Sheetz Advertising Deemed Offensive
I was looking looking through a local website and I saw this press release come up from WJAC tv, and I felt like it was worthy of being posted.
http://www.wjactv.com/statecollege/15443049/detail.html
The article and subsequent video are about how local customers feel the Sheetz ad campaign that features signs promoting their new "Crispy Frickin' Chicken Sandwich" is inappropriate. The customers feel that the signs promote foul language and that if young people see them they might be inclined to use that language themselves. Sheetz claims that the billboards were not made to appeal to younger children, but instead were targeted to young adults. They also stated that the campaign was doing wonderfully and the new chicken sandwiches are selling well. Sheetz plans on leaving the billboards up at all of the current locations except for the Hazelton location, where the residents were particularly offended by the ads, until the end of the campaign.
The video showed two local, 20-something males who were visibly upset with the campaign. I personally think that they could care less and just wanted to be on tv, but thats just my opinion. I do not think that this is very damaging to Sheetz's image what-so-ever and is just an example of a local fluff story used to fill up air time. It obviously has not effected their sales at all, and the compaign will be gone and forgotten when the billboards come down next week.
posted by Geoff Piraino @ 5:29 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Like any corporate neighbor, Sheetz needs to be mindful of its reputation -- especially with the people who live around its service stations. If local people are angry, local politicians have a reason to act, and that's never a good thing for a company.
This kind of stuff happens all the time with advertisements and people's overly sensitive reactions to them. I know during the Superbowl last year there was the Snickers commercial with the two guys that accidentally kissed, then having to do something manly. This cause an uproar with homosexual activists groups. I also remember the maybe GM? commercial where the robot was depressed because he dropped a screw and kind of committed robot suicide. That ad had a whole uproar from some suicide/depression prevention agency or organization as well. I can kind of understand where some of these groups are coming from, but I also think that there are way to many overly-sensitive people out there that care a bit too much about innocent advertising. I think effective advertising has to be a little bit offensive are startling sometime, because humor many times has a lot to do with tying in with emotions, feelings, and behaviors. Stand-up comedians would make fun of every single race possible if it wasn't funny.
So to the activist groups out there, and people that are overly concerned with the use of 'frickin' for a chicken sandwich name, I think you should lighten up a little, and appreciate a bit of creative advertising that has some very positive effects on sales. There of course is a line to cross, but being overly sensitive to some of these issues is kind of ridiculous. I'm not trying to be insensitive, but there is a level where people should just chill out a little bit.
I disagree with the advertisement of their new chicken sandwich. Although they say that this advertisement is supposed to be triggered to young adults, how many children do you think pass though Sheetz on a daily basis with their parents? Children are very observant, and when they see this advertisement, and if and when they can read, and they ask mommy or daddy "what does Freakin' mean?" what are the parents supposed to say? And because this is a public advertisement, the child will think it is okay to say. Yes, its not an awful word, but there are lots of other adjectives to use for a simple chicken sandwich.
I have two problems with local residents' reaction to the "controversial" Sheetz advertisement. First, of all the words your child hears during the day at school, on television, or from you, frickin' isn't exactly one that you should get too worked up about. In fact, if your child says "frickin'," I'd consider that solid parenting. Second, if you are worried that a billboard will cause your child to develop a potty mouth, then you should be more worried about your parenting abilities.
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