By Staff
Advertising is a strange niche to me, and with the recent Hardee's commercials, I am still perplexed.
In the most recent Hardee's commercial there is a young, pregnant girl waiting in the doctor's office. She is stuffing her mouth with one of the largest hamburgers from Hardee's.
The announcer then says that she better enjoy the hamburger while she can because once her child is born she will be hanging out at McDonalds for the rest of her life.
Why spend all the advertising money if you are just going to direct your target audience to a another fast food chain? Wouldn't it make sense to keep your target audience coming to Hardee's?
Are they using reverse psychology? Are they just trying to tempt me to eat that huge hamburger and later become addicted to Hardee's?
To me, the commercial is telling me to not even bother with Hardee's and just head over to McDonalds.
I'm reminded by the commercials Quiznos had several years ago. I can't remember the name of the creatures, but I do remember that every time I saw them on television it made me not want to eat a Quiznos sandwich.
The commercials were apparently a huge success in Europe. Critics said that we Americans were too far behind to understand the witty little creatures that were taunting millions of Europeans to eat at Quiznos.
I know of many people who would agree with me that the little creatures were a turn off. The commercials were not a big success here and were later taken off the air. I haven't seen a Quiznos commercial since then.
What drives advertisers to such odd lengths? Are they trying to get us to really think about the establishment? Is there a subliminal message in the commercial that's just not coming through to me?
I'm a funny target group. I can't stand listening to people munch on food, let alone watch them stuff huge hunks of meat in their mouths. So that commercial wouldn't have gotten me to eat at Hardee's regardless of the absurdity of the whole thing.
What happened to the simple days when all a fast food place used was a jingle and food?
Again, I'm not versed in advertising so I won't ever know what Hardee's point is until it's mapped out for me.
Until then, I think I'll just stick with Burger King and its creepy king mascot.
Mary-Allison Lancaster is the Managing editor of the Brewton Standard. She can be reached via e-mail at mlancaster@brewtonstandard.com