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I was having dinner with someone I hadn't seen for years, and the said the most incredible thing: 'Whatever happened to American people?' It was a complaint. Not too long [...]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Bojangles' Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits broke new radio and TV spots featuring two of its most recognizable marketing 'employees': Betty the Biscuit Making Goddess and a puppet [...]

Color me confused. I've always thought that if I knew nothing else, I knew when something was funny. It's in my genes. Some people have a gene that enables them [...]

SOUTH PASADENA, CALIF. -- Panda Express broke its major ad campaign of the year with TV spots designed to show how obsessive consumers are about the Chinese quick-serve chain's food. [...]

DALLAS -- Pizza Hut again has gone where no pizza chain has gone before, outer space, but now it's ready to restrict all marketing activity to Mother Earth. Pizza Hut [...]

ROSWELL, GA. -- Heavenly Ham will roll out a new program this week targeting potential franchisees. That means the chain is targeting its customers. During the last few years Roswell, [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. -- Arby's is rolling out its four Market Fresh deli sandwiches nationwide this month and plans to devote the bulk of its marketing efforts to promoting the [...]

Two guys are walking along the boulevard. One guy says to the other, 'Hey, want to go over to Damon's for dinner?' The other guy replies: 'Nah, all they serve [...]

NASHVILLE, TENN. -- Phoenix Restaurant Group is repositioning its 92 Black-eyed Pea restaurants as a 'country casual' chain and has broken its first TV spots in more than a year [...]

She worked at a large ad agency and was an account rep for a family-dining client. She'd been at the agency for a number of years and didn't feel she [...]

MINNEAPOLIS -- Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar has broken radio spots in local markets and plans to launch a new TV campaign in June as part of a 'slice [...]

MCKEESPORT, PA. -- Kings Family Restaurants will break a multimedia campaign April 15 designed to reverse a nearly 2-percent same-store-sales decline by targeting younger consumers as well as the chain's [...]

The spot opens on a mother and father standing at a baby crib and singing a lullaby. Their voices are so sickeningly sweet that you could ladle them over a [...]

WARREN, MICH. -- Big Boy Restaurants International took its initial marketing steps under new ownership by revamping the menu and redesigning the Big Boy character to provide a consistent, friendlier [...]

It was a dark and stormy night. The whole gang was there: Speakerman, the Star, the Chihuahua, Cliff, 'Del Taco,' Chuck and Waddie, and Herb, who was trying to hit [...]

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is urging quick-service restaurants to toughen their safety standards for kids-meal toys in light of an alarming series of major recalls during [...]

PLANO, TEXAS -- Bennigan's Irish American Grill & Tavern launched new radio and TV ads to emphasize its 'Irish hospitality' positioning and continue the 'total alignment' of the casual-dining chain's [...]

It's all about the message. Get it? New TV spots for Hardee's set its message to music, and viewers can sing along by following the bouncing biscuit. A spot for [...]

MADISON, WIS. -- Country Kitchen launched an ambitious media campaign under the family-dining chain's first ever ad co-op program. New 15- and 30-second TV spots promoting skillet meals broke in [...]

COPPELL, TEXAS -- CiCi's Pizza launched a series of strategic initiatives ranging from product upgrades to a new logo and store design in what chain executives call a top-to-bottom focus [...]

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself.' Winston Churchill told the House of Commons, 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.' [...]

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Denny's restaurants broke new Spanish-language ads and struck a three-year deal with Telemundo TV in a bid to strengthen its brand positioning among Hispanic consumers. The ad [...]

Archrivals McDonald's and Burger King have unveiled major shifts in their menu and marketing strategies that are expected to determine how each chain will fare both in the short and [...]

Struggling chain plans to focus' on 18- to 34-year-olds MIAMI -- Burger King Corp. is two months away from launching what could be its most important marketing efforts since it [...]

Let me say right away that I am not a Rooty Tooty guy. That is, I've never eaten the Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity breakfast at IHOP. It's not that [...]

