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Arby’s getting roasted with beefs

Arby’s getting roasted with beefs

There has been a lot of attention paid to Arby’s announcement that it no longer would advertise on the Limbaugh show.

It was particularly interesting because Arby’s did not advertise to begin with, so it purely was a political statement, and was the subject of a Limbaugh tweet on Friday.

That has caused a lot of action on Twitter, with Arby’s blocking conservatives who complained, only to unblock them after a firestorm erupted.

On Arby’s Facebook page, there has been dialogue like this going on all weekend:

I don’t particularly care if anyone eats at Arby’s. I do care that advertisers who make needless political statements and join in Media Matters-inspired boycotts accept responsibility.

If you are on Twitter, you can reach Arby’s at @arbys, or at its Facebook page, or at its Contact page.

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Comments

It is the “needless political statement” that amazes me. Particularly when Arby’s came in so late. This was a time to mouth a few political platitudes and be done with it. I doubt their statement will enhance their business, but it may harm it. It seem like bad management to embrace mostly downside and little upside.

    Estragon in reply to RickCaird. | April 9, 2012 at 2:47 pm

    Exactly.

    There was just no upside to making the announcement. They weren’t an advertiser in the first place, which was bound to be discovered quickly, making them look stupid to everyone. And they ticked off all the Rush fans and even conservatives like me who don’t listen anymore but do react to PC crap.

    Whoever had this brilliant idea should be cleaning out his desk, today.

DINORightMarie | April 9, 2012 at 11:00 am

OT but related – can we create a new fallacy, please?! Similar to the creation of the reductio ad Hitlerum “if you mention Nazi, then you’ve automatically lost the argument” fallacy?! (Note: it is related to Godwin’s law.)

In the Facebook comment by [name removed by admin 5-20-2014], he says in part, “….Stop letting Fox News make your opinions for you.”

I hear that ALL THE TIME by leftists who don’t like my viewpoint. I had to correct my own son for that when I voiced an opinion he didn’t like!! As I truthfully pointed out, “I don’t watch Fox News!” I do what rational, intelligent people should do (as he was taught, BTW) to form opinions: I use reason, logic, facts and verifiable information, reading LOTS on a topic from ALL viewpoints, then reach a conclusion. In other words, I form my opinions for myself, and I DON’T BELIEVE THE LIBERAL MEDIA, whether Fox News (who is more biased toward liberal now than ever), CNN, NBC, etc.

Let’s call it the reductio ad Fox News nauseam fallacy, shall we?! It is beyond ad hominem and needs to be addressed, IMHO. 😉

    Last time someone told me not to let Fox News color my judgement, I told them that I found Fox News too liberal. Heads exploded that day.

Midwest Rhino | April 9, 2012 at 11:09 am

I tweeted them to thank them for revealing their political partisanship … so that I knew not to eat there.

Left Coast Red | April 9, 2012 at 11:12 am

Doesn’t Arby’s already have enough problems without alienating conservative carnivores?

OT. This O’Keefe Voter ID sting video is a must-see:
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/04/09/Okeefe-Holder

Political – or just very good free advertising? Arbys has spent nothing and managed to get a tremendous amount of free advertising. It may have annoyed the right, but they reached a heck of a lot of people on the left, and center who don’t care. That’s good, cheap advertising. You lose a few customers but you win a few. You name gets spread all over the internet – for free. I suspect those who might not appreciate what they did aren’t their target customer. I cannot imagine anyone “liking” or “following” something like Arbys, MacDonalds, or anything like that. The mentality of a person who would, isn’t going to care about Rush Limbaugh, then again I could be a snob.

SJR
The Pink Flamingo

    Aridog in reply to sjreidhead. | April 9, 2012 at 12:33 pm

    Good point about the “free” advertising … a possible gambit. However, if it were not for the misleading media publicity it would be for nothing. You mean no one in media checked to see if Arby’s ever had advertising to pull from the Limbaugh show? of course they didn’t, it didn’t serve their agenda to do so. In short, the media published bullshit and I think that they knew it was bullshit.

Uncle Samuel | April 9, 2012 at 11:41 am

Coca Cola has also caved to the political left – going against Voter ID and Stand Your Ground (and this year in California, Coke did not make Kosher Cokes available for Passover).

    Aridog in reply to Uncle Samuel. | April 9, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    I understand Coke is also tinkering with their “Classic” formulation again. As if their fructose blend was shitty enough versus the original sugar blend. Had my last Coke a year ago … screw them, I’ll find something else.

    Estragon in reply to Uncle Samuel. | April 9, 2012 at 2:50 pm

    Coke has a longstanding corporate policy of not taking a position on anything that doesn’t affect their business directly.

    They withdrew support for a couple of groups who became associated with causes other than what earned the original sponsorship – like supporting Voter ID.

    Coke takes no position on any of those issues, so they won’t give money to those who do, on either side.

    Pepsi is the one that constantly caters to the PC Leftists.

Love your title. I’ve been laughing since you posted it!

As I said earlier on another thread, Arby’s Corporate can be the ass holes they are …. they are only hurting their franchisees. Only if enough franchisees fold will Corporate suffer a bit. They’re not too bright given that kills jobs and profits all round eventually. I’m guessing that the popularity of conservative talk radio compared to that of liberal squawk radio implies a hurt more than they anticipate.

I’ve got to say, when I commented about having driven by multiple Arby’s driving back from a short vacation, the lefties were all over me and my little post. They then hit my facebook page. Kind of funny and sad – my first experience with knee-jerk progressivism.

I think the last facebook comment proves too much. I don’t think we can call this boycott an attack on free speech. At least we can’t anymore than one can say Lowes’ pulling ads from All American Muslim or the myriad of companies pulling from GCB can be said to be attacking free speech. Beyond perhaps contract rights, Rush can’t claim any right of his is being violated because of the content his speech. Even companies that never advertised with him claiming to drop him doesn’t violate any right of his rights. The boycott may be stupid (looking at you, Carbonite), it may be childish and weak, but it’s not a violation of free speech, and we conservatives should stop claiming it is, lest we find ourselves with our foot firmly in mouth.

Jusuchin (Military Otaku) | April 9, 2012 at 2:31 pm

Considering I never ate at Arby’s. I always preferred Chik-fil-a. Better sandwiches.

Off kitter, but when people say ‘stop getting your viewpoints from Fox News’, I tell em ‘stop getting your viewpoints from a comedian (Stepehn Colbert, et al).’

If we boycott Arby’s, where we will get our reconstituted and reshaped beef byproducts?

    Aridog in reply to Estragon. | April 10, 2012 at 10:23 am

    OMG … is Arby’s mega-“pink slime?”

    Funny, this “pink slime” thing created by media pimps …. wonder how they missed Kosher All-Beef Hot Dog?

So, a company who sells fast food at a higher price point, and whose signature product is red meat, thinks appealing to the left is a winning business strategy?

Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!