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Links To Stories, News, Opinion

Hi, I’m Ronald! I’m an Old and Scary Throwback, Kids!

Charlie Hopper/June 5, 2011February 18, 2022

You wouldn’t create Ronald today. He’s not ironic. They try to make him that way, but they fail. And I hereby declare without fear of contradiction that there are two basic communication modes today: surprisingly honest, or ironic. He’s neither. The health advocates who are attacking Ronald and asking McD’s to dump him surely know…

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Links To Stories, News, Opinion

Two Writers Attend The Same Event

Charlie Hopper/June 5, 2011February 18, 2022

Something that’s fun to do: compare the eyewitness accounts of two different people who went to the National Restaurant Association show this year. On the one hand, we have the reporter from Nation’s Restuarant News, observing and summarizing as usefully as possible. Then there’s the AV Club reporter with a little less familiarity with the restaurant…

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Exploring In Real Time Together, Opinion

The Failure of Logic

Charlie Hopper/June 5, 2011February 18, 2022

I once got to work with the guy who says he developed the lemon squirt for Red Lobster: those manicured lady fingers, that slow-motion squeeze, the little sphritz of citrus over …over what? Who knows? You’re not really thinking about what that juice is going to land on. You’re intent on that squeeze. Why? Why…

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Links To Stories, News

A Lesson In Having No Brand

Charlie Hopper/June 5, 2011February 18, 2022

Slate writer Justin Peters tries to find something special about Sbarro, in the midst of its public struggles. He comes up empty. This story probably isn’t all told, but when it is, its moral will be pretty simple: when people don’t have any reason to be emotionally involved with your restaurant on any level, and…

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Opinion

Nobody Knows How To Sell Food

Charlie Hopper/June 3, 2011February 18, 2022

You know what I love? I love that even after all this time, nobody can agree completely on what makes customers trade money for food. Not the professsionals with their PowerPoint decks and marketing MBAs and Effie Awards and years of experience. Not the directors who specialize in super close-up, slowly rotating shots of perfectly…

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Selling Eating comments on current restaurant advertising, applauds effective communication; and mocks mindless repetition of food clichés.

Charlie Hopper is a principal at Young & Laramore advertising, and has been marketing restaurants for nearly 20 years.

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Selling Charlie

Podcast Guest

Recently I spoke with Rod Brant of Your Marketing Works for his podcast, and we discussed many things—including how smaller restaurants can market themselves smarter and better.

Panel Member

At the 2016 Food & Agriculture National Conference, I joined Lesley Fair of the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection and two other distinguished-type speakers to discuss the effect of regulations on communication. Which was more fun to talk about than it initially may sound.

Speaker

At the National Restaurant Association’s Marketing Executive Group conference in Atlanta a year and a half ago, I spoke about “Fifteen Forbidden Food Clichés That Are Holding You Back” and the 18 Marketing Moments (from my book) that go to waste if you don’t understand who you are as a brand. Here are the slides from that presentation.

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