Where's the beef?
Where's the beef? (German "Where is the meat?") is an American idiom and has its origins in a commercial for the fast food chain Wendy's .
The spot first ran on January 10, 1984 on American commercial television . It was designed by Cliff Freeman for the Dancer Fitzgerald Sample agency and directed by Joe Sedelmaier . Three elderly women stand at a table and inspect an oversized hamburger . While two of the women praise its size, the rolls, etc., the viewer notices that there is no meat in the hamburger. The third of the older women, played by Clara Peller , then asks incessantly: “Where's the beef?” Clara Peller, who Sedelmaier discovered by chance as a manicurist because of her deep voice, became famous through this spot.
The phrase was quickly used in everyday life in the 1980s to question what looked promising at first glance. In the presidential election campaign in 1984 he found its way into American politics and political language, as during the presidential code Democrat Walter Mondale in a televised debate his rival candidates on March 11, 1984 Gary Hart said: "When I hear your new ideas I'm Reminded of that ad, 'Where's the beef?' ”(When I hear about your new ideas , I think of the Where is the meat? advertisement ). Among other things, journalists used the phrase during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary election between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama . In the episode In the Beginning was the Word of the American cartoon series The Simpsons , Homer shows his family an old newspaper article (from the day Lisa's birth) with the headline saying referring to the debate between Mondale and Hart. Bart is rather irritated by this and does not understand the saying.
Web links
- commercial
- Stuart Elliott: After 27 Years, an Answer to the Question, 'Where's the Beef?' In: The New York Times , September 25, 2011.
supporting documents
- ↑ Linda Seger: Creating Unforgettable Characters. Holt, New York 1990, p. 25 .
- ↑ Elizabeth M. Knowles: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. 5th edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1999, p. 526 ; Mondale to Hart: "Where's The Beef?" Video. In: C-Span .org , June 24, 2012.
- ↑ Mort Condracke: Post-NH, Obama Needs to Answer 'Where's the Beef?' In: RealClearPolitics , January 20, 2008.
- ↑ see [1]