AN OPEN LETTER TO WENDY’S CEO EMIL J. BROLICK

Dear Mr. Brolick,

Wendy’s has been a tremendous example of American free enterprise and faith and values. Dave Thomas was famed for such noble causes as promoting adoption. Your website says one of Wendy’s core values, established by Dave, is to “Do the Right Thing.” You call it a “timeless guidepost.”

You may not be aware of the Wendy’s ads that have been running on a television program entitled IMPASTOR. It’s the story of a gambling addict who poses as homosexual Lutheran pastor to hide from loan sharks. The program includes anti-Christian, anti–God, and anti-Christ bigotry as well as vulgarity, drugs and adultery.

No person with common sense would think that sponsoring the creation and distribution of such a program is to “do the right thing.”

Your website says, “Every customer is our most important customer, and our goal is to treat them that way.”

There are roughly 246 million Christians in America. Many of them are Wendy’s customers. If you consider them important, you might want to reassess your choice of television programs to support with your advertising dollars.

This doesn’t apply only to IMPASTOR, which is particularly offensive, but to other programs with bigotry, vulgarity, promiscuity, drugs, and violence.

Movieguide® recommends that you extend your “do the right thing” policy to include your advertising budget. Recent studies show that you get better response to advertising spending when you avoid programs filled with sex and violence.

For many years, MOVIEGUIDE® has been showing Hollywood our Report to the Entertainment Industry box office analysis that proves that movies that respect and honor faith and values do better. We believe that you can do better by avoiding advertising on offensive television programs.

We imagine that an employee spewing profanities at Wendy’s customers would not be working for Wendy’s very long. Please consider, when you buy advertising on programs filled with bigotry, vulgarity and other offensive content, the programs are alienating your potential customers.

Many of the millions of people who come to movieguide.org to read reviews and articles are repulsed to know Wendy’s, of all companies, is helping sponsor IMPASTOR. Thousands of our readers have even signed a petition, and the number is continually growing, requesting that advertisers not sponsor IMPASTOR.

Please, let us know that you will cease advertising on IMPASTOR so we can let our readers know you really do wish to “do the right thing.”

Thank you.