Where's The Beef?

Picture this: You clock out of work a little after 5:00 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, and you head to your car. The rumbling of your stomach is all too audible as you slink into the driver’s seat, evidence of yet another skipped lunch. As you drive down the highway, your mouth begins to salivate at the thought of your next meal as your eyes scan the blue exit signs for anything with the word “food”. Then, you see it; a sign on the side of the highway indicating that there is a fast food joint at the next exit! Relief spreads throughout your body, but the sign is not enough to quench your growing hunger pangs that emanate from deep within your belly. You take the exit, and, upon arriving at the fast food restaurant, quickly jump to the nearest open register. You waste no time with niceties, and instead simply state your need for a cheeseburger with everything on it. As you frantically throw your money at the cashier, you snatch up your food and head to a red booth near the door. The smells of greasy goodness waft up from the paper bag as you unfurl your treats. However, as you remove the thin paper that holds your cheeseburger, a wave of disappointment rushes over you. You stare at the measly meat offering before you, and a single question pops into your head: where’s the beef?

That question was the exact same question on the minds of advertising executives at the Wendy’s chain of hamburger restaurants in 1984. The folks at Wendy’s felt that consumers were not being supplied with the quality of products they deserved. So, armed with a blunt rhetoric and a slew of witty television commercials featuring a cranky elderly woman making irascible demands of fast food chains, Wendy’s launched their “Where’s the beef?” slogan to the masse...

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...ccessful; never mind that car only got a 3 star crash rating, or its time belt is notorious for breaking after 6000 miles. The only thing they want you to be concerned with is the happiness their product will give you. We must always be conscious to the little tricks and subliminal messages that advertising companies try to spring upon us. Slogans do in fact promote critical thinking, because we must be able to break them down piece by piece so that we can understand what they say about the product and how what they are saying relates to us as consumers. The ways in which we use language in our society are varied, and they are not all altruistic. In many cases, language is used to persuade and deceive. Many advertisers these days are merely practicing sophistry en masse, and for this reason we must take slogans, much like the fries at Wendy’s, with a grain of salt.