The Man Behind the Smile:
Franklin Park’s 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 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,
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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.