{"id":6006,"date":"2026-05-13T22:02:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=6006"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:02:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:02:53","slug":"joe-sedelmaier-who-created-memorable-wheres-the-beef-and-fedex-ads-dies-at-92","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=6006","title":{"rendered":"Joe Sedelmaier, who created memorable \u2018Where\u2019s the beef?\u2019 and FedEx ads, dies at 92"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joe Sedelmaier, the gifted, Chicago-based TV commercial director and creative force who shunned the coasts while producing iconic TV ads like the \u201cWhere\u2019s the beef?\u201d spots for Wendy\u2019s and the \u201cfast-talking guy\u201d for Federal Express died on May 8 at home in Lincoln Park.<\/p>\n

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The death, of natural causes, was confirmed by Sedelmaier\u2019s daughter-in-law, Anna Sedelmaier. He was 92.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so true to himself, and I do believe that showed in the work.\u00a0\u00a0And he enjoyed what he did, and that showed in the work,\u201d said Marsie Wallach, Sedelmaier\u2019s longtime executive producer.<\/p>\n

John Josef Sedelmaier was born in 1933 in Orrville, Ohio, the home of J.M. Smucker Co., maker of jams and jellies. He was raised in Orrville and then moved to Chicago, where he attended the University of Chicago before earning a bachelor\u2019s degree from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1955.<\/p>\n

Sedelmaier originally had dreamed of a career as a cartoonist.\u00a0\u00a0He soon shifted to advertising work by day, while making his own short films outside of work. He worked at the Young & Rubicam ad agency in Chicago from 1955 until 1961, followed by a three-year stint at the Clinton E. Frank agency and a role as an art director and producer at the J. Walter Thompson agency from 1964 until 1967. In those agencies, his family said, Sedelmaier felt like a cog in a big machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was working as art director and producer at the agencies and went to the studios in New York, the thing that bugged me the most was that the director wasn\u2019t in on the casting and whatever; he was just a little machine,\u201d Sedelmaier told the Tribune\u2019s Clifford Terry in 1979. \u201cI thought, \u2018When I get into it, I\u2019m gonna follow through all the way on a project.\u2019 You\u2019re gonna spend so much time in this business, you might as well have fun doin\u2019 it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1968, Sedelmaier started his own, now-defunct Chicago-based firm, Sedelmaier Film Productions Inc., located in studios in what was the old Chez Paree nightclub at 610 N. Fairbanks Court in Streeterville.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in New York said I was crazy, setting up shop in Chicago,\u201d he told the Tribune in 1979. \u201cBut I\u2019ve got a good lab \u2026 that gives us overnight services, and besides, I like living here. You can\u2019t bring up kids in Manhattan, and I\u2019m not a commuter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By the 1970s, Sedelmaier had built a national reputation for cranking out dozens of TV commercials a year, almost all of which were 30 seconds long. It was part of an industry trend toward shorter commercials, and Sedelmaier\u2019s value-add was to refine ad agencies\u2019 basic ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times people come to you and think you can save them, but you can do only so much,\u201d he told the Tribune in 1979. \u201cI\u2019ll add or change certain things, but never the concept.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sedelmaier produced local ads as well, including one in 1971 for WLS-Channel 7\u2019s \u201cEyewitness News\u201d team that depicted a fluffy competing newscast that had an empty-headed meteorologist named Wanda the Weather Bunny. With a background in comedy \u2014 it \u201ccomes naturally to me,\u201d he told the Tribune in 1977 \u2014 Sedelmaier had a knack for producing commercials with several layers of humor, including visual humor and at times, parodies of classic films.<\/p>\n

Sedelmaier\u2019s process worked \u2014 his firm won dozens of Clio awards (the Oscars of the TV commercial industry).<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat stood out the most is \u2026 the courage of his convictions,\u201d Wallach said. \u201cHe had a definite point of view, right? So if he thought something would work or not work, you did not push him around. He was like, this is it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sedelmaier also built a stable of unusual performers, sometimes through \u201cspontaneous inspiration,\u201d the Tribune wrote in 1977.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve never gone out looking for people,\u201d he told the Tribune in 1993. \u201cIt just happens, all different ways. I\u2019ve found people at neighborhood playhouses. Sometimes I have a waiter who looks interesting. One guy brought in a picture of his grandchildren, and they were nice-looking grandchildren, but I liked him. I said, \u2018You\u2019ve got a great face.\u2019\u201d Another time, my receptionist saw a guy in the supermarket, an architect, and told him he ought to stop by, and I used him in a lot of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sedelmaier\u2019s most famous casting discovery was Clara Peller, the Hyde Park manicurist and grandmother described in the Tribune in 1985 as a \u201cpint-sized woman with a 55-gallon drum of a voice.\u201d Sedelmaier saw Peller\u2019s raspy voice and spunky manner as ideal for certain TV spots, and he cast her in 10 Wendy\u2019s commercials starting in 1984, as well as in earlier ads for Mr. Coffee \u2014 in which she blew a trumpet \u2014 and for Jartran Truck Rental. Sedelmaier first began using Peller in the 1970s when he shot a commercial that showed the hands of a manicurist at work.<\/p>\n

The Wendy\u2019s spots \u2014 complete with Peller indignantly demanding \u201cWhere\u2019s the beef?\u201d while portraying a consumer outraged by competing fast-food chains\u2019 disappointingly small hamburger patties \u2014 were pure advertising gold. Wendy\u2019s officials attributed the commercials to increased corporate profits. The commercials also made the widowed Soviet immigrant and Belmont Hotel resident a cult figure and they also considerably elevated the national profile of Sedelmaier, who told the Tribune in 1984 that \u201cI\u2019ve never had anything like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another famed campaign was the \u201cFast-Paced World\u201d spot for Federal Express, in which a fast-talking man spews a lot of alliteration in the ad, saying, \u201cI know it\u2019s perfect, Peter, that\u2019s why I picked Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh\u2019s perfect, Peter, can I call you Pete?\u201d That commercial\u2019s star, actor John Moschitta Jr., was a fast-talking talent whom Sedelmaier had spotted on an episode of the TV show \u201cThat\u2019s Incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1982, Sedelmaier\u2019s agency won five Clios for its Federal Express work.\u00a0\u00a0Advertising Age magazine in 1998 named both \u201cWhere\u2019s the Beef?\u201d and \u201cFast-Paced World\u201d as two of the 50 best TV spots of the previous 50 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that you should want to stand out if you\u2019re trying to sell something,\u201d Sedelmaier told the Tribune in 1984. \u201cBut so many commercials don\u2019t. They\u2019d rather blend with the wallpaper.\u201d<\/p>\n