In today’s world, it is crucial for companies to have a social media manager. Social media is used to varying degrees of intensity and success, but there’s no denying that the type of marketing that best succeeds online differs from what would have sufficed in print or television ads in the past.
This recent ad from Wendy’s uses kairos to showcase their chicken sandwich. Twitter
Take this advertisement from the Wendy’s Twitter page. Kairos is effectively deployed, with the timely debate over the best chicken sandwich referenced. The week before this was tweeted, Popeyes announced its first-ever chicken sandwich, sparking a debate among internet users and fast food lovers on whether Chick-Fil-A or Popeyes had the superior sandwich.
The fight between the Chick-Fil-A sandwich (left) and the Popeye’s sandwich (right) stirred up controversy last week. NBC
Despite the fact that the real fight was between the two established chicken eateries, Wendy’s took advantage of the debate to promote their own sandwich. By capitalizing on this timely opportunity, Wendy’s used kairos to promote a product that would have otherwise drawn little attention (as it is not a new product nor one of their most popular menu items).
However, an appeal to kairos is not the only appeal utilized in this one short tweet. By using slang words, the advertisement takes on a humorous tone that creates an appeal to pathos. By doing this, they appeal to Twitter’s young demographic, whose enjoyment of memes and short-lasting fads means that this combination of kairos and pathos appeals increases viewer interest in the product. In addition, by using this tone, Wendy’s increased the “meme-ability” of their tweet, leading to many who agree with it (or at least find it humorous) to retweet and like it, further spreading the message. This creates broad advertising visibility without even having to pay to promote the tweet.
While there is no real logos appeal (no statistics or facts are present to back up Wendy’s claim that their chicken sandwich is the best), the fact that the message comes from the official Wendy’s Twitter does add some ethos to their claim.
Overall, the ad does a good job of using kairos to appeal to its intended audience of young chicken sandwich lovers (a group of which I’d consider myself a part). While I may have previously only known about Chick-Fil-A’s classic chicken sandwich, Wendy’s used the buzz surrounding two other fast-food chains’ feud to promote their own product, drawing attention to a less prominent menu item in an effective way.