Sarah Michelle Gellar Got Sued By a Massive Burger Chain at 5 Years Old
Long before she was Buffy, Sarah Michelle Gellar was a child star, landing commercial gigs. The star has had many prominent roles since then, so it’s unlikely most think of her for her Burger King ad. But it certainly made an impact on the actor. Gellar recounts how she was sued by a competitor at just 5 years old.
McDonald’s sued 5-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar for her Burger King commercial
One of the first campaign ads Gellar did was for Burger King back in 1981. The commercial caused the 5-year-old to get into some legal trouble.
“I was the first person to say another competitor’s name in a job,” the star told Buzzfeed. “[They] turned around and sued the advertising agency, Burger King, and me at five!”
In the ad, the young Gellar is seen sitting on a bench outside a Burger King restaurant, where she tells the audience that McDonald’s must think that she is 20% smaller because, “when I order a regular burger at McDonald’s, they make it with 20% less meat than Burger King.”
She goes on to say that she shows McDonald’s how she feels by going to Burger King.
This was the first time that a company used a competitor’s name in a negative light in a television commercial.
According to Gellar, the lawsuit was settled out of court.
Sarah Michelle Gellar went on to be a big star
Fortunately, the incident with McDonald’s did not hinder Gellar’s career.
She had roles in some TV movies and series in the early 1980s, but her breakout role was as Kendall Hart on the ABC soap All My Children. Gellar received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series for the part of Erica Kane’s long-lost daughter.
She left the daytime drama and went on to star as Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Both the series and Gellar were huge hits and gained international recognition. Throughout the show’s seven seasons, the actor began to capitalize on her fame with some film work.
Gellar starred in movies such as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, Cruel Intentions, Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and The Grudge. In the years since, she’s also starred in a handful of short-lived TV shows, including the CW drama Ringer and the sitcom The Crazy Ones opposite Robin Williams.
Gellar’s latest project is the new Paramount Plus series, Wolf Pack. She plays arson specialist Kristin Ramsey in the werewolf drama. The show is based on the book series of the same name by Edo Van Belkom.
Sarah Michelle Gellar co-founded her own food company
Though she has many titles to her name, Gellar took some time off from acting. A far cry from her fast food beginnings, she got into the health food market with her company, Foodstirs. She co-founded the brand in 2015.
Foodstirs is a “junk-free” bakery that produces baking kits, mixes, and baked treats, which they sell online, by subscription, or in retail stores. Everything they make is organic, non-GMO, and has no artificial preservatives, flavors, or colors. However, the website is now defunct.
