Ads Gone Bad: Wendy’s gets a tiny high on inhalant controversy
Posted by: in Marketing and AdvertisingFiled under: Marketing and advertising
This post is part of our Ads Gone Bad series. Share your thoughts and memories of this ad in the comments, and be sure to check out our other posts on marketing gone wrong.
Wendy’s ads promoting its dollar menu were meant to be hip. They depicted regular people mindlessly doing ridiculous things, like banging their heads against trees, or jumping in an enormous hole, or (in the ad in question), filling up with helium sucked from balloons so they floated near the ceiling. It was only the rare person dressed in a red-pigtailed Wendy’s wig that countered the crowd. In the ad in question, a voice-over wonders why consumers would just fill up on anything when 99 cents will get you a junior bacon cheeseburger!
The subtlety of the message was lost on the National Inhalant Prevention Council. They made a public statement opposing Wendy’s International, Inc.’s (NYSE: WEN) depiction of customers inhaling helium.
The Prevention Council said that the ad sends the wrong message and states that “Kids get the idea it’s OK to put a gas in your body.” While a Wendy’s spokesperson contacted by BloggingStocks pointed out that even the ad does not condone helium inhaling; in fact, he states, “the enlightened consumer knows that it’s wrong!” — the ads didn’t run much longer.
See other examples of Ads Gone Bad.
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