It’s great to have a spokesperson. Once you find the person who… well… personifies your brand, hold onto him or her. Give him or her whatever he or she wants. And by all means, keep him or her alive.
This is the lesson of Wendy’s. For years, Wendy’s was Dave Thomas. Dave Thomas was Wendy’s. Awkward at first, but lovable ‘til the end, Dave Thomas made Wendy’s feel like a great place to get a good meal at a good price brought to you by good people.
Soon after Thomas’ death in 2002, both Wendy’s and its advertising floundered. They floundered and floundered and floundered. Campaign after campaign flopped. Fuh-lopped. At one point, it got so bad that they resurrected Dave Thomas. Not literally, of course (though that would be way cool. I’d buy burgers from a zombie Dave Thomas). No, they showed archival footage of the man while the VO says something like “It’s like Dave always said….” Criminal.
Nine years and some 14 campaigns later, Wendy’s still has yet to find it.
All this begs the question: Are the spots that bad or does Wendy’s suffer from some sort of contrast effect? It could be that when compared to the Dave Thomas spots that could only be described as “nice,” any commercial would suck. Maybe it’s time for the fast-food company to take a step back and do nothing for a minute, just gather themselves and figure out where to go next. Or more realistically, they should probably fire their ad agency and have somebody else take them in a new direction, one that doesn’t involve the madcap mayhem that the brand has become known for over the past nine years.
But more than that, this should probably serve as a cautionary tale. This should make other companies rethink the idea of even trying a spokesperson. Who knows when that person will die? Who knows when that person will show up on TMZ having a coked-out ragefest in some Manhattan bar? Instead of trying to recreate the success of a “nice” spokesperson campaign, perhaps it’s best not to have started. With the right product, great advertising can mean great success.
The same company that was winning awards and seeing unprecedented growth in the 80s with the “Where’s the Beef” campaign could be doing the same today with the right work. And perhaps that would help the struggling QSR be a little less struggle-y.
Where’s the beef, indeed.
**I wrote the above post a year ago and forgot to publish it. Since then, Wendy’s has come out with a new “Where’s the Beef” commercial. Mercifully they didn’t try to resurrect Clara Peller. That campaign ran its course, and two weeks ago Wendy’s aired two spots almost back to back (one new, one old). In the first, they have a young, attractive, perky redhead (presumably representing the living embodiment of Wendy herself), named Morgan Smith Goodwin, popping up in the back seat of a car with two surprised dudes in the front deciding what they want for lunch. That’s great. She’s got a wonderful personality and looks like someone I’d love to sit down to share a sack of fries with. Any campaign involving her would have legs (no pun intended; that’s what we in the biz call a campaign that is ripe with potential). I look forward to good things from the campaign. Of course, in the next commercial (or more likely on a different channel; I do flip around a lot), they had the real Wendy (a not-quite-so-young, not-quite-so-attractive, not-even-remotely-perky redhead) reprising the role of folksy spokesperson formerly play by her father. It’s almost worse than Geico and Progressive who at any given time are running three or four conflicting campaigns each.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uT2dCeyehw[/youtube]