Denny's "Irish Famine" Ad Raises Ghost of Past Racial Scandal
Denny's (DENN) appears to have withdrawn a TV ad commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine with a free pancake special, according to IrishCentral.com. The ad, from agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, is currently nowhere to be found on the Internet but was running as recently as two days ago. The Irish Echo reports:
There's already a Facebook page dedicated to fulminating against the ad. Many Irish famously regard the famine as unfairly neglected in history books and worthy of the designation "holocaust." (In the 1845-1852 famine, 1 million Irish died and 1 million more emigrated, largely to the U.S., as a potato blight coupled with British intransigence left the entire country short of food.) It's surprising that Denny's of all chains would make this mistake. In the 1990s, Denny's was successfully sued by several Secret Service agents who had waited an hour for service at an Annapolis restaurant while their white counterparts were served immediately. That incident followed the beating of some black customers in a Denny's parking lot after they complained the restaurant had refused to serve them.The commercial is for their new promotion of endless fries and pancakes and it uses the Irish famine as a joke. To paraphrase the commercial: 'In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Irish famine, Denny's is offering free endless fries and endless pancakes, though we haven't ever heard of a pancake shortage before,'" ...
In the late 1990s, Denny's embarked on a years-long effort to rid itself of its racist reputation and to ensure nothing like that ever happened again. The chain now touts itself as a model of diversity and few people remember the Secret Service lawsuit:
As of 2010, minorities make up 59% of total workforce and 41% of overall management. Over 40% of franchises are minority-owned and 44% of our Board of Directors consist of minorities and women.As it stands, Denny's is probably the most ethnically sensitive of the major fast-food advertisers. Here's its corporate tagline:
Diversity. It's written all over our facesRight now that's egg, not diversity.
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