17551: Popeyes Adds More White Meat To Its Marketing Menu.

 

Advertising Age reported Popeyes shook up its roster of White marketing firms, appointing White non-advertising-agency Anomaly to handle US creative duties.

In recent years, Popeyes experienced declining sales, prompting a revised strategy to improve its execution, simplify its menu, and better communicate its value proposition.

Gee, seems like things were fine when Annie the Chicken Queen ruled the Louisiana Kitchen.

Popeyes names Anomaly its US creative agency as part of a broader roster overhaul

By Brian Bonilla

Popeyes has appointed Anomaly as its new U.S. creative agency of record as the chicken chain looks to sharpen its marketing around its core menu and value positioning following a prolonged stretch of sales declines.

As part of the broad overhaul of its roster, Popeyes also named LaForce as its U.S. communications agency, Angry Butterfly as its creative agency of record in Canada and Massive Rocket to lead its CRM and customer lifecycle marketing. Angry Butterfly had already started working on the business earlier this year. The agencies join existing media agency PHD and shopper marketing partner 500 Degrees.

The U.S. review was managed by Jeffries Consulting, while Graphic Content Consulting oversaw the Canadian search. Stagwell’s Anomaly did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The appointments mark the end of Popeyes’ relationship with McKinney, which had led the brand’s creative business in the U.S. and Canada since 2023. “Popeyes has been an incredible partner and we’re proud of the work we created together,” a McKinney spokesperson previously told Ad Age. “While we chose not to participate in the review, we wish the Popeyes team continued success.”

Popeyes framed the agency shifts as a move to further its focus on food quality, its Cajun and Creole roots and its affordability. “Popeyes is built on bold Louisiana flavor and a deep connection to our guests,” Matt Rubin, chief marketing officer of Popeyes U.S. and Canada, said in a statement. “These partners were chosen to help us do what we do best, better: bringing our food quality and brand character to life consistently for every guest, every visit.”

Rubin took over the chain’s marketing in January, following the departure of Bart LaCount, who is now CMO of Driven Brands. Jeff Klein, who oversaw Popeyes’ 2023 appointment of McKinney during his tenure as CMO and later served as president of Popeyes U.S. and Canada, earlier this year joined Subway, where he currently serves as its U.S. CMO. (Subway is currently in the midst of its own agency review process.)

The agency shakeup comes as Popeyes, the nation’s 14th-largest restaurant chain according to Technomic data, works to reverse declining sales. Popeyes’ U.S. comparable sales fell 2.9% in 2025, followed by a 6.5% decline in the first quarter of 2026, parent company Restaurant Brands International reported in May. By comparison, sibling chain Burger King posted a 5.8% increase in U.S. comparable sales during the first quarter.

Josh Kobza, the CEO of RBI, told investors in May that the company had identified the underlying issues at Popeyes and was focused on improving its execution, simplifying the menu around core offerings and better communicating the brand’s value proposition. Some of the changes, he said, include more field support to ensure more consistent training on brand standards, as well as refocusing the company’s menu on bone-in chicken, tenders and sandwiches.

“A tighter focus makes it easier to execute well in the restaurant and ensures our marketing is working harder behind fewer, stronger bets,” Kobza said in May.

The changes follow a modest increase in advertising investment. Popeyes’ U.S. measured media spending rose to approximately $182 million in 2025 from $169 million in 2024, according to MediaRadar.

RBI is set to report its second-quarter results on Aug. 6. 

17327: On Bringing Back Black Blasts From The Past.

The previous post on Dos Equis spotlighted a common practice among White advertising agencies, whereby iconic campaign characters are revived and/or resuscitated to reinvigorate a brand.

 

The reintroductions include gushing from CEOs, CMOs, and CCOs, revealing sales were best during promotions of the past, the updated critter will ignite a boring category, the public demanded the reappearance, blah, blah, blah.

 

Has anyone considered bringing back Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus?

