Rick Bayless and Burger King - Part 2

[hjshorter]

But look at how low (and for how long) places like Burger King and McDonald's have kept their prices.

They have not kept their prices low: do you think $5.49 is a low price for a puny 4 ounce burger, an order of fries, and two cents worth of soda?

Are those New York prices? The same meal here costs about $1.50 less.

[Schneier]

What's interesting is that this is a broad new advertising strategy for BK. They must be really losing ground to McD.

Bruce

[vengroff]

OK, here's my fearless prediction:

Some time between six and eighteen months from now this product line will be deemed a failure and yanked from the menu. Internal BK analysys of the product, the marketing campaign, and consumer reaction will conclude:

1. Existing regular customers tried the product once or twice and went back to their familiar whopper.

2. New customers brought in by the idea of getting something healthy and good tasting tried the product a few times and then gave up and didn't come back. This was equally true whether they knew who Rick Bayless was or not.

3. There was some limited success with vetoers, i.e. those who would veto going to BK with a carload of friends because they didn't like it. Enticed by the idea of the new product, they would refrain from vetoing, leading to the sale of one chicken sandwich and three whoppers. After a couple of visits the vetoers, like the category 2 people, gave up, and went back to vetoing burger joints.

After yanking the product, BK executives will scratch their heads and try to figure out what innovative new product to introduce next. If they are extremely lucky, one of them will remember an article from the Wall Street Journal that morning about some other company going back to it's "core business" and succeeding. He or she will propose that BK do the same, and start cooking fresh flame-broiled burgers.

[Kim WB]

They could get Ducasse as theier spokesperson and their fries would still not come close to McD's

[Kim WB]

i sold my soul to BK back when i was 7 years old.  i've never regretted it.  although, i'm not half as cute as rachael is. 

Is is because they gave you a paper crown? I never liked their food much, but there was a period of time, during my princess phase, that I was enamored of their paper crowns.

[Mayhaw Man]

Rachel Ray is already all over Dannon Yogurt Containers. It looks to me like she has a better agent than Rick Bayless, not to mention the fact that she is much more photogenic.

Unlike Mr Bayless, who became well known through other means and seems to have traded all of his previous good will and respect for a burger dollar or two, Ms. Ray became popular through Food TV and she certainly isn't known for standing on any "culinary high ground" that I know about (I have no clue where she existed previous to Food TV). I can't imagine that it pays very well.

Perhaps she is looking to step up the ladder and get comfortable in better dining establishments, enabling her to go from "$40 per Day" to $120 per Day".

Either way, good on her. While I am not a fan of either show, I am a huge fan of taking the money and running as long as it doesn't seem particularly hypocritical and in this case it does not look like it is.

[Schneier]

Doing product endorsements can be a difficult decision. Think of it as having only a fixed number of fame points. Whenever you endorse a product, you give up some of those fame points. Hopefully you're selling them at a good price, but you do lose them. Unless you have a way of getting more fame points, you'll eventually lose so many that you're forced to endorse newspapers on a windy streetcorner.

Bruce

[Fat Guy]

(I have no clue where she existed previous to Food TV)

She worked as a manager at various gourmet markets, taught a few cooking classes, wrote a book, and parlayed that into a TV career.

Rachel Ray bio from FoodTV.com.

[Nick]

Things appear to be getting personal on Alexa.  And Pho, it's obvious that you think quite highly of yourself.

Pho and Fat-Guy on Alexa

I'd just like to let everyone know that the "Nick" who reviewed there is not me.

[Fat Guy]

But look at how low (and for how long) places like Burger King and McDonald's have kept their prices.

They have not kept their prices low: do you think $5.49 is a low price for a puny 4 ounce burger, an order of fries, and two cents worth of soda?

Are those New York prices? The same meal here costs about $1.50 less.

$5.49 (plus tax) is the price of a Whopper value meal, large, at store #11548 on East 86th Street in Manhattan, as of October 12, 2003. These things tend to be approximately a dollar more in NYC than in most other places; ditto for McDonald's. Then again, McDonald's in Manhattan has Cometa WiFi.

As I pointed out on the "manky" thread, however, for hardly any more money (I will check the exact price if I can find a menu) you can walk about 120 paces from Burger King store #11548 to Sassy's Sliders, where you can get four small hamburgers made from fresh, never-frozen, ground-on-premises beef with browned onions, pickles, and ketchup on steamed potato-flour buns, cut-on-premises fries, and a soda. So I just can't see how Burger King is cheap.

