This post is part of our Ads Gone Bad series. Share your thoughts and memories of this ad in the comments, and be sure to check out our other posts on marketing gone wrong.
Wendy's ads promoting its dollar menu were meant to be hip. They depicted regular people mindlessly doing ridiculous things, like banging their heads against trees, or jumping in an enormous hole, or (in the ad in question), filling up with helium sucked from balloons so they floated near the ceiling. It was only the rare person dressed in a red-pigtailed Wendy's wig that countered the crowd. In the ad in question, a voice-over wonders why consumers would just fill up on anything when 99 cents will get you a junior bacon cheeseburger!
The subtlety of the message was lost on the National Inhalant Prevention Council. They made a public statement opposing Wendy's International, Inc.'s (NYSE: WEN) depiction of customers inhaling helium.
The Prevention Council said that the ad sends the wrong message and says that "Kids get the idea it's OK to put a gas in your body." While a Wendy's spokesperson contacted by BloggingStocks pointed out that even the ad does not condone helium inhaling; in fact, he says, "the enlightened consumer knows that it's wrong!" -- the ads didn't run much longer.
See other examples of Ads Gone Bad.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-05-2008 @ 2:37PM
Tish said...
The Wendys ad complaint is valid - it has been proven that tweens & teens mimic what they see on tv. Even Adults are known to believe/mimic shows, ads, news items. Not true? Then explain, why the increase in (for example) antics uploaded on YouTube that mimic the show "Jackass" ..or why each time the news broadcasts someone who ignites a fire *on purpose* the increase in firebugs who (pardon the pun) come out of the woodwork to do the same? The examples can be listed ad nauseum so why even invite *one* kid (or adult) to use inhalants when its been proven they can cause brain damage?
9-05-2008 @ 3:12PM
kenny said...
please,
this is ad campaign, with this red-wigged dork, is not only one of the worst Wendy's idea, but is my vote for one of the worst ads ever.
the company must have inhaled something before they approved this series of commercials.
i wouldn't worry about the gas children might inhale, but rather the hot air coming out of the "gas-bags" (get it?:), at the company.
9-05-2008 @ 5:32PM
akron said...
puhleeeease, people need to get a fucking life.
9-05-2008 @ 7:18PM
Dave said...
If kids are so weak willed that they'd start sucking helium because they saw it on a Wendy's ad, I can't help but think that it'd be the least of their problems.
9-05-2008 @ 7:41PM
Madduck said...
I like snorted the chili, and had beans shooting out of my ears. It was wild, man...
9-07-2008 @ 10:35AM
john said...
Maybe the government should be more concerned with the Fat Kids eating all the calories at Wendys, Eating meat is fun like inhaling cigarrets and smoking pot but its not good for you..or Mother earth'
we need a vegitarian fast food place so we can have some good news to talk about , guess they cant make a vegiee burger that will sell to Fat spoiled kids
9-08-2008 @ 1:59PM
tommy guariano said...
Hey Akron I agree with you These people need to get a hobby besides log flogging which i am sure they already do T Guariano SI NY
9-08-2008 @ 10:17AM
daelia said...
Sorry but an all veggie place would go down so fast you wouldn't even know it was on your local corner. There are plenty of veggie choices and parents not the government should choose the foods kids eat. Sorry if some parents are clueless, but more government is not what we need!
9-08-2008 @ 11:13AM
PAM said...
I think that the add is ok but i would haxe put don't try this at home or something because todays teens and tweens are so easily convinced that wat they see and hear on T.V is cool but we as parents also need to take a roll in teaching our chirldren that everything they see or hear they don't need to try or do
9-08-2008 @ 11:17AM
Kjell said...
I'm more offended by the Red-Hair Wendy's hat than any of the other content within these series of commercials.
9-11-2008 @ 10:09PM
zip said...
You only get one brain, folks. Those who have inhale substances that diminish the brain's capacitiy to think, reason, and remember are already sunk!
9-08-2008 @ 3:04PM
Channey said...
To the 1 who snorted chili way to go man! Thums -up
9-15-2008 @ 8:30AM
sweety said...
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10-22-2008 @ 5:08PM
Alan said...
I'll have a large chilli, no fingers.
10-26-2008 @ 10:45AM
Briana said...
Half of my family are drug addicts, and it makes me mad that marijuana and heroine made it so that I'll never meet some of my aunts and uncles. I don't want anybody else to go through this with their family. It's hurtful, and it's not fair. It's stupid to do drugs, it's deadly and it really disappoints your family.
10-26-2008 @ 10:45AM
Briana said...
sweety's message was really random.
10-26-2008 @ 3:03PM
Katy said...
I think we are getting just a little rediculous here with precautions. America has been stepping on eggshells for several years now, and the problems haven't been getting any better, in fact, they are getting worse.Kids and teenagers arent engaging in inhalents because of a Wendy's commercial they saw. But how nice for the parents to have something to blame their kids problems on, instead of their parenting, or lack their of. Lets put the blame where it belongs. Because all this is, is a get out of jail free card for parents to say well thats why my kid does this, because he/she saw it on TV... I saw a lot of stuff on TV as a kid and teenager, but I had the parenting and guidance to know the difference between entertainment, and real life. Maybe if parents didnt let TV raise their kids for them, we wouldnt have to watch every word and action they see on TV. Its a parents job to teach kids right and wrong, not TV, not school, not anything else.
10-26-2008 @ 2:04PM
otrpu said...
If everybody that doesn't like the ads ignores them they'll just go away.
11-18-2008 @ 8:48PM
kathy said...
we had a kid in this area try to take the helium intake off the tank instead of the balloon and it ruptered his lungs killing him-