 

The same marketing criteria mentioned above can surely be applied to the famed triumvirate.

 

Hell, Honey Bunches of Oats once coaxed Diana Hunter—the Honey Bunches of Oats Lady—out of retirement.

 

Who’s next—Mia the Land O’Lakes Native American Maiden, the Frito Bandito, and Annie the Chicken Queen?

 

Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war!

17169: Winging It At Popeyes.

 

Popeyes added new “Better Wings” to its menu…? Better than what?

 

The hype included gushing from Popeyes’ Vice President of Culinary Innovation—who’s been serving the chicken chain for nearly 18 years.

 

Guess that confirms Annie the Chicken Queen—who constantly boasted about her culinary creations—was a totally fictional fraud.

17134: Cravings, Cronies, Cultures, Castles.

 

Advertising Age reported White Castle hired a new White advertising agency—GSD&M.

 

Creative and media duties slide from Merkley+Partners to GSD&M, both within Omnicom Group—pointing to probable Corporate Cultural Collusion that the White holding company has mastered so well.

 

According to Ad Age, the account review featured a “cultural scan” that matched client and agency based on 54 attributes, determining potential “chemistry” between all parties. A cultural scan of GSD&M leadership, incidentally, displays common corporate Caucasian dominance.

 

No word on multicultural marketing possibilities. GSD&M likely feels qualified to handle such matters, of course, as they are those wonderful folks who gave you Annie the Chicken Queen.

 

Behind GSD&M’s White Castle win—creative and media accounts slide over to the Omnicom agency

 

By Brian Bonilla

 

White Castle, the 104-year-old family-owned slider chain, has named GSD&M as its new creative and media agency of record. The assignment follows a competitive review handled by Rojek Consulting Group.

 

Omincom Group’s Merkley+Partners previously handled creative and Crossmedia handled media. While Merkley+Partner’s remit has concluded, Crossmedia will stay on until potentially sometime in August, White Castle Chief Marketing Officer Lynn Blashford said. Blue Chip will remain as its shopper marketing agency of record.

 

Lynn Blashford said the change was driven by a desire for “some fresh perspectives” and to bring creative, strategy, and media back under one roof. “It helps for better planning and … it’s much more efficient for our team,” she said.

 

Omnicom’s GSD&M will now oversee creative, strategy, media, experiential and social duties for the brand, with its first work expected in early 2026.

 

White Castle, which operates 340 restaurants across 14 states, ranked 87th in Technomic’s Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report, down from 82nd in 2024. Its sales fell to $651 million in 2024 from $684 million in 2023, according to Technomic data cited by Restaurant Business.

 

Building chemistry

 

The review began with a “cultural scan” that is part of Rojek’s offering. The scan is a survey that matches client and agency based on 54 attributes, measuring values such as “team oriented, results driven, [and] taking bold risks.” Blashford noted that collaboration, innovation and risk-taking were key qualities that emerged as top priorities for White Castle.

 

“It’s important for us to start with an agency that is going to match our beliefs and our values and how we work, because we think that’s going to end up with a more powerful and long-term relationship,” she said.

 

Chemistry within the agency played an especially significant role in the process. “You could tell from the very first call that they all got along together,” Blashford said of GSD&M. “That’s very telling when you’re watching how they interact with each other, as well as how they’re interacting with us as the client team.”

 

GSD&M distinguished itself from the outset in a few ways. Most notably, the agency welcomed the client by serving sliders and building a White Castle facade in its lobby.

 

The White Castle team returned the favor by hiring someone to play a “Town Crier” to announce the win to the agency.

 

The agency showcased parent Omnicom Group’s media tools during the pitch, including a live demo. GSD&M CEO Lee Newman said this is something the agency has been doing more of in the past six months as it purposefully continues to target integrated accounts.

