in restaurants inc. type private industry fast food founded 1986 ; 30 years ago 1986 as checker s mobile alabama u.s. 1985 1985 as rally s louisville kentucky u.s. 1999 1999 merger of checkers and rally s headquarters tampa florida number of locations 784 2014 1 products burgers hot dogs chicken fish hot wings french fries shakes soft drinks owner sentinel capital partners website www.checkers.com www.rallys.com checkers drive in restaurants inc. is one of the largest chains of double drive thru restaurants in the united states . the company operates checkers and rally s restaurants in 28 states and the district of columbia . they specialize in hamburgers hot dogs french fries and milkshakes . contents 1 history 2 image 3 menu 4 advertising and promotions 5 references 6 external links history edit originally separate companies serving different geographic areas with checkers serving the southeast and rally s serving the midwest checkers and rally s merged in august 1999 . the merged company is headquartered in tampa florida . checkers was founded in 1986 in mobile alabama by jim mattei and went public in 1991 . rally s was founded in louisville kentucky in 1985 . 2 in 1991 and 1992 rally s absorbed maxie s of america snapps drive thru and zipps drive thru . 3 in 1996 rally s was bought by cke restaurants parent company of carl s jr. and hardee s. cke sold rally s to checkers in 1999 . in june 2006 the company went private through a merger with taxi holdings corp. an affiliate of wellspring capital management a private equity firm . in 2014 wellspring sold checkers to another private equity firm sentinel capital partners . 4 image edit an exterior of a rally s in metairie la checkers and rally s had similar concepts being almost exclusively drive thru with very little seating . after the merger rally s began redesigning its restaurants to follow the checkers look . today checkers and rally s restaurants look nearly identical the only major difference being the name on the sign . checkers drive in originally a rally s taylor michigan the big buford burger menu edit checkers and rally s nutritional information is available through the company website . 5 advertising and promotions edit in 1991 a then unknown seth green starred in a rally s commercial giving life to the now famous cha ching interjection . 6 in the late 1990s there was a series of teaser commercials that featured a burger king burger on a rotating interior microwave oven and it featured old r & b tracks from the 1960s and 1970s in the background following a bleep cue to rally s advertising . one of the commercials even offered a chance to win a car . it showed a yellow car since the yellow car version of punch buggy was a big fad during this time . a similar advertising strategy for this fad was implemented into a taco bell commercial with as many as 20 or 30 yellow taxicabs in one camera shot . one of the first advertising campaigns by checkers and rally s featured the slogan high performance human fuel and ran from 1999 to late 2000 . the television advertisements for that campaign were animated in a anime style and featured a woman named holly in pursuit of fast food . the ads were created by crispin porter & bogusky 7 and illustrated by peter chung who was also responsible for the animation of c.o.p.s and ring raiders . 8 in september 2007 ml rogers an advertising agency won the advertising rights for checkers restaurants . they completely restructured the advertising campaign . among one of the many changes is their new slogan little place . big taste . which can be seen in commercials airing since october 2007 . 9 in 2007 the chain used a character called rap cat a stuffed animal cat who performs a rap song about the chain . the ad campaign became popular after it was posted on youtube becoming a viral video . 10 the company gave away paper bags patterned like a basketball jersey to be worn by cats with slots to cut out for the legs and tail and asked customers to post videos of their cat wearing it to a rap cat website . this received criticism from animal rights activists though checkers stated that the packaging was intended only as a creative extension of our television campaign . 11 12 in september 2014 they started to have a character called mr. bag a talking bag who appears in the new commercials for checkers and rally s. checkers restaurants in house marketing team is led by terri snyder chief marketing officer . references edit about checkers and rally s restaurants inc. . entrepreneur . 2014 . retrieved 19 august 2014 . history our story . rallyscompany.com . retrieved 19 august 2014 . http www.fundinguniverse.com company histories rally s history checkers rally s operator to be acquired by sentinel capital partners corporate content from nation s restaurant news . retrieved 2015 06 10 . checkers and rally s nutritional information pdf . snapps now rally s commercial from 1991 . youtube . 2007 12 21 . retrieved 2013 03 03 . new campaign hi performance human fuel restaurant news . qsr magazine . 2000 01 12 . retrieved 2013 03 03 . t.w. siebert 2000 01 17 . checkers rally s given toon up . adweek . retrieved 2013 03 03 . new advertising campaign . urstadt bryan . how rap cat made it into this headline . new york magazine . retrieved 1 january 2010 . varian bill 20 february 2007 . bag the cat uh promo might not be good idea . st petersburg times . retrieved 1 january 2010 . cebrzynski gregg 5 march 2007 . checkers rapcat raises issue of edginess in online promos . nation s restaurant news . retrieved 1 january 2010 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to rally s. official website checkers official website rally s v t e fast food and fast casual restaurant chains in the united states chicken chains coffeehouse chains pizza chains hamburgers a & w back yard big boy burger king carl s jr. checkers rally s cook out fatburger five guys freddy s fuddruckers the habit hardee s in n out jack in the box johnny rockets krystal mcdonald s roy rogers shake shack smashburger sonic steak n shake wayback wendy s whataburger white castle asian l & l hawaiian barbecue manchu wok panda express pei wei asian diner pick up stix sarku baked goods au bon pain auntie anne s bruegger s cinnabon corner bakery cafe dunkin donuts einstein bros. great american cookies honey dew donuts krispy kreme mrs. fields nestl toll house panera bread pretzelmaker pretzel time shipley do nuts tim hortons t.j. cinnamons wetzel s winchell s beverages argo tea biggby coffee caribou coffee bean & tea leaf coffee beanery dunn bros gloria jean s jamba juice juice it up orange julius peet s planet smoothie robeks seattle s best coffee smoothie king starbucks teavana tropical smoothie cafe tully s frozen desserts baskin robbins ben & jerry s braum s bruster s carvel cold stone culver s dairy queen dippin dots fosters freeze friendly s golden spoon graeter s h agen dazs handel s kiwi yogurt maggiemoo s marble slab menchie s pinkberry red mango rita s sweet frog tastee freez tcby tropical sno tutti frutti yogen fr z yogurtland hot dogs hot dog on a stick nathan s famous portillo s wienerschnitzel mexican style tex mex baja fresh cafe rio chipotle del taco el pollo loco freebirds green red burrito moe s pancheros qdoba rubio s taco bell taco bueno taco cabana taco del mar taco john s taco mayo taco time wahoo s fish taco noodles fazoli s noodles & company sandwiches arby s atlanta bread blimpie capriotti s charley s cos cousins d angelo daphne s erbert & gerbert s firehouse subs great wraps jason s jerry s subs jersey mike s jimmy john s lenny s sub mcalister s deli miami subs mr. hero newk s eatery penn station port of subs pdq potbelly quiznos rax runza sandella s schlotzsky s steak escape subway togo s tubby s tudor s biscuit world which wich seafood arthur treacher s captain d s h. salt esquire ivar s long john silver s skippers seafood & chowder house defunct bresler s ice cream brigham s burger chef carrols d lites druther s henry s hamburgers hot n now hot sam pretzels naugles red barn sandy s zantigo retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title checkers and rally % 27s & oldid 741605010 categories companies based in mobile alabamacompanies based in tampa floridaeconomy of the eastern united stateseconomy of the southwestern united statesfast food chains of the united statesrestaurant chains in the united statesregional restaurant chains in the united statesrestaurants established in 1985restaurants established in 1986restaurants established in 1999private equity portfolio companiesfast food hamburger restaurantsfast food franchises1986 establishments in alabamahidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameterscommons category with local link same as on wikidataofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views 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