Love Frank's Red Hot! To be fair, they don't actually use the word 'sh*t' in the ad. It's just implied.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Question about obscene content or cursing on the air.
- Thread starter radioislife2020
- Start date
Actually they do, but there's a beep in between the s and the t.
Sure, but it's bleeped. Could be the word 'shot'? Again, you fill in the bleeped part.
Yes and no. They bleep the word (the asterisks are in my McDonalds example so this board's software won't reject it).
And Frank's is in no way a mass product on the scale of McDonalds. Also, while Frank's Red Hot is currently the #2 hot sauce in terms of sales in America, Cholula, which didn't go that route, is number one.
It's very much like radio---if you're trying to get noticed, you risk it. But it can backfire. Good example, Jack In The Box. Eventually, the edge got in the way of the message:
Ultimately, it (the approach, not that specific spot) cost the agency the account.
There has been no shortage of bad fast food advertising. Way back in the '80s, one chain tried an "edgy" ad campaign that was so disastrous it ended up taking down the entire company. And I mean "edgy" as in references to prostitutes and getting a vasectomy...
Holy crap!
I had never even heard of Rax until this post (I've only lived in California, Nevada and Arizona). Looking up their history, it was a house of cards---ten restaurants in 1978 becomes 300 six years later and 500 within a couple of years of that.
By '91, underperforming locations were closing, there was a buyout and in '92, along comes Mr. Delicious. From the looks of it, they would have gone into bankruptcy even without that ad campaign, but it sure didn't help. They came out the other side, but had to sell off a lot and have changed hands several times. Today, there are five----not a typo---five locations.
This is the spot that cost the agency the Jack in the Box ad---a bigger deal than you might think, since the owner of the agency, a boutique agency in San Diego, was also the voice of Jack. They had to recast:
There'd been a string of them, though---the Viagra in the breakfast ad I posted earlier, and this one:
Carl's, Jr. (Hardee's in the East), took it about as far as they could:
Five years ago, they tried to reel it back in with what I thought was a great approach:
But Carl, Sr. didn't catch on. Campaign was dead in less than a year, but they've stuck to food and not sex to sell their brand since.
Five years ago, they tried to reel it back in with what I thought was a great approach:
But Carl, Sr. didn't catch on. Campaign was dead in less than a year, but they've stuck to food and not sex to sell their brand since.
Having lived as a kid in an area where there were a handful of Rax restaurants, I can tell you I personally liked their roast beef sandwiches much better than Arbys, and I liked their overall product much better than the other fast food restaurants that were around at that time. That said, I do remember Rax changing up their "non-core" offerings quite often, though I usually stuck with their roast beef sandwiches and sides that had been around throughout their run. Occasionally I got the "endless salad bar" along with a roast beef sandwich.
As someone who lived where lots of Rax restaurants were located and they advertised heavily, I think the YouTube video linked to above is a bit of an exaggeration and might even be considered a hit job. The "edgy" ad campaign featuring "Mr. Delicious" never aired in the area where I lived, or at least I don't ever remember seeing those ads. Rax did run a lot of promotions with local radio and TV stations and did a lot of local sponsorships. According to the web, those Mr. Delicious spots didn't start running (wherever they actually did air) until 1992 and by then the company had already been in steep decline for some years. Mr. Delicious certainly did not "take down an entire company" and their "You can eat here" slogan referenced in the video above came very late in this chain's life and was short lived before they reverted back to an earlier slogan. Rax filed for bankruptcy several weeks after those ads started running which indicates (as michael hagerty correctly suggests) there was a lot more going on with Rax than just some misguided ads. The ad campaigns I remember were "I'd rather Rax, Wouldn't You" and "Fast Food With Style". I remember solariums being added to the fronts of their restaurants at one point and though a few chains started using them later, they were a bit of a novelty when Rax started implementing them. They were floor to ceiling glass walls with a sloped glass ceiling. I also remember it being a running joke that elderly folks were usually the ones spotted dining in that part of their restaurants.
Last edited:
"Here", not "her".
I think they got the idea from Dacia, who advertised their car as "very acceptable".
Lol, I'd actually caught that and edited my comments to correct"Here", not "her".
Which reminds me of the old joke. Eight-year-old Johnny comes down to breakfast with younger brother Jimmy. Mom says "Boys, what would you like for breakfast?"
Johnny, with a big smile, says "I'd like some f***in' corn flakes."
Mom lets out a gasp, grabs Johnny out of his chair, gives him a spanking for the ages and orders him back to his room without breakfast.
She composes herself, turns to her younger son and says "Jimmy, what would you like for breakfast?"
And Jimmy says "I don't know, Mom, but I sure don't want any f***in' corn flakes."
All of that is only marginally better than this fictional burger place (yes, that's Robert W. Morgan's voice after the jingle):
Last edited:
Carl’s was once just a California chain and their food was much better. Hardee’s was once an eastern/midwest chain and their food was much better. Then they somehow got combined and their food is not better.
Whoops, major thread off topic alert! And I am guilty too!
Nah---questionable content that aired (on TV---but TV is radio with pictures, so....)
I remember back in the early 70's when I lived near ASU in Phoenix, the only Hardee's was on Grand Avenue near Indian School... about a 40 minute drive. So every Saturday, we'd drive across town and have the delightful charcoal broiled burger.
If I had seen those ads, I wouldn't have gone...
Last edited:
There was a Rax in Jackson, TN and I really liked it, but I never those ads. I was disappointed when they closed and became a KFC, and I didn't know until recent years what happened to them.
Here are some You Tube videos of a guy who is addicted to Rax : https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wallieb26+rax
Here are some You Tube videos of a guy who is addicted to Rax : https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wallieb26+rax
Last edited:
Agree, Carl’s Jr. was so much better 30 years ago. What happened? It is basically a mix of McDonald’s and Burger King today. I guess it is just the standardization of fast food today. Too bad.
Last edited:
- Status