The Ridiculous Number Of Commercials The Wendy's Founder Starred In
Wendy's has been serving burgers, fries, and its iconic Frostys to customers for more than 50 years. The fast-food chain first got its start in 1969, when founder Dave Thomas opened a single location at 257 East Broad Street in Columbus, Ohio, according to Wendy's.
Ever since he was a child, Thomas dreamed of owning and operating a restaurant. As an adult, he opened a burger restaurant to fill the gap he saw in the fast-food market, which was then focused mainly on appealing to children, by targeting young adults who wanted high-quality beef and toppings at a slightly higher price point. Thomas named his new business "Wendy's" after his eight-year-old daughter, Melinda Lou, who was given the nickname "Wendy" because her siblings couldn't properly pronounce her real name, according to CNN.
After just one year, Wendy's grew successful enough for founder Dave Thomas to open a second location in Columbus in 1970, according to Ohio History Central. As the years went on, Thomas grew his company internationally, operating 500 locations across the United States and Canada by 1976, according to Money Inc. By 1979, operations had expanded to Mexico, and by the 1980s, there were around 500 new Wendy's restaurants each year. Finally, in 1982, Thomas retired from the company he founded. However, Wendy's wasn't quite ready to let him go just yet.
Thomas starred in hundreds of Wendy's commercials
Wendy's continued success likely had something to do with its 1984 advertising campaign. Clara Peller was the star behind Wendy's "Where's the Beef" ad campaign. For a little over a year, she gruffly asked where the beef was in competitors' burgers. However, she had her question answered when she took an offer from Prego spaghetti sauce to star in one of its commercials. In the Prego ad, Peller announced that she had "finally found the beef," according to Money Inc. Wendy's was none too happy to hear that its spokeswoman was using the company catchphrase to promote another brand, and she was fired, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Following the advertising mishap, Wendy's roused its founder out of retirement. The company launched a new ad campaign in 1989, this one featuring Dave Thomas in the starring role. Thomas became the new face of Wendy's television commercials, starring as a relatable, folksy figure in the brand's new ads. He appeared in more than 800 television commercials, making him one of the most recognizable spokespeople in the country, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
In 2002, at the age of 69, Thomas died from liver cancer, bringing an end to his beloved commercial campaign. However, he holds the Guinness World Record for the highest number of television commercial appearances made by a company founder, according to Guinness World Records.
The real-life Wendy appeared in Wendy's ads, too
Not one to be left out of the family business, Melinda Lou "Wendy" Thomas starred in several Wendy's commercials beginning in 2010, per Eater. While Wendy's founder Dave Thomas died in 2002, his daughter is carrying on the legacy of her namesake restaurant chain. Before her father's death, Wendy Thomas also owned several Wendy's franchises; she sold them in 1999, per Bloomberg.
Still, Thomas shared in a Wendy's blog post in 2019 that her father regretted naming the restaurant after her because of the "pressure" it put on her (via People).
Today, Wendy's, with its iconic pig-tailed mascot, is the third-largest fast-food burger chain in the world, with just under 7,000 locations worldwide and a net annual income of more than $200 million, according to Statista. Dave Thomas isn't around to star in the chain's commercials anymore, but his legacy lives on.