Where's the Beef

Every person uses its own special words to describe things and express ideas. Some of these expressions are commonly used for many years. Others are popular for just a short time. One such American expression is "Where's the beef?" It is used when something is not as good as it is said to be. In the early 1960's, "Where's the beef?" was one of the most popular expressions in the United States. It seemed as if everyone was using it all the time. Beef, of course, is the meat from a cow, and probably no food is more popular in America than the hamburger made from beef. In the 1960's a businessman named Ray Kroc began building small restaurants that sold hamburgers at a low price. Kroc called his restaurant "McDonald's". Kroc cooked hamburgers quickly so people in a hurry could buy and eat them without waiting. By the end of the 1960's the McDonald's Company was selling hamburgers in hundreds of restaurants from California to Maine. Not surprisingly, Ray Kroc became one of the richest businessmen in America. Other business people watched his success. Some of them opened their own hamburger restaurants. One company, called Wendy's, began to compete with McDonald's. The Wendy's company said its hamburgers were bigger than those sold by McDonald's or anyone else's. The Wendy's company created the expression "Where's the beef?" to make people believe that Wendy's hamburgers were the biggest. It produced a television advertisement to sell this idea. The Wendy's television advertisement showed three old women eating hamburgers. The bread that covered the meat was very big, but inside there was only a tiny bit of meat. One of the women said she would not eat a hamburger with such a little piece of beef. "Where's the beef?" she shouted in a funny voice. These advertisements for Wendy's hamburger restaurants were a success from the first day they appeared on television. As we said, it seemed everyone began using the expression "Where's the beef?"