BOSTON -- PlanetBistro.com, a new on-line restaurant delivery and takeout service, plans to pursue a marketing-driven strategy because 'marketing is definitely, absolutely vital' to ensuring success, company founder Timothy Healey [...]

I wonder if this is how it went during a meeting at McDonald's s Corp. 'We've done Beanie Babies, Monopoly, Furbies, Dalmatians, Fingerboard skateboards, Inspector Gadget -- you name it,' [...]

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- Houlihan's casual-dining chain plans to launch a comprehensive marketing program this year, its first serious effort in several years to build sales and the brand. 'We're [...]

I never really equated marketing with the strategic moving of parked automobiles until an associate professor revealed the nuances of this little-known technique. That revelation took place during the National [...]

ATLANTA -- Church's Chicken plans to redefine its positioning as a 'value leader' among quick-serve restaurants when it breaks TV spots next year from its new agency, BaylessCronin, based here. [...]

It's not that I don't know how tough it is to create advertising that moves product. I had a shot at it, but it's not as if I can be [...]

TAMPA, FLA. -- Hops Restaurant Bar & Brewery named industry veteran Karen Willison its new vice president of marketing and chose Austin Kelley Advertising of Atlanta as agency of record [...]

Perhaps the scholars who update dictionaries for a living would like to consider these suggested redefinitions for the following words: Craving: A popular word to use in advertising when you [...]

MADISON, GA. -- Don Pablo's Mexican Kitchen hopes to reverse a same-store sales decline with the launch of a $4 million television campaign, its first new creative since last year. [...]

Once upon a time a quick-serve chain could sell a hamburger based on its taste and price. The selling proposition used to be this: Buy our hamburgers. They're yummy, and [...]

WAUWATOSA, WIS. -- The small Chancery restaurant chain, which has seen increasing competition from much larger casual-dining operators, is fighting to maintain market share and boost flat sales with the [...]

The restaurant had the least pretentious and most curious name of all the ones I've ever seen. It was called Eat, signifying precisely what the owners wanted people to come [...]

CINCINNATI -- Skyline Chili launched two marketing programs in the Columbus, Ohio, area based on the chain's belief that it can turn diners into life-long customers after their third visit [...]

Remember all those wonderful TV spots for Little Caesars from Cliff Freeman and Partners? One of them showed the little girl in the high chair, grabbing hold of a pizza [...]

DECATUR, GA. -- Huddle House Restaurants launched its most aggressive promotion ever, the first under a new ad co-op program, spending $400,000 to support a marketing effort with partners Dodge [...]

I didn't expect to see the two young men playing chess in a Starbucks. I was startled, as if I'd stumbled upon the Sasquatch eating 2-day-old apple pandowdy in a [...]

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. -- Ice-cream chain Cold Stone Creamery is looking to expand its promotional efforts and hopes to ice a deal soon with the Colorado Avalanche hockey team. The 110-unit [...]

It is humiliating when one realizes, at long last, that one is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. And by 'one' I mean 'me.' Loyal readers of this column [...]

GAP, PA. -- Auntie Anne's Inc. launched its first direct-response campaign, rolled out a new product targeting kids in test markets, and is weighing the benefits of TV and radio [...]

They're not undertakers; they're grief counselors. Garbage collectors are sanitation engineers. M&M's no longer are plain; they're chocolate. And Dunkin' Donuts is not a coffee-and-doughnut shop. It's a respite from [...]

MADISON, WIS. -- Country Kitchen International is airing its first TV spots in three years and hopes to expand TV advertising in 2001 with new financial support from franchisees. The [...]

I was about 8 years old when my mother announced that she would treat us to dinner at a small neighborhood restaurant whose motto was 'Where kids are king.' We [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. -- Arby's is preparing a broadcast and print campaign to break in October to support the rollout of the chain's new Market Fresh sandwiches across half of [...]

Unless you worked for McDonald's Corp. in the mid-1970s, the odds are you don't remember the tag fine 'You, you're the one.' McDonald's used it in advertising for a few [...]

CiCi's Pizza, though it ranked No. 5 in number of units in the Second 100's pizza category, led the segment in systemwide sales despite the presence of fallen Top 100 [...]