Even The Biggest Bandwagon Has A Limited Number Of Seats

Americans say they want to eat healthier. But not many are putting their money where their mouths are. Fast food and mid-range restaurants are getting a big, fat lesson about the vast difference in what people say and what they actually do. They’ve learned ‘eating healthy’ is a big, noisy bandwagon with limited seating.

Andrew Pudzer, CEO of Carl’s, Jr. and Hardee’s, was one of the first to relearn an eternal marketing lesson: When asked, people almost always say they want to do the right thing – in this case, eat smaller portions of healthier foods. They almost always do the wrong thing, though – like gorge themselves on Hardee’s hot-selling Thickburgers or pig out on Burger King’s Quad Stackers.

Pudzer tried salads. His customers yawned. He tossed out a Thickburger with a calorie count in the lower four figures. Customers stampeded to his stores like hungry cattle to the feeding trough.

To be honest, it’s not always the same people. Here’s a quote from Harry Balzer, Vice President of research firm, NPD, explaining food trends like ‘healthy eating’ at an Institute of Food Technologists meeting in Orlando a few months ago:

“We change what we talk about more than what we eat. We often mistake our willingness to try something new as a trend - but it's not, it's just trying something new! People like to think they are being adventurous, but in reality they are just eating the same things over and over.”

And the ‘same things’ he’s talking about are mass quantities of low-cost food.

What Balzer should also say is that it takes only a few people to make a trend; in this case, healthy eating. The problem? The masses will refuse to follow. Stay with me and I’ll show you where those people aren’t going, but to the place where they’ve always been.

First case-in-point: Burger King’s new BK Stacker is a product that runs a shiver up Morgan Spurlock’s spine. These super-sized burgers include as many as four slabs of beef; four slices of high calorie, high sodium American cheese and four strips of bacon. We're talking lots more sodium and an unhealthy dose of pig fat here. There is nothing else on this single-minded hunk of ground beef. It’s a sandwich that doesn’t even allow someone the conceit of calling a couple of pickle slices or a squirt of catsup a serving of vegetables. This thing is just one big mouthful of meat and cheese after another.

BK’s belly bomb can be as much 1,000 calories, 1,800 milligrams of sodium and 36 hours worth of saturated fat. We’re not talking about tipping the scale here. We’re squashing that sucker flat. It’s a burger aimed at people who take perverse pride in not eating healthy. It’s selling like hotcakes (see below).

Next case: Denny’s has super-sized one of its most popular menu items. An ad campaign for its Extreme Grand Slam Breakfast, which consists of three strips of bacon, three sausage links, two eggs, hash browns and three pancakes, tells customers they should not have to choose between bacon and sausage. The Extreme Grand Slam has 1,270 calories, 77 grams of fat and 2,510 milligrams of sodium and it costs $5.99 – quite possibly the biggest bargain in the business on the dollars per calorie meter.

One of Denny’s commercials nails the prevailing attitude among the general population when a man, representing IHOP’s large target market says, “I’m going to eat too much, but I’m never going to pay too much.”

Third case: Two years ago, Wendy’s introduced a fruit bowl in two sizes. They backed it up with a multi-million dollar ad campaign, opened the doors and waited for a stampede of ‘healthier than thou’ eaters. What followed was some of the toughest sales quarters in Wendy’s history. The bowls are history; sales are rebounding.

Nutritionists say the messages conveyed by the likes of Hardees’, Burger King and Denny’s are irresponsible in an era of quickly-rising obesity and diet-related diseases. Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition group consistently critical of the food industry, said restaurants should provide calorie information on the menu or menu board so customers can see what they are getting.

“People know that a quadruple burger or extreme breakfast is not the healthiest choice, but I don’t think they expect to eat a whole day’s worth of calories in one sitting,” said Wootan. “Restaurants are giving customers choices without telling them anything about what the impact on their diet will be.”

A note to Wootan: Hello! Plant Earth calling. Give customers some credit. They KNOW a four-patty Stacker isn’t diet food. They’re not stupid, they just don’t care.

Russ Klein, chief marketing officer at Burger King points out that “Some of our most successful products over the past few years have been indulgent products - the Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich, the Angus Steak Burger, Chicken Fries or Stackers,”

Klein defends himself by saying Burger King’s menu offers choices. “We have everything from salads to veggie burgers to grilled chicken. On their hamburgers, people can say ‘hold the mayo’ or they can go bun-less. Somebody who wants to be in control of their diet can do it at Burger King.”

Customers who claim to care about making healthy food choices and limiting their calories, said Chris Malone, senior vice president for marketing at Aramark, tend to be older and female. The others don’t care, he said, and it’s those people that go to restaurants most.

“The most health-focused consumers eat out the least, because they assume there’s nothing there for them,” Malone said.

IHOP’s, Patrick Lenow told an interviewer several months ago that “It’s hard to find healthier products that people are really going to get excited about. That’s why IHOP comes up with things like the ‘cinfully delicious’ Cinn-A-Stacks, big stacks of pancakes or French toast smothered with ‘luscious cinnamon roll filling, drizzled with cream cheese icing and crowned with creamy whipped topping.”

My belt let itself out two notches just typing those words.

Lenow said IHOP doesn’t provide calorie or nutritional information. Makes sense to me. If you’re ordering Cinn-A-Stacks for breakfast, odds are you know what you’re getting and don’t give a damn about the calorie count, anyway.

Even some of the most health-conscious people are closet sinners when looking at a menu featuring chili-cheese fries and quadruple bacon burgers. Wendy’s experienced the discrepancy between what people say and what they do when they put those fresh fruit bowls on the menu. Their $20 million power marketing push failed miserably.

In a comment shocking only in its honesty, Denny Lynch, a spokesman for Wendy’s, said, “We listened to consumers who said they want to eat fresh fruit, but apparently they lied,” Hardee’s Pudzer agrees with Lynch. “We tried salads, and nobody wanted them,” he said. Their Thickburger is a major league, grand slam home run, a product not for what he called the “romaine lettuce raspberry vinaigrette crowd.”

Many people in chain restaurant management claim mammoth portions are what customers want and providing those choices is their corporate responsibility. They’ll point to the Cheesecake Factory, a chain that’s notorious for incredibly large serving sizes, its phenomenal growth and industry leading unit sales as proof.

The reality is this: Restaurants could slather their menu’s calorie counts and salt content everywhere – their front door, streetside windows, even the paper wrapping on a quadruple stacker – and the public wouldn’t care. Most likely, they’ll just be annoyed. Instead of whining in print and dragging McDonald’s and Burger King through yet another useless court case, the food Nazi’s should spend their time and money talking with the great unwashed and slowly, painfully teach them about the effects of their nutritional choices.

It’s the duty of restaurants to sell food. It’s the duty of those organizations that continue to ‘point with alarm’ to try to educate those who don’t want to listen. Restaurateurs have already learned you can’t force sensible portions of twigs and berries on a disinterested populace.