Cliff and his team produced Eat’n Park’s famous slogan,
which is still used to this day: “The Place for Smiles.”
The Man Behind the Smile:
Dormont High School Alum
Cliff Miller
By Jennifer Brozak
A
sk any area child what he or she
enjoys most about Eat’n Park
restaurants, and the answer will likely
be, “Smiley!”
Smiley, the beloved mascot of the
Pittsburgh-area restaurant chain, has been
spreading joy to children and their parents
for nearly a quarter of a century, thanks to
Franklin Park’s Cliff Miller.
Miller, 66, is the newly retired vice
president of creative services for the Eat’n
Park Hospitality Group. Although only
officially part of the Eat’n Park family since
1997, his work for the company dates back
nearly five decades.
Miller’s relationship with Eat’n Park
began in the late 1970s. At the time, he was
employed by an agency that was managing
the restaurant’s advertising campaigns. That
agency, Creamer, Inc., created Eat’n Park’s
32 724.942.0940 TO ADVERTISE | Keystone Oaks
very first radio commercial, which aired in the
early 1980s.
Miller, who graduated from Dormont High
School in 1967, continued his relationship
with Eat’n Park, albeit at a different agency,
Ketchum, Inc., throughout the 1990s. In his
first month on the job as Ketchum’s creative
director, he met with Basil Cox, Eat’n Park’s
former president, to discuss future plans.
While eating breakfast with Cox at the
Robinson Township location, Miller noticed a
small line at the bottom of the menu that read,
“Free Smiley cookie to children under 12.”
Says Miller, “I asked, ‘So you give every
child a free cookie?’ Basil said, ‘Yes.’ So, I
asked if I could see one. I was expecting a
small, 50-cent-piece-sized cookie. Instead,
they came out with this giant cookie and I
said to Basil, ‘This is the cookie? And you’re
not promoting it?’”
He explained to Cox that the Smiley cookie
could be Eat’n Park’s “advertising critter.”
“I told him, ‘This is your Mr. Peanut. Your
Jolly Green Giant. Your Mickey Mouse. I’m
going to make Smiley famous,’” says Miller
with a laugh.
He drew an image of the cookie and says
he started adding it to every promotional
item the company produced: menus,
advertisements, table tents and more.
“Smiley made our guests happy,” says
Miller. “He became popular very quickly.”
In July of 1991, Miller and his team
produced Eat’n Park’s famous slogan, which is
still used to this day: “The Place for Smiles.”
“I’m very happy that Smiley took off the
way he did,” says Miller. “He’s been an integral
part of the restaurant ever since.”
In 1993, Miller introduced the Smiley
mascot, a life-size representation of the