Pretzel buns offer an alternative to non-pretzel buns. They’re good, and people like them. So here they are. They’re back.
What can we say about this video? Well, it’s a good-humored alternate use of tweets. They hired a couple actors and a production company to treat the tweets as a parody of a love song, offering an alternative to actual viral videos you might be watching today.
Wendy’s has to live its life as an alternative to something. To McDonald’s, to Burger King, to Subway, to “better burger” places (being, at least at various times in its marketing life, a “better burger”). They’re rarely the only one in any situation, except when it comes to these pretzel buns. Arguably they dominated the category with that promo.
So: pretzel buns are back. And so are the tweets that prove people love them, they really, really love them.
And so am I. As many of you …no, as maybe one or two of you possibly (maybe) noticed, I went on vacation. I drove around in a minivan allllll over America the last three or four weeks, first Westward, then Eastward. I have lived the interstate life.
One observation: one is never very far from deciding between Subway or Fast Food. Yes, there’s snacks from the gas station, and yes, there’s casual dine choices starting with Cracker Barrel and Denny’s and, depending on the population of the nearest town to your exit, ever-more-costly casual dining choices or local one-off diners.
But over and over, interstate exchanges ask you to decide between Subway, gas station snacks, and fast food. And in that choice, Wendy’s is often a major contender—but rarely the only one. They’re A Major Alternative.
A perpetual underdog.
No wonder Dave Thomas worked for them so well, for so long, in such a way they really can’t get very far without him. He LOOKS like an underdog. They finally recaptured some of that with their current spokeswoman—although she’s essentially an alternative to Flo of Progressive fame.
In fact, doesn’t this current ad remind you mostly of something Flo (with her very, very heavy media rotation) would do?
When Flo has more media, she’s the overdog. Wendy’s is the underdog.
When you get tired of real funny videos, or best-selling burgers, or non-Pretzel buns, or gas station snacks, Wendy’s will be there for you. Ready to fill her name in the box marked “other.”
