“Tickadeedee!”
Rax Roast Beef (originally known as JAX Roast Beef) is a chain of fast food restaurants in the US, specializing in roast beef sandwiches. At one point, they were the main competitor to Arby's, with more than 500 locations in 38 states. By the time the 80s rolled around, however, Rax tried diversifying things — adding new menu items like pizza, Chinese food, tacos, a salad bar, etc.; as well as redesigning its restaurants. This seeming identity crisis only served to turn away Rax's primarily working class customer base, resulting in profits plummeting.By August 1992, the chain had fallen far from grace and into obscurity. So, as a last-ditch effort to bring back their lost customers, a new advertising mascot was created. That mascot was Mr. Delicious, a monochromatic middle-aged divorcee who hated his life but loved going to Rax. The nihilistic tone of the ads was meant to appeal to Gen X humor, but instead ended up driving away Rax's remaining customers, most of whom were baby boomers. Far from saving Rax's hide, it was a nail in the coffin: the chain filed for bankruptcy three months after the ads premiered. After a failed restructuring that led to a second bankruptcy declaration in 1996, and the Rax brand getting passed around through several owners over the next few decades, only five locations currently remain (three in Ohio and one each in Illinois and Kentucky).note
As for Mr. D himself, he appeared in three
TV ads and three radio ads before being retired. Rax even made a mini-documentary about him. This video provides some context for the story of Mr. Delicious (for one thing, Rax had a long history of hokey, cringy advertising) and some comments from former CEO Bill Underhill reflecting on what happened.
The Mr. Delicious ads contain examples of:
- The Alcoholic: While not drunk on screen or seen drinking, it is implied he is a heavy drinker, as he says Rax is a perfect place to go with a hangover, after "2-for-1 night at the Rusty Anchor", which his wife Mrs. Delicious disapproves of.
- Animation Age Ghetto: Invoked by Mr. D himself in his introductory ad. He believes the viewer will pass him off as immature because he's animated but he assures that he's a "special cartoon for adults".Mr. D: I know what you're thinking; "He's a cartoon, and cartoons are mostly for people who wet their pants." But not Mr. D, he's a special cartoon for adults.
- Awful Wedded Life: Mrs. Delicious seems to be the second woman Mr. D has married, but it seems to be going just as awfully as the first. For example, in one of the still ads, Mr. D says: "If you tasted Mrs. Delicious' cooking, you'd be eating at Rax every day, too!"
- Berserk Button: "Mr. Delicious doesn't appreciate unnecessary commotion while he's eating. It brings out the dangerous hostile side in Mr. D. At least, that's what his analyst says."
- Black Comedy: Much of the humor of the commercials comes from Mr. D talking about how depressing his life is.
- Captain Obvious: The slogan accompanying the ads is "Rax: You Can Eat Here".
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- In one TV ad, Mr. D brings us this beauty: "Mr. Delicious just had some rather delicate surgery. If there's no change, he doesn't have to squirm too much to put it back in his pocket, now does he? He just grabs his combo and drives ever so slowly over the speed bump." Any guesses as to where exactly he got that "rather delicate surgery"?note
- In one of the radio ads, Mr. D alludes to a vacation he took to Bora Bora during his midlife crisis, accompanied by "two young...friends". No points for guessing what he means by that.
- Double Entendre: The ad about the Rax value menu contains a couple of these:
- "Did you that that value menu at Rax features lots of adult-sized delectables for only 99 cents?"
- "Mr. Delicious is, well, a little overextended."
- Drowning My Sorrows: In the third radio ad, Mr. Delicious alludes to spending a lot of time at a bar called the Rusty Anchor, something Mrs. Delicious doesn't approve of. With the kind of man Mr. D is, it's no wonder why he goes there so much.
- The Eeyore: While he's not over-the-top with his mopey nature, "depressed" and "dour" are certainly not words you would've ever thought to associate with a fast food mascot.
- The Everyman: In the mini-doc, Rax's president described Mr. D as someone who shares the same problems as the average person, and "casts them in a humorous and enjoyable light". For a given definition of the words "humorous" or "enjoyable", anyway.
- Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: Mr. D had one in 1989, that involved buying (and later returning) a Porsche, getting custom hair weaves and attempting to get a refund for them, putting a disco ball in his basement, and a vacation to Bora Bora with two young..."friends".
- Lampshade Hanging: In his very first ad, Mr. D points out the contradiction of using a cartoon like him to advertise a supposedly mature restaurant."I know what you're thinking: 'He's...a cartoon. And cartoons are mostly for people who wet their pants.' But not Mr. D. He's a special cartoon for adults."
- Limited Animation: The animation on the TV ads is barely a notch above Clutch Cargo.
- Mockumentary: The minidoc, which talks about how Mr. Delicious was created and features loads of interviews with people talking about how great he is (presumably Rax customers who got paid to praise him).
- Our Slogan Is Terrible: When a restaurant has a slogan like "You Can Eat Here", you really can't help but wonder what they were thinking.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: It's unknown whether or not this was intentional but Mr. D's appearance, voice, and self-deprecating humor makes him resemble a sadder, slower Rodney Dangerfield.
- Non-Indicative Name: Mrs. Delicious, if Mr. Delicious' comment on her cooking is anything to go by.
- Parody: Mr. D was intended to be a parody of your typical fast food mascot. While somebody like Ronald McDonald or The Burger King was bright, colorful, and more than happy to shill their restaurant's food, Mr. D was dull, monochromatic, and seemed to talk more about his sad personal life than Rax's roast beef sandwiches.
- Real Men Wear Pink: One radio commercial revealed that Mr. Delicious enjoys reading Harlequin romance novels with his meal. Rax's former CEO said that he got complaints from his franchisees in rural areas that Mr. Delicious was too effeminate.
- Riddle for the Ages: What's inside Mr. D's briefcase? In his introductory ad he teases the audience saying he's always carrying it and you'll have to find out what's in it by seeing him at Rax.
- Sell-Out: Mr. D says in the second TV ad that he feels like he's becoming one."Y'see, Mr. Delicious is, well, a little overextended. Perhaps the Rax executives aren't playing him enough to compromise his integrity. On the other hand, you can't eat integrity, but you certainly can eat a hearty roast beef sandwich for 99 cents."
- Signing Off Catchphrase: “Tickadeedee!”, which Mr. D uses at the end of each ad.
- Take That!: One of the still ads says, "Mr. Delicious prefers eating at Rax because big clowns and bright yellow formica upset his stomach!", an obvious jab at McDonald's.
- Tempting Fate: In the minidoc, the president of Rax keeps talking up Mr. D as someone who will redefine the company's image, while the marketing executive says he'll "go down as one of the classic characters of advertising history". Needless to say, neither of those things happened.
- Third-Person Person: Mr. Delicious almost always refers to himself as "Mr. Delicious".
- Unbuilt Trope:
- Fast food chains doing unorthodox advertising centered around quirky humor became commonplace by the 2010s, with Kentucky Fried Chicken doing a series of commercials with a rotating set of actors playing Colonel Sanders, and sponsoring a visual novel and a soapy short film that aired on Lifetime with Sanders as a lead character, plus Arby's having a long campaign with Ving Rhames doing oddball voiceover monologues (and a shorter one with H. Jon Benjamin as the chain's supposed "Head of Sandwiches"). Had he debuted in 2018 or so, Mr. Delicious would've fit perfectly in that trend, but he was just flat-out bizarre and creepy in 1992.
- Mr. Delicious also anticipated two of the more infamous marketing failures from later in the decade: Coca-Cola's OK Soda, which had advertising based on a similarly offbeat, deadpan sensibility, and McDonald's' Arch Deluxe burger, which was similarly centered on a "fast food for adults" theme.
- Unmoving Plaid: The plaid on Mr. Delicious' suit jacket is a flat texture, and it stays still as he moves in his TV spots.
- We Don't Suck Anymore: A major purpose of the ads was to market Rax as a "more mature dining environment" than most restaurants, as well as more mature than it had been in the past. One might say that Mr. D came off as a little too mature for most people...
- What Were They Selling Again?: Mr. D talks about himself and his personal life so much that you'd be forgiven for forgetting what his commercials were for in the first place.
- TV Tropes: You Can Trope Here.
