As I watch the progression of Wendy’s TV campaign with the man in the red wig with pigtails—Mr. Pigtails, as I’ve been calling him—it’s becoming clearer that the chain stands a better chance of reimaging itself into a hip brand than I had first thought.
Before I go further, though, I must remind you that my judgment regarding Wendy’s advertising has not always been the sharpest. To wit: I was perhaps the only American who liked the “Mr. Wendy” campaign. I bet even Mr. Wendy himself didn’t like the commercials.
In my Aug. 6 column I reported that consumers liked the initial spot in the Mr. Pigtails campaign, and I wasn’t planning to write anything more about it.
I wrote in the column that I was confused by the initial spot, but I’m viewing the campaign differently since seeing—endlessly, it seems—the commercial where people are jumping into a huge hole in the ground until Mr. Pigtails persuades them to stop, and the one promoting a chicken sandwich in which our hero, dressed as a cop, arrests a chicken that’s been driving a car recklessly along city streets. Yes, you read that right.
I also went to Wendy’s website to watch the spot for the Baconator sandwich because I did not recall seeing it on the air. It is one weird doozy of a spot, spoofing the nation’s obsession with celebrities unless the celebrity in question happens to be a Baconator. It features a different Mr. Pigtails than the one in the other ads.
Now that I’ve seen more than one spot in the campaign I’m no longer confused by Mr. Pigtails. He is to Wendy’s what The King is to Burger King, an outrageous ad character who may seem gimmicky at first but who also can solidify Wendy’s new freshness positioning over the long term.
When The King made his debut, many consumers thought he was annoying, spooky, evil, icky and perverse-looking. He still is all of those things, but now he’s kitschy because of that and is ideally suited for Burger King’s core audience of young males.
Wendy’s is targeting the same crowd, and the chain and its agency, Saatchi&Saatchi of New York, are in a position to use Mr. Pigtails as a more benign character than The King to lure boys and young men away from Burger King.
More important, it’s not so much the irreverent and unexpected Mr. Pigtails himself as it is the positioning he promotes. As a surreal attention-getter, he’s also a catalyst for change, trying to get people to break the habit of eating burgers made from frozen patties and switch to fresh beef.
That’s a strong selling point, and the point is made more creatively than if Wendy’s spots contained nothing more than food shots and a voice-over proclaiming the benefits of freshly made burgers.
The campaign’s offbeat attitude was obvious in the first spot and continues through each succeeding spot, which reinforces the idea that Wendy’s is not the chain it was under founder Dave Thomas. That continuity is important in building a new brand image.
The campaign also has more of a focus since anything Wendy’s has aired since the commercials that featured Thomas.
The initial problem I had with Mr. Pigtails was not the positioning message he delivered but the character himself. Not many consumers would find him entertaining, I thought. They’d think he’s a weirdo. Alas, I forgot the target market he is intended for, and a lot of those teens and guys in their 20s apparently think he’s boffo.
For all I know, even Mr. Wendy likes Mr. Pigtails.