[Fat Guy]

Follow-up: $5.79 for "Combo #1" at Sassy's Sliders.

[sherribabee]

Sigh.

I wonder what they're getting paid to peddle this crap.

[Schneier]

I wonder what they're getting paid to peddle this crap.

Now that is an excellent question, and a closely garded secret.

Bruce

[bilrus]

As long as Rick Bayless doesn't end up in FHM magazine - I think I'll be fine with all of this.

[beans]

Either way, good on her. While I am not a fan of either show, I am a huge fan of taking the money and running as long as it doesn't seem particularly hypocritical and in this case it does not look like it is.

I doubt it will tarnish her culinary image and probably help her out in the eyes of her loyal food fans, which BTW, many post on FTV's forums claiming that the FHM shots were faked and really weren't Ms. Ray.

edit: where's my coffee?

Edited October 15, 2003 by beans (log)

[bilrus]

Either way, good on her. While I am not a fan of either show, I am a huge fan of taking the money and running as long as it doesn't seem particularly hypocritical and in this case it does not look like it is.

I doubt it will tarnish her culinary image and probably help her out in the eyes of her loyal food fans, which BTW, many post on FTV's forums claiming that the FHM shots were faked and really weren't Ms. Ray.

edit: where's my coffee?

Who else could work their face into those goofy, fake-sexy positions.

It is exactly what I would have imagined she would look like in that position.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Jinmyo]

I don't think it possible for Ms. Ray to damage her reputation.

[sherribabee]

As long as Rick Bayless doesn't end up in FHM magazine - I think I'll be fine with all of this.

Well I'm not in any hurry to see him on the cover of Cosmo anytime soon.

[Do they even put men on the cover of Cosmo? They should! I'd buy it!]

[Chris Cognac]

Well at least the sandwich she is hawking looks pretty good.....I wonder from Food TV who is going to be "next".....whats the chance we are gonna see Tony B hawking a "Thai Chili" flavored chicken sandwhich

[sherribabee]

Well at least the sandwich she is hawking looks pretty good.....I wonder from Food TV who is going to be "next".....whats the chance we are gonna see Tony B hawking a "Thai Chili" flavored chicken sandwhich

Heh.

Well, at least I wouldn't mind seeing him all scantily clad in some magazine.

[Mayhaw Man]

Either way, good on her. While I am not a fan of either show, I am a huge fan of taking the money and running as long as it doesn't seem particularly hypocritical and in this case it does not look like it is.

I doubt it will tarnish her culinary image and probably help her out in the eyes of her loyal food fans, which BTW, many post on FTV's forums claiming that the FHM shots were faked and really weren't Ms. Ray.

edit: where's my coffee?

Who else could work their face into those goofy, fake-sexy positions.

It is exactly what I would have imagined she would look like in that position.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

After a quick review of the Food TV site, I deduce that it is not the facial expressions of Racel Ray that they are refferring to. I think it has more to do with the areas below the goofy grin

[hillbill]

[Do they even put men on the cover of Cosmo?  They should!  I'd buy it!]

No because then men wouldn't buy it.

Gotta have those buxom babes falling out of their tops on every cover of Cosmo.

[sherribabee]

[Do they even put men on the cover of Cosmo?  They should!  I'd buy it!]

No because then men wouldn't buy it.

Gotta have those buxom babes falling out of their tops on every cover of Cosmo.

Looks like I'll have to keep buying copies of Men's Health to sate my need for eye candy.

Sigh.

I think eGullet should sponsor a Hot Chef/Foodie of the Month program, whereby we'd get to see naughty photos right here, and avoid forking over $5 for a magazine.

[Jinmyo]

I don't think it possible for Ms. Ray to damage her reputation.

Um. I didn't mean that quite the way it sounds.

I just meant that her reputation is for not very good, easy, cheap meals. I don't think association with Burger King could possibly damage her reputation.

[=Mark]

[Do they even put men on the cover of Cosmo?  They should!  I'd buy it!]

No because then men wouldn't buy it.

Gotta have those buxom babes falling out of their tops on every cover of Cosmo.

I've always thought it interesting that while the covers of mens magazines show photos of scantilly clad young women, in contrast, the covers of womens magazines usually feature... scantilly clad young women.