Restaurants/Fast Food

Because it's Friday, something fun (and food-y).

New York magazine has published an excerpt from William Poundstone's The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It), due out next month.

In it, Poundstone shows how menu type and layout can encourage diners to order "stars," a term menu consultants use to describe "popular, high-profit" dishes, and "puzzles," used for "high-profit but unpopular" items. These same design tricks are used to discourage restaurant-goers from choosing "plowhorses," which are "low-margin dishes that the regulars like." Ideally, plowhorses appear in what Poundstone dubs "Menu Siberia"--that area furthest away from the upper right-hand corner, "the prime spot where diners' eyes automatically go first."

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Ketchup maker to Heinz it up
You know ketchup is savoury, but did you know it's also a saviour? (For the ad world, that is.) Heinz said this week it will spend about $400-million (U.S.) on marketing during the current fiscal year, an increase of about 15 per cent from last year and almost 50 per cent more than five years ago. The company said the recession has eaten into profits because consumers are showing a preference for less expensive private label products over national brands. Are we the only ones thinking Heinz is missing an opportunity to remind people that, in tight times, they can always afford ketchup soup?

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"A McDonald's in midtown Manhattan became the first in the U.S. this fall to undergo a sleek, European-style makeover similar to what McDonald's has done at thousands of outlets around in France and the United Kingdom," the Associated Press reports.

"The eatery is outfitted with outlets for plugging in laptops, upholstered vinyl chairs instead of Fiberglas seats bolted to the floor, subdued lighting and employees whose all-black uniforms suggest a hip boutique."

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A KFC giveaway with lots of fine print
Marketers regard Oprah Winfrey as a rainmaker, but here's one publicity stunt where we bet the involvement of the daytime talk show queen wouldn't be welcome. On Nov. 1, KFC Canada is promoting its new boneless chicken fillet with a two-hour, 250,000-piece giveaway. Back in May, when Oprah helped spread the word about a similar KFC promotion in the U.S., thousands of consumers went home empty-handed after stores ran out of its new grilled chicken meal. Just for fun, we'd like to see a Canadian celebrity try to gin up that sort of frenzy. George Stroumboulopoulos, the gauntlet has been thrown.

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WHO KNEW BRITAIN HAD HIGHER STANDARDS of truth in advertising than it does of military intelligence? Sure, it may have invaded Iraq six years ago over a fishy report about enriched uranium, but woe betide the beverage maker who makes false claims in advertisements! This week Coca-Cola had its wrist slapped over a trio of Vitaminwater ads that claimed the drink was beneficial to drinkers' health. One poster bragged the coloured liquid had “more muscles than brussels,” which the Advertising Standards Authority said had to be removed because it could be misleading. The best part of this story? A total of three people complained.

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DO WE FILE THIS ONE UNDER “JELLIES WITH GENITALIA”? Reports surfaced this week that a British man had complained that the packaging for Haribo brand's Maoam sour candies depicted fruits in a pornographic manner. According to the ever-reliable target="_blank">Daily Mail, Simon Simpkins of West Yorkshire complained to a local shopkeeper about the candy wrappers, in which, he said, "The lemon and lime are locked in what appears to be a carnal encounter." Now, though, it appears it was all a publicity stunt. Seems pretty fruity to us.

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HOW THIN-SKINNED ARE TORONTONIANS? Three months ago, Molson Coors Brewing put up a billboard announcing that its Coors Light beer was "Colder than most people from Toronto." But after a Toronto newspaper ran a story on the ad this week, prompting a flurry of online carping, the brewer apologized and pledged to take down the offending creative. At least one Twittering Torontonian shrugged off the brew-ha-ha (sorry, we couldn't resist), tweeting, "We're not offended that you called us cold. We're offended that you suggested we'd drink Coors."

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WHEN YOU THINK OF THE ATHLETIC PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE what consumables come to mind? Power Bars? Gatorade? Muscle Milk, maybe? C'mon, push yourself, champ: How about a Big Mac? If you're planning to attend the 2012 Summer Olympics, you might want to start endurance training at McDonald's, since the fast food behemoth is close to sewing up rights as the official branded food purveyor at the London Games. And here we'd thought the Olympic ideal represented the highest level of human achievement, not the highest level of human caloric intake.

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CTV CONNECTS WITH YOUTH

Vancouver-based online ad agency Noise Digital is helping CTV push its content out of TVs and onto the computer desktops and Facebook pages of its viewers.

The CTV Primetime widget allows users to build their application to keep up with show news, create fan pages and watch content online.

Encouraging such online interaction is CTV's attempt to stay connected with its younger viewers, who in turn will promote their content by showing friends what they watch.

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Because it's Friday, something fun--for foodies! (Click through to view the video.)



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A few weeks ago, we told you about KFC's plan to sponsor road repair in its corporate home town of Louisville, Ky.

At the time, your humble blogger thought it sounded like a great idea. But Ad Age's resident guru Bob Garfield disagrees.

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Here's a clever way to nurture public goodwill for your brand.

Ad Age reports that KFC is repairing potholes in its corporate hometown of Louisville, Ky. The only cost to citizens is "a chalky stencil" that reads "Re-Freshed by KFC."

While the program ties in with KFC's new brand campaign that centres on the word "fresh," no one is expecting this effort to contribute directly to the fast-food maker's bottom line.

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