Was One Of The Most Famous Advertising Campaigns A Failure?

We all remember the Wendy’s ‘Where’s the beef?’ advertising campaign, right? Wendy’s was supposedly insisting that they had bigger burgers with more beef by having an old woman look at competitor burgers and scream: Where’s the beef? I know you all remember, I certainly do. However, this morning I found myself wondering whether or not that campaign was actually successful.

After all, I loved that campaign. Everyone did. If you scream Where’s the beef? randomly in public even now, most people will know what you are talking about. There were stickers, t-shirts, and all that. The campaign reached just about everyone.

However, did Wendy’s get much for it besides name recognition? I loved the campaign, but I never did care that much for Wendy’s. That thing with putting mayo on the burgers was always a deal-breaker. I know I could ask for them to leave it off, but that’s too much work for fast food. Frankly, I preferred Burger King when I was a kid until at some point my allegiance mysteriously switched to McDonald’s. Wendy’s was never really in the picture, though I do end up eating there once in a long time.

Frankly, the entire concept behind the campaign never really worked for me, though the campaign itself did. I don’t go to fast food for good burgers, just quick ones. It doesn’t matter whether or not Wendy’s has better burgers than Burger King and McDonald’s, because I’m still probably going to a full restaurant (like maybe Ted’s Montana Grill). No matter what the fast food places do, their burgers are still fast food burgers. Arguing about who has more real burgers just convinces me to go where they actually serve real burgers…which is never a fast food place.

So, it puzzles me. Should this ad campaign be considered a success or not? It has tremendous reach and consumer appeal, as well as name recognition, but it just never got me to go to Wendy’s. Shouldn’t that be the main criteria used to judge? Of course, it is unwise to base one’s advertising strategy on what works on me.