Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Burger Chef Ad – October 5, 1971

Hamburgers used to rule the fast-food world, but times have changed.

These days, it’s impossible to find a simple ‘hamburger' even listed on the giant McDonald’s digital menu board, as the classic fast food item has been crowded out by more exotic (and expensive) offerings. 

I often wonder how many hamburgers are even ordered there these days? 

Anyway, back in 1971, hamburgers were still king, and the burger barons – McDonald’s, Burger King, Sandy’s, Casey's and Burger Chef – were all battling it out in Lorain.

Burger Chef seemed to run the most ads in the Journal, and here’s one of them. It ran in the paper on October 5, 1971 – fifty years ago this month.

The theme of the ad is giving mothers a break from cooking on Wednesdays, with specially priced Burger Chef burgers on that night. It’s a great idea, and I’m sure it drummed up business on perhaps what was normally a slow weekday.

Nowadays, of course, eating out is something that happens several times a week for many families, and every day for some people.
But fifty years ago, like I’ve mentioned many times on this blog, having food from McDonald’s or Sandy’s was a rare treat for us, something that only happened when Mom and Dad were going out to eat themselves with some friends. Then they would ask my siblings and me what we would like, and Dad would be dispatched (like a true food gatherer) to pick it up.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And now thanks to the virus,people can't even go in a fast food place anymore.Do to a staff shortage because of the virus,people have to order their food at the drive thru window and eat it in their car.The old style car hops like the Hoop would be making a killing now.

Mark said...

Love Burger Chef - it was my favorite. There used to be one in vermilion, near where Burger King use to be. I believe it burned down in the 80's and that's when Burger King was built.

Anonymous said...

"Take Mom out of the kitchen" - Pretty sure you can't say that anymore. Get yourself cancelled.

-Alan D Hopewell said...

Well, down here we've got Sonic and Whataburger, not to mention a ton of mom and pop places that do dynamite burgers.
We just got back from Sonic, where my daughter's dog Monroe gets his weekly cheeseburger.

Anonymous said...

It's neat that Lorain's getting a FIVE GUYS burger location, currently being constructed in front of Meijer!

Dan Brady said...

It is impressive, although I'm more excited about the Chick-fil-A going in there too. I could never get my money’s worth at Five Guys because I like my burgers with nothing on them at all. Plus I like my burgers medium rare – something not available at Five Guys.

On the other hand, I’ve tried every fast food restaurant’s chicken sandwich and the classic Chick-fil-A sandwich is the best; no other one comes close in taste, even the ones (like McDonald’s) that shamelessly copied it right down to the pickles and wrapper.