Wendy’s joins the amateur video club with “Crazy Lettuce.” By now you know the score: two guys are involved. One can never hold the camera straight. At the very last second some zany shit happens.
In this case, a bushy head of lettuce consumes a wee little Wendy’s burger. Link to meatatariansunite, a nightmare of poor wallpaper that does nothing but hurt eyes and demand emails.
If this is the one trick to succeeding in so-called “viral marketing,” the medium ought to die fast and painfully. Unfortunately for Wendy’s, the eyes-deceive-thee! gimmick that served Levi’s, Ray Ban and Nike so well is all used up. People finally get the joke: these amazing feats in online video? They never happened. Know what else? They’re ADS.
“Crazy Lettuce” has drawn less than 1100 views on YouTube, a mediocre rating (2 stars) and mixed response (of which there are 12).
But lest we hasten to dub this a flop, agency Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners pointed out it spent a mere $25K of its client’s cash on this piece, as opposed to the $300K it might have to produce a TV ad. With the money it saved, it can disseminate 11 more of these turdy jewels, which makes online video a great medium for experimenting with new ad ideas, argues Silicon Alley Insider.
Except Wendy’s lacks the cajones of an adventurous brand. Since its decision to prematurely dump its red wig campaign — and Saatchi & Saatchi with it — Kirshenbaum’s strained its creative juices to be as countercreative as possible. Wanna see $900K fly by? Witness the fruits of the “It’s Waaaay Better than Fast Food” campaign: food porn and good-good.
Atrociously stale stuff, and I don’t even wanna know what the burgers taste like.
