The Importance of Key Message Development, and other stuff Wendy's

This week, Wendy's announced they were abandoning their "red wig" advertisements, the ones that are usually a simple premise, but with the product spokesperson wearing a freakishly bright red wig. The key message development in these ads seems to have taken a back seat to the "concept," and not surprisingly the company's sales have been slumping. They will be reverting to the traditional Wendy's icon. (So make a note of that: When you see a commercial so vile you actually try to break your television using your head, stop buying the product and it will go away.)

If you're interested in seeing some examples, check out Off Madison Ave's YouTube page of Wendy's commercials from both then and now. (And one that even got banned - so you know it's good!)

Just hearing this made me pine for the days of Joe Sedelmaier. He made commercials for Wendy's about 25 years ago, and his commercials were also freakish. His freakishness, however, had two distinct advantages over the "red wig" ads.

First, they were funny. The ads where a guy talks about how he got his burger for only a buck while wearing a red pigtailed wig, decidedly aren't

.

Second, and more important to Wendy's, Sedelmaier's freakishness drew attention to the call to action. The gag fed directly into the point of the commercial. It gave the joke context, and it helped the commercial do it's job: Inform people that Wendy's sells hamburgers.

The moral of the story here, of course, is don't go overboard with your gag. There's something mildly disgusting about adult men wearing that red wig, and disgusting is a bad place to go when you're selling food. Still, you have to feel bad for them. In between the Joe Sedelmair spots and the current eye-sores, Dave Thomas made the most effective spokesperson you could find. He appeared in over 800 of Wendy's commercials between 1989 and his death in 2002. And he believed firmly in his product, so the key message development work was all done for them: "Our food is really yummy, and I'm so behind it I'll do 800 of these commercials telling you so." You can't get classier than that.

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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