Subscribe RSSFor Wendy's and Burger Crowned head the past five years have been tumultuous. Obesity concerns, the recession and the slow pace of improvement in the U.S. economy have bewitched their toll. When you add the management changes and internal issues both have faced, it is no wonder that McDonalds with its consistent advertising and marketing plan, low costs and strong supply chain lead both by a wide margin.
But Burger King before now has always managed to visit ahead of Wendy's. Wendy's has long been regarded as somewhat quirky with its square burgers and a weak menu of side items. But last year, the check all of a sudden got more focused retooling its buns and burgers to be more conventional, introducing new fries with sea salt, making its salads…well…salads and resurrecting its very top "Where's The Beef" advertising campaign.
Burger King, on the other hand, after a management change, banishing the increasingly disliked Burger King and a change in its advertising agency seems to be struggling to define itself. Both Wendy's and Burger King have stated they are focusing on the commons, but Wendy's change is significant and unmistakable while Burger King seems to be trying to convince us and themselves that the food we are familiar with is somehow distinct and that what we didn't understand is how much care they take in preparing it. I'm not sure consumers are buying that explanation. So now, after last year's dollars are all tallied up and accounted for, Wendy's undeterred by having nearly 1,400 fewer stores is expected to have earned more than $53 million more than Burger Majesty with an increase of 1.1 percent to Burger King's 3.9 percent decline.
I was 11 when the movie came out in 1968. I asked my parents to let me go see it in a Cinerama (the era’s version of IMAX) theater in Minneapolis that summer. Neither one wanted to go so I was out of luck. It’s one of those minor deals that still sticks in my mind, particularly with the retrospective knowledge of what it would have been like on such a huge screen. 
