Born May 31, 1933 in Orrville, Ohio Sedelmaier graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago.
He began his career as an Art Director for the advertising agencies of Young and Rubicam and J. Walter Thompson in Chicago. During these years Sedelmaier produced and directed the short films \\\"Mrofnoc\\\" and \\\"Because That\\\'s Why\\\" that won numerous awards and honors, including the London Film Festival (top award for outstanding short subject), the San Francisco Film Festival (Golden Gate Award), and Mannheim Film Festival (Golden Ducat).
Starting his own production company in 1967, Sedelmaier built an international reputation for his highly prized direction of humorous television commercials for such clients as Federal Express (including the \\\"Fast Talking Man\\\"), Alaska Airlines, Mr.Coffee, Aamco, Avis (Great Britain), Tang (France), and the creation of the famous \\\"Where\\\'s The Beef\\\" commercial for Wendy\\\'s.
Sedelmaier’s commercial work has garnered countless Clio awards, Gold Lions (Cannes), and numerous awards from the One Show, Chicago Film Festival (Golden Hugo), the Art Directors of New York, Communication Arts, Britain’s D&AD, the Hollywood MBA —and In 2000 he was inducted into The New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. His film Open Minds was an official selection in the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. Joe Sedelmaier was the subject of “Point of View: A Retrospective” in 2009. This coming April, 2016 Sedelmaier will be inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Fame.
Additional—as listed in Wikipedia
“As TV commercials crowded and cluttered the programming environment, agencies sought \\\"breakthrough techniques,\\\" creative ways to stop viewers in their tracks and engage them during commercial breaks. Enter Joe Sedelmaier. A successful Y&R and JWT art director-producer who opened a film production studio in 1967, he developed clutter-cracking commercials that featured the most unlikely, off-beat, one-of-a-kind non-actors and broke new ground. Sedelmaier\\\'s zaniness was evident in his work for Wendy\\\'s, (\\\"Where\\\'s the beef?\\\") and Federal Express (\\\"Fast talker\\\"), creating public and industry cutting-edge \\\"buzz.\\\"
( From Advertising Age\\\'s list of the top 100 players whose impact helped shape the course of advertising history ).
Sedelmaier is recognized as the director of some of television’s best known, and most honored commercials through humourous spots like Fed Ex’s \\\"Fast Talking Man\\\" and Wendy’s \\\"Where\\\'s the beef?\\\". \\\"Beginning in the 1970s, Sedelmaier gained notice for fundamentally changing the way television spots were cast and filmed. He replaced the actors who seemed too plastic, too perfect mannequins with offbeat people like Clara Peller. He directed them in a manner—doing for television what directors like Preston Sturges did for Hollywood comedies,\\\"
Stuart Elliott, New York Times.