Arby's (And Reply)

One of your commercials really annoys me. Every time I see the commercial I end up yelling at the TV because it annoys me so. The commercial creating such annoyance is the one where the guy is quizzing people about Subway's meat and where they think it is sliced. The people in the commercial are unpleasantly surprised when they find out the meat is sliced in a factory instead of in the back of the store. I don't understand why meat sliced in a factory is such a bad thing. I would much rather have my meat sliced in a factory where regulations are easier to enforce instead of in the back of the store by teenagers who pick their noses and pop their zits. Also, it sounds like Arby's has to buy many unnecessary meat slicers. That doesn't sound time or cost efficient. Is that why I can get 12 inches of sandwich at Subway for the price of 3 inches of sandwich at Arby's.
One final anecdote to emphasize my point:
My husband and I were at Subway today. As we are waiting in line, we observe an employee opening a vacuum sealed bag of lettuce to restock the lettuce bin on the line. I commented to my husband: It's nice to know the lettuce comes vacuum sealed. My husband replies: Because you know it isn't sliced in the back? My reply: YES! I wasn't thinking that, but YES - cleaner and uniformly sliced. But I was really thinking about how nice it is that air can't get in to make the lettuce gross and brown.
There are many benefits to NOT having the meat sliced in the back. I really don't care too much that your meat is sliced in the back. But it really bugs me that you try to bring Subway down by making something they do that is great sound like it is a poor choice.

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Reply:

Dear Ms. Baarz,

 

Thank you for sharing your feedback on our new advertising campaign, Slicing Up the Truth About Freshness. We appreciate your concern and want to assure you that we are not making any claims to freshness.

 

We are not claiming that we taste better than Subway, or that they have low quality products. Instead, we’re only celebrating one of the staples that Arby’s was founded on – that we freshly slice meat in our restaurants every day. Not all restaurant chains, including Subway, can make this claim.

Again, thank you for your feedback.

 

Sincerely,

Arby’s Customer Relations

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My notes:

"...we are not making any claims to freshness..."

I take that to mean that they can't make any claims to freshness or else they would. So I assume that while the meat is freshly sliced, it is not actual fresh meat. Not very reassuring.

"...we're only celebrating one of the staples that Arby's was founded on - that we freshly slice meat in our restaurants every day..."

Is that worth celebrating? Am I the only one that doesn't care?