Tactics don't fit strategy behind Wendy's 'Ranch Tooth' spot

Gregg Cebrzynski

The first glimpse we catch of Ranch Tooth is when it's standing on a hamper in a bathroom while a man is taking a shower.

Ranch Tooth talks, but knows only one word: ranch. And the tooth repeats it in an annoying, grating voice during a wedding, at a poker game and even when the guy from the shower is on a date.

Ranch Tooth is large and wears a wide-brimmed Indiana Jones-style hat. The tooth appears in a TV spot for Wendy's to promote sandwiches topped with ranch dressing. Did I mention the annoying way it says "ranch"?

Ranch Tooth belongs to the guy from the shower.

"Some people have a sweet tooth," the guy says. "Me, I have a ranch tooth."

That's why the tooth follows the guy wherever he goes and says "ranch" in a voice that I believe I said was annoying and grating.

But it's too easy simply to dismiss the spot as annoying and then get on with life. My reaction to it is a little more charitable.

The ad, created by McCann Erickson Worldwide of New York, is not as bad as the infamous Quiznos commercial that showed a man suckling on a wolf. That's the commercial I use as a benchmark to rate other ads.

The Wendy's spot is not offensive, but it's not entertaining. The sales pitch was confusing to me. The food shots looked flat, and they got lost among the repeated bleatings of "ranch." Even the actors didn't seem to be giving it their all.

My overall impression is that the agency wanted to notch up the humor a couple of steps above the offbeat to make the commercial memorable, perhaps to the point that viewers would adopt "ranch" as a throwaway word to use spontaneously in the belief that they were being hip and funny.

It may be that at this very moment a couple of 21-year-old guys are walking around the office saying "ranch," and annoying every one but themselves. It doesn't matter, though, if they don't go to Wendy's for a Monterey ranch chicken sandwich.

The spot could have been better if only the follow-through on the strategy was more focused.

The premise is that Wendy's makes a product that fulfills a craving. That's a good premise, and a lot of marketers start with that.

Unfortunately, the spot doesn't convey the strategy. It takes the unusual step of equating a craving for sweets with a craving for ranch dressing, but how many people desire ranch dressing with the same intensity that they desire chocolate?

The spot tries to make the product seem irresistible, but it comes off as making it irresistible only to consumers who want to fulfill their ranch-dressing obsession.

I seriously doubt that a ranch-tooth niche exists. The spot unintentionally says that if you don't crave a chicken sandwich topped with ranch dressing, the product's not for you.

The premise that humor will help sell the product is a good starting point because people enjoy a good laugh. But the humor in the spot is practically nonexistent, and Ranch Tooth is not a funny character or a likable one.

That's why this commercial doesn't work. It's a fundamental situation where the tactics have let down the strategy. And it's disappointing because many recent Wendy's spots have been well executed.

I did, however, thoroughly enjoy one line in the spot. During the poker game, when Ranch Tooth won't be quiet, one of the players can't take it any more and yells, "Tell your stupid ranch tooth to shut up."

I'm sure he speaks for many.

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