'Mr. Wendy' shines as Wendy's spokesman, even though he's not

Nation's Restaurant News, March 15, 2004 by Gregg Cebrzynski

Mr. Wendy" is not who he appears to be.

If a guy is named Mr. Wendy and he appears in TV spots for Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, you'd expect him to be a spokesman for the chain. He's not--at least not officially.

Mr. Wendy makes that point clear in the ads. He's the unofficial spokesman, and the execs at Wendy's are none too pleased about that.

In one of a series of spots, Mr. Wendy stands outside Wendy's corporate headquarters, reading a letter. It's not a keep-up-the-good-work letter but a cease-and-desist order.

Mr. Wendy is nervous, especially so when he espies two guys standing at the headquarters' entrance. "That's him," one of them shouts. They give chase, and Mr. Wendy flees.

Another spot snows Mr. Wendy standing inside a mall on a walkway overlooking a crowded food court. "Put the fork down and step away from the salad," he says through a bullhorn. "Salad's not supposed to be brown. Go to Wendy's."

"You with Wendy's?" someone shouts up at him.

"Not officially," Mr. Wendy says.

An embarrassed woman--why, it's Mrs. Wendy!--standing next to him snatches the bullhorn away and promises the crowd that this never will happen again.

Don't worry; it will. Mr. Wendy will speak out on behalf of fresh salads and good-tasting burgers whether Mrs. Wendy or the executives like it or not.

But they do like it. That's why Wendy's has Mr. Wendy appearing in the TV spots, which I greatly enjoyed. Interpublic Group of Cos.' McCann-Erickson Worldwide of New York created the campaign.

Wendy's achieves two things in the campaign: First, it creates a spokesman. Second, it makes sure viewers know that, really, it hasn't created a spokesman, because no one ever could replace the late Dave Thomas, Wendy's founder and longtime ad spokesman. Mr. Wendy is just a guy who thinks he's a spokesman.

When Thomas died in 2002, Wendy's executives said they had no plans to introduce a new spokesman. The fear was that Thomas was so popular that bringing in someone new would create a backlash against the brand.

Wendy's either is playing it safe or being coy in this campaign. Mr. Wendy gets the sales message across while not pretending to be Mr. Thomas.

Well, no one could ever be Thomas. He was more than an ad spokesman; he was the Wendy's brand itself. Mr. Wendy, on the other hand, is funnier, and Mrs. Wendy is some dish.

The new ads are playful in a way that Thomas, being the kind of guy he was, could not pull off. Thomas was a lovable galoot. Mr. Wendy is a lovable doofus. Galoot and doofus being equal in my world, I believe that Wendy's has nothing to lose by making Mr. Wendy its official spokesman.

Forget about brand backlash. Consumers have short memories. I'm guessing that not a single one watched the Mr. Wendy spots and sighed, "Oh, I miss Dave Thomas so much, and now they trot this guy in front of the camera. I'm switching to Burger King."

Instead, consumers who saw the ads thought the following, if they're typical consumers: "So how much does the Spinach Chicken Salad cost?"

Consumers know that eventually we all die, and when a sports figure, movie star or lovable old galoot crosses over to the other side, consumers don't hesitate to welcome another ballplayer, actor or ad spokesman into their lives.

So far, Mr. Wendy is a credible, unofficial spokesman. If the quality of the advertising continues, he deserves a promotion in status.