Dave Thomas is dead. I feel bad, since he seemed like a nice fellow. But I am also happy that the Wendy’s ad agency has decided to pull ads using his likeness. I hope it stays that way, so Dave Thomas can keep some dignity.
If you’ve ever seen an ad for Kentucky Fried Chicken, you know what I’m talking about.
When KFC reseurrected Colonel Harland Sanders as a cartoon character in TV ads, the press took notice … but not in a positive manner. While KFC sales appear to be up, The Colonel had lost some dignity in death. The animated Colonel dances, dunks a basketball, and talks jive.
The ad agency turned a white Southern gentelman into a three-inch tall funk masta.
So what will happen to Dave Thomas’ image in his passing? With recent advances in computer animation, I’m really afraid that Dave will be brought back to life for the purposes of selling processed cattle products.
The female character from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is already being used to sell snack foods in Japan. Just take a few unemployed Square engineers, and you’ve got yourself a Digital Dave. I’m sure Intel can throw in a Pentium4 sponsorship … “The Intel Pentium4 gives Dave Thomas the most lifelike appearance of any deceased fast food mogul. You can’t reanimate the dead like this using AMD products” … It can’t be any stranger than Intel’s other ads.
If Wendy’s promises not to bring Dave back from dead, I promise to keep eating Spicy Chicken Sandwiches.
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