 

Refreshing its marketing approach

 

For White Castle, the next phase is about refreshing its marketing and appealing to younger consumers while leveraging its legacy and cultural relevance. This includes both White Castle’s restaurants and its frozen food in grocery stores.

 

“We’re looking to grow the next generation of ‘Cravers,’” Blashford said, while acknowledging budget realities: “Our budgets are smaller … the ability to be resonant with a new and younger audience is important for both our CPG business as well as our restaurant business.”

 

Blashford acknowledged that broader economic pressures are impacting the category. “Economy is top of mind for consumers everywhere. [Quick-service restaurant] traffic is flat. The frozen food aisle is flat,” she said, noting that smaller chains such as White Castle face added challenges breaking through with limited budgets.

 

The brand sees an opportunity to stay relevant by balancing nostalgia with bold ideas that appeal to younger consumers.

 

Last year, White Castle spent $5 million on U.S. measured media, according to data by MediaRadar. Blashford declined to comment on White Castle’s ad spend, but said there will be a slight uptick in ad spend next year.

 

Given its smaller size compared to the larger QSR chains, White Castle has been investing in different marketing tactics. Already a third of White Castle’s media budget is in social, Blashford said. The brand also benefits from organic celebrity affinity, such as a partnership it solidified with rapper Fat Joe a few years ago.

 

White Castle is also known for quirky marketing moments that generate earned media, such as its longstanding Valentine’s Day dinner reservations. This year’s Valentine’s Day program garnered $35 million worth of organic earned media, Blashford confirmed.

 

“When your budget for media is not as big as some of our competitors, doing some of these very unique, memorable things that are a little unexpected … helps to keep White Castle unique and sort of the ‘unc­orporate’ chain doing these fun things,” Blashford said.

 

White Castle is also looking for unexpected collaborations to drive awareness. It recently partnered with Garage Beer, owned by Travis and Jason Kelce, on a retail sweepstakes that included a freezer full of sliders and a refrigerator full of beer as prizes. The brand also continues to have cultural cachet thanks to the 2004 cult classic “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.”

 

“We talk about Harold and Kumar being the gift that keeps on giving for us,” Blashford said, noting that every time the film’s stars Kal Penn or John Cho are mentioned in entertainment coverage, White Castle earns organic impressions. “Every generation kind of gets their Harold and Kumar moment,” she said, noting that customers still visit the restaurants and tag their own “Harold and Kumar moment” on social media as a rite of passage.

 

Blashford said she will look to GSD&M to help create more broad appeal for the brand while continuing its localized approach in specific markets. This includes tackling certain misconceptions about White Castle.

 

“If there’s any misconception, it might be the people who don’t come to us, who think of us only as a late-night kind of place,” Blashford said. “That is something we need to have a broader appeal for just business purposes alone.

 

She highlighted the chain’s breakfast sliders, a menu strength that many customers may overlook. The company also controls its own supply chain, operating its own bakeries and meat plants to produce buns and patties in-house, ensuring consistency across all its restaurants.

 

White Castle has also been innovating at its restaurants. One example is its use of voice-activated ordering technology, with an AI assistant known as Julia handling nearly 90% of orders across its drive-thru lanes at more than 30 restaurants where it is deployed. It’s named after Julia Joyce, a brand ambassador from the 1940s who helped convince mothers to serve White Castle at home, Blashford said.

 

“She’s been getting a little smarter, a little better,” Blashford said, noting that the system has learned regional accents and slang such as “give me a castle” to improve order accuracy.

 

Customers can opt out of speaking with Julia at any time to connect directly with a team member. “She does a great job of suggesting, selling, and she never calls off sick,” Blashford joked.

 

The win builds on momentum for GSD&M, which earlier this year added Pacific Life to its client roster. Its other major clients include Corona, Capital One, Dodge and Southwest Airlines. Its prior restaurant clients included Pizza Hut and Popeyes.

16758: Happy Labor Day.

 

On Labor Day, Adland honors and recognizes the