Back to square one

I keep saying this. But I guess I have to keep saying it.

WHAT is the point of making commercials that shit on people for LIKING YOUR PRODUCT?

Kathryn: "When you see Wendy's square hamburger, you know you're getting the best."

Do I know that? Of the big three hamburger-based fast food chains I suppose I would rate the Wendy's hamburger first, but fortunately there are more than three places in this country that sell hamburgers.

Kathryn: [sounding exasperated] "Guess who else knows that? Reggie Miller."

I know Reggie Miller is still in broadcasting but it is very of a piece with the commercial tendency to focus on 25-year-old references to have your big pitchman be a guy who retired in 2005. Was this actress even born when Reggie Miller was drafted in 1987? (Google does not seem to have the answer but it looks unlikely.)

Reggie Miller: [dancing] "Hamburgers, Willy! Hamburgers!"

I appreciate Reggie Miller being game to embarrass himself like this. He's not exactly an actor, but he commits about as hard as I imagine he's capable of, especially in his late 50s. So then one of the Wendy's employees is inspired to dance along with Reggie and gets immediately shouted down by his co-worker.

Voiceover: "When you want a hamburger worth celebrating..."
Reggie: "Square's the beef!"

This is actually a pretty good tagline which I can't believe they only just seem to have thought of. But is this hamburger worth celebrating or not? Reggie Miller is shown celebrating it, but our lead Wendy's employee seems to find this pretty irritating. Other Wendy's employees are seemingly not allowed to celebrate it. This burger is worth celebrating! But just realize that if you do, you're an annoying asshole!

This is more or less in line with what I believe were the original Wendy's ads with Reggie Miller from a few years ago, where Reggie moves into the Wendy's during March Madness so he can wake up and immediately get their breakfast items, or whatever. This same Kathryn (the actress's real name, actually) was shown being extremely annoyed by his presence then, too. The message: if you're a Wendy's superfan, that's annoying as fuck! I mean, don't get me wrong: it would be very annoying if a loud 6'7" guy was suddenly in your workplace 24/7, sleeping in a large bed in the middle of the work area. But you're making a choice to depict "Wendy's superfan Reggie Miller" in this fashion. You didn't have to make your biggest fan such a pain in the ass! Why? Clearly the answer is "because it would be funny" but I think you can guess what my response to that is gonna be.

There's actually another ad in this series where the employees do get on board with Reggie's celebrating, and then for some reason they all find it overly weird that Kathryn does a "rock the baby" and the whole thing falls apart. That's still not very funny, but it's a better concept for an ad because at least it doesn't run with the premise that liking Wendy's to a degree of mild comic exaggeration makes you a fucking jerkoff.