she exploded!! 🤣
😂
I used to really like Rax, but they disappeared from Indiana quite quickly. I think the takeaway here is that quirky, funny ads can be cute, but you've got to advertise the product. What an awful ad campaign.
I never heard of Rax, and was a teen in the 80s.
You didn't see any of their commercials?
Damn what state did u grow up in?
I dunno, Mr. D is pretty great. I think it's the name (sounds like a discount clothing store, maybe an offshoot of TJ Maxx) and the terribly dated signs.
Mr. D seems like a pervy.
He is
Say what you want about their business model and ad campaign, but those Rax BBQ sandwiches were *_incredible._* One day, I literally could not stop eating them. I ate about 8 or 10, and would've kept going if I didn't have some school function to attend. It wasn't just plain roast beef "sheets" like Arby's has. It was some sort of chopped brisket, _soaked in sweet BBQ sauce_ and slapped onto a fresh, soft, sesame seed bun (which would itself soon become soaked in sauce). Gah, if anyone here knows of another restaurant chain (preferably with a drive-thru) that makes that kind of sandwich, DO TELL. 😋 (...I'm near Kansas City)
Mr D reminds me of duckman as a human without the pizzazz or charm
So my childhood Wendys was previously an Rax, guessing from how it was built with that same glass roof in the front. It was our teen hang out spot when it rained, and we had to wait to walk home. Also seeing that drive thru menu was another confirmation and him saying they bought the company completed the mystery full circle. Thanks !!
I saw another video on this topic..........there were other forces behind the scenes working against Rax.
Good news: Well Rax, your Mr. D. ad campaign is hilarious.
Bad news: Not many people are going to get the joke for about a decade.
Rax! We have one of the last one's here in Joliet IL
Yes! It’s about 5 minutes from me, right on Jefferson. I haven’t tried them yet.
Ones*
They should have marketed the 1967 grand opening with the slogan
_‘You’ve heard of summer BBQ, well Rax Roastbeef is here to serve you through The Long Hot Summer’!_
and then it shows a hooded figure being shooed away from the patio
‘We don’t burn things black around here!’
So we gon' act like "There ain't no mo!" wasn't clever and hilarious?
0:31 I used to work at Rax restaurant on the turnpike in Vickery Ohio many years ago. They tore down the building where the Rax restaurant used to be. And it’s completely changed since then. They have many different restaurants there now.
First time ive ever even heard of Rax.
would you try it if you have a chance?
@@gzyly I'd definitely consider the idea, especially as it would be a unique experience I'd likely never get again.
Golly gee divorced depressed middle aged men who hate their lives really make me wanna spend my money on roast beef sandwiches!
Rax never operated in my area.
Great video. Please make more.
Thank you so much for the feedback
1. those six stores should band together and come up with a new logo that doesn't smell like secondhand tobacco
2. your channel name sounds like the brand of some generic power strip, wall shelf, or aftermarket vacuum cleaner part on amazon
3. your sticker cuts off the "mr. d" on his suitcase
a good video, thank you.
aw, you fixed the sticker
Take the Chick-fil-A lesson: take the thing you decide you’re going to do and do it your absolute best!
I always hear people say Mr D would work better nowadays, but I honestly disagree, it's basically "I hate my wife humor"
Nah The commercials were great and fit right in with Gen X culture. Rax failed because their food had no direction or identity of its own.
6:15- Given the dates of the bankruptcy and whatnot, that picture would of been taken circa 1992/3. So $16/hr pay is about $35 in 2024 dollars. That would be one of the big reasons they weren't making much profit.
I dunno, the logos on the billboard and the auto shop in the background look post-21st century to me. Like 2004-2005 to sometime in the 2010s.
Business 101: Never, ever, EVER alienate your core consumer base to chase another one.
Never heard of them!!