This is the story of two fast food chains in Canada. Each restaurant recently ran what I call a justification ad during the NHL Center Ice free preview in early April.
One of these chains ran the ad mostly because of a recent scandal. One of these chains is known to be much healthier than the other one. But which ad was more meaningful? You might be surprised.
Subway Canada chicken comes up short on chicken, according to CBC Marketplace
Subway Canada ran a justification ad after a scandal where a CBC Marketplace investigation revealed that in a lab test, the chicken in the Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich had an average chicken DNA of 53.6% and the chicken strips in the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki was 42.8% chicken DNA.
Subway started out talking about fresh vegetables. The visual was small farms, but the wording was peculiar.
"What does quality mean to Subway?" A rather good question.
The ad talks about fresh vegetables day in and day out "partnering with hundreds of growers, including many family-run farms, who deliver over 50 million pounds of vegetables in a year."
You probably heard "family-run farms" or maybe even "family farms." But you certainly got the impression that most of those growers are not family-run farms. And is there a distinction between "family-run farms" and "family farms."
Subway certainly goes through a lot of vegetables, though quantity doesn't mean quality. While I have never eaten at a Subway Canada, I certainly have had quite a few sandwiches in the United States, though not recently. I was never that impressed with the vegetables. The worst tomato slices on a regular basis and iceberg lettuce weren't inspirational.
"100% white meat chicken with seasoning and marinade free of artificial colours and flavours."
"At Subway, we're committed to serving great tasting quality chicken you can feel good about in every bite in every sub every day."
Subway will not let the chicken thing die. Instead of letting the dust settle, the company is suing CBC and running this ad, 2 things I would have advised the company not to do. I would have advised the company to threaten to sue, but only because that convinces enough people that you did sue.
In the Marketplace episode, one person in the focus group thought one of the Subway Canada samples had fake grill marks. That may not fall under "colours and flavours," but still feels a bit weird. The marinade (perhaps) in the competitors only dropped the percentages by 10-15 percentage points.
Subway may be "committed" but the results haven't backed that up. Start out with dubious wording about vegetables that never mentions the quality of the product, and follow it up with what is almost certain to be a lie, and you have an ad that screams "deceiving."
People went back to eating Taco Bell taco filling even after the restaurant troubles. Subway can't leave well enough alone.
Drinks in frosted glass mugs. Makes onion rings fresh every day. "Believes the quality of a burger begins with its beef" meaning raised without the use of hormones/steroids.
"What kind of place cares as much about what goes into their food as how it tastes?"
The premise is pretty weak. Frosted mugs and hand-made onion rings aren't going to dazzle you. And we already knew the beef doesn't have hormones or steroids.
U.S. fast food outlets don't sing about the quality of their food, outside of Wendy's fresh, not frozen, beef.
I haven't had too much food from A&W Canada but the food I have had is fairly recent. I'm not sure their food stacks up as well as they think it does.
But the commercial feels honest, straightforward and not filled with deception, even if the topic is burgers and fries. A&W may not be all that high and mighty but you feel like everything you are told is true.
BalanceofFood.com advertising coverage
You could watch the Subway Canada ad without paying attention, and not know about the scandal, and be convinced that the Subway Canada is the better ad. You could laugh at the idea of a burger and fries place running such a justification ad.
Canadian ads from 2017 spring NHL Center Ice free preview
We have a couple of food ads in the spring update of Canadian ads via the NHL Center Ice free preview.
Swiss Chalet took us on a world flavor tour, including butter chicken. Montana's offered up a 7 oz. steak, no specific cut, with 2 sides for $14.99, a price that seem expensive compared to U.S. prices.
You can find the update here.
video and photo grabs: Subway Canada/A&W Canada
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