Sarah Michelle Gellar found herself entangled in a legal dispute involving McDonald’s after appearing in a brief commercial for a rival fast-food chain.
Famous for her roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scooby-Doo, and I Know What You Did Last Summer, Gellar made her television debut at the age of 5 in 1981, which ended up causing quite a commotion.
This controversy wasn’t due to Gellar’s performance—she was quite charming in the commercial—but because she made a critical remark about McDonald’s while featuring in an ad for a competitor.
While it is now commonplace for companies to critique one another, this wasn’t always the norm.
The words spoken by Gellar in the commercial certainly stirred things up at McDonald’s.
In the vintage Burger King advertisement, young Gellar remarked: “Do I look 20 percent smaller to you? I must to McDonald’s.
“When I order a regular burger at McDonald’s, they make it with 20 percent less meat than Burger King, unbelievable.
“Luckily, I know the perfect way to show McDonald’s how I feel, I go to Burger King.”
The scene then shifted to display the Burger King store behind Gellar, accompanied by the company’s jingle of that era, closing out the ad.
Gellar recounted her involvement in the lawsuit during a conversation with Buzzfeed UK, saying: “This is really funny. This was this big campaign that I did for Burger King and I was 5.
“And I was the first person to say another competitor’s name in a job, and so McDonald’s turned around and sued the advertising agency, Burger King, and me at 5.”
In 1982, McDonald’s filed a lawsuit against Burger King, the ad agency J. Walter Thompson, and specifically named Gellar as the star of multiple commercials in what it claimed was a ‘false, deceptive, disparaging, unfair and misleading’ campaign.
The lawsuit was eventually settled, resulting in the removal of the commercials from broadcast.
Gellar has also shared how this incident affected her childhood, mentioning that her visits to McDonald’s became infrequent afterwards.
She told the Sunday Express in 2004: “Banned is a strong word [but] I wasn’t allowed to eat there. It was tough because, when you’re a little kid, McDonald’s is where all your friends have their birthday parties, so I missed out on a lot of apple pies.”
However, with the lawsuit now behind, Gellar is free to enjoy McDonald’s whenever she pleases, and it’s likely she’s savoring every moment.
UNILAD has reached out to McDonald’s for a statement.