Posted on 12/18/2002 5:08:18 PM PST by Stultis
Maybe it is because the country has been immersed in the saga of U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., that a currently running fast food TV commercial hit me the wrong way when I first saw it Sunday afternoon.
But I think not.
No, the more I think of the ad -- designed to get the viewer to try two new sandwiches offered by the restaurant chain -- the more I'm convinced that it is a not-so-subtle play on the overt racial discrimination that once was the norm in this country.
I'm so offended, in fact, that I think Wendy's, the nation's third-largest hamburger chain with more than 6,000 restaurants in North America, ought to pull the advertisement.
The commercial caught me by surprise while I was tuned in to the Cowboys-Giants football game.
Wendy's had already introduced its new Bacon Swiss Cheeseburger and Chicken Bacon Swiss sandwiches, and from the beginning the ad campaign seemed aimed at getting people to try both to see which one they would like most.
In the tradition of the company, but without its late founder Dave Thomas pitching the products, the early promotional spots were lighthearted and appeared to do the job of describing the products and making them appealing, at least for people who like bacon and cheese on their sandwiches. It seemed the emphasis was on the difficulty of choosing between two great products.
But this latest ad, with a series of vignettes of people who had chosen one sandwich over the other, goes much further than people simply debating the merits of which meat goes better with the added cholesterol: chicken or beef.
It actually suggests that if you're on the wrong side of the sandwich issue, then there is something wrong with you. Not just that you don't have good taste, but that others who disagree have the right to target, taunt and discriminate against you.
The commercial shows how the issue is dividing communities and families, and then it closes with a disturbing scene and a cutting last line that is definitely a throwback to the days of Jim Crow.
The final scene depicts a woman working in her yard when some young boys drive in front of the house and skid to a halt.
"Chicken lover!" one of them yells.
There is a closeup of the woman's surprised face as the car speeds off again.
"Chicken lover!"
Perhaps to the average viewer and hearer, this was a very clever and funny line. But I'll bet anyone who ever heard a similar phrase -- with exactly the same number of syllables, I might add -- cannot hear the commercial stinger line without hearing the familiar epithet of days gone by.
I'm sure there will be those who become incensed that I could be so riled by a stupid TV commercial, but unless you've felt the sting of racism and all the reminders of it that come in symbols and coded speech (a la Trent Lott longing for the land and the good ol' days of Dixie), then it might be difficult to imagine.
Aside from the racial implications, the idea of discriminating against anyone who is different is a repulsive notion that ought not to be reinforced in a 30- or 60-second TV spot, especially in these days of heightened insensitivity in America.
There was nothing clever about this ad, except in the most banal, juvenile way, and it certainly wasn't funny.
I don't think Thomas would have found it funny, either. Without knowing the man, who died this year of liver cancer, I don't think he would have approved it.
Perhaps I'm the only one in America who does not appreciate this latest approach in advertising. Perhaps -- just perhaps -- it is exactly the kind of ad that will keep the company's brand in the minds of the consumers.
I, however, find it repugnant because it plays on one of the worst emotions of human beings -- prejudice. And while I obviously remember the commercial and the products it was touting, it did not make me want to run out and buy a hamburger or chicken sandwich with bacon and Swiss cheese.
Wendy's ad agency didn't get it right this time. So, the restaurant chain should do what a customer does when an order is botched at the drive-through window: send it back.
NOTICE TO GOV. RICK PERRY: James L. Byrd has now spent five years, six months and one day behind bars for a crime he did not commit. It is time for him to be set free.
(aghast) Why don't you just burn a cross, Oppressor!
Yeah, it used to be on right after McLaughlin, IIRC. I would sometime injure myself scrambling for the remote. (Also in DFW.)
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