A few weeks ago I had dinner at a Hard Rock cafe.
Once one of the ‘must visit’ venues, it is now a dinosaur trying desperately to maintain relevance.
They’re not doing a great job of it.
Now I know rock music is not as popular as it once was, but seeing the sweatbands of Selena Gomez’s drummer doesn’t do them any favours.
Apart from the fact Selena Gomez’s fans are all about 5 years old, she is to Rock n’ Roll what I am to style and sophistication.
And that’s the thing, I think they should go firmly back to their rock roots. Because as much as the musical genre might not be as popular as it once was, it still is the genre that brings the World the real Rock Stars – the ones who have glitz, glamour, flamboyance, drama and filthy, wonderful stories – and where a night out is concerned, especially a celebratory night out, those are the attributes that have real appeal, especially when the alternative is sitting inches away from a bandana that was once worn by the bass player of Girls Aloud.
But I digress …
The thing that really bothered me about the Hard Rock was when I was handed the menu.
It wasn’t that the prices were utterly extortionate [though they were] it was this:
Yep, on a menu for overpriced food was a statement asking you to ‘imagine there’s no World hunger’.
I admire their ambition … I admire they will give some money to someone hungry for every meal purchased … but putting that on the front cover of the menu seems a bit weird to me.
Why couldn’t they just hand that over when the receipt came … telling you that what you’ve bought has just helped feed someone who is hungry. If they did that, it would make you feel good about what you’ve eaten rather than guilty about the gluttony given you feel there is a small island currently pulsating in your stomach.
Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if their portions were smaller … but saying ‘imagine no World hunger’ when their desserts are the size of a small planet and could feed 5000 seems like totally mixed messaging.
Have a look at this.
That is supposedly for one person.
ONE!
I know American’s are big, but that is ridiculous.
As I said, it’s hard to knock them because they seem like they genuinely give a shit – and that’s good – but the way they are executing it seems misplaced, especially when there are so many other ways they could have done it and helped … from lowering food portion sizes [and giving the money saved in lower produce purchase costs to the needy] through to simply handing out all the food left over at night to the local homeless.
I guess, when you try and make a charitable action into a marketing activity, you sometimes lose sight of how to actually solve the problem because the allure of advertising your association is too compelling … especially when you are desperate for news and relevance.
And in an instant, all the good things you’re doing are lost because people end up commenting about how you’re doing things rather than why – which means the much bigger issue fails to have as much impact as it could. Or should.