5 Fast Food Ads From The 1980s That Will Make Every Millennial’s Mouth Water

Before social media influencers and viral TikTok food reviews, restaurants had to get creative with their television advertising. That meant catchy jingles, ridiculous characters, celebrity appearances, and plenty of close-up shots of burgers, fried chicken, and tacos. 

Videos by Sporked

Some of these commercials were so good that people still remember their catchphrases decades later. 

McDonald’s McDLT Commercial Featuring Jason Alexander (1985) 

Before Jason Alexander became widely recognized for playing George Costanza on Seinfeld, he was dancing around in a McDonald’s commercial trying to convince Americans to buy a hamburger. And it was quite a performance.

The 1985 commercial promoted the McDLT, a McDonald’s burger designed to solve a problem that anyone who enjoys lettuce and tomato on their burger understands: nobody wants cold vegetables warming up against a hot beef patty.

The commercial featured Alexander singing and dancing through an upbeat musical number explaining the burger’s selling point. Its packaging kept the hot components on one side and the cold ingredients on the other. Customers could then put the two halves together when they were ready to eat.

The sandwich featured a quarter-pound beef patty, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and the usual burger toppings. The memorable advertising message revolved around keeping the hot ingredients hot and the lettuce and tomato cool and crisp.

The commercial made something as ordinary as burger packaging entertaining.

Wendy’s ‘Where’s The Beef?’ (1984) 

Few fast food commercials have managed to leave a mark quite like Wendy’s ‘Where’s the Beef?’ ad. Released in January 1984, the commercial featured three older women examining a burger from a fictional restaurant called Home of the Big Bun. The burger had an enormous, fluffy bun but a ridiculously small beef patty. One of the women, played by actress Clara Peller, couldn’t understand why there was so little meat and repeatedly demanded to know where the beef was.

The commercial was created by advertising director Joe Sedelmaier and his team at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample. Peller’s delivery was so memorable that the question quickly became part of everyday American conversation. It also found an unexpected second life in politics. During the 1984 presidential primaries, Walter Mondale famously used the phrase against rival Gary Hart to question the substance behind his campaign promises.

I think what made the commercial particularly good is how simple the idea was. Wendy’s didn’t need a celebrity chef or an elaborate food presentation. It showed a burger with barely any meat and let viewers draw their own conclusions.

Taco Bell’s ‘Make a Run for the Border’ (1988)

Taco Bell took a very different approach to fast food advertising in 1988. Instead of relying on a catchy song or a funny character, the chain decided that getting lunch should feel like an action movie. 

Its ‘Make a Run for the Border’ campaign featured 11 commercials filled with stunts, wild adventures, and plenty of dramatic moments. The idea was to make an ordinary decision about where to eat feel like an exciting mission.

One of the commercials followed two young office workers looking for something to eat. They suddenly found themselves in an adventure involving a moving cattle car, a railway signal, a horse trailer, and galloping ponies. Their mission? Make it to Taco Bell for lunch.

KFC’s ‘We Do Chicken Right’ (1980s)

There was no shortage of burger commercials in the 1980s, but KFC made sure fried chicken got its share of television attention, too.

The chain’s ‘We Do Chicken Right’ campaign became one of its defining advertising messages during the decade. The slogan was originally developed by the advertising agency Mingo-Jones for a campaign aimed at Black consumers before being adopted more widely by KFC around 1981–1982.

The commercials generally focused on the Colonel, the restaurant’s identity, and its chicken rather than promoting one particular sandwich or limited-time menu item. This was a different approach from what many fast food restaurants were doing at the time, with KFC leaning heavily on its established reputation for fried chicken.

Domino’s ‘Avoid the Noid’ (1986)

Pizza delivery commercials can get pretty boring when all they do is show someone opening a box and enjoying a slice. Domino’s found a much more entertaining way to promote its delivery service in 1986 by introducing a character who wanted to ruin everyone’s dinner.

So then came the Noid, a little red claymation villain whose main purpose was to sabotage Domino’s pizzas. He would try to crush pizza boxes, ruin deliveries, and find all sorts of ways to stop customers from enjoying their meals.

The chain’s solution was simple: ‘Avoid the Noid.’

Domino’s officially identifies 1986 as the year the character first appeared on television. The Noid quickly became one of the brand’s most recognizable advertising characters, representing all the things that could go wrong with a pizza delivery.

The character also had impressive staying power. Domino’s brought him back in 2021 to promote its autonomous pizza delivery testing with Nuro’s R2 robot. That’s quite a comeback for a villain who first appeared in the 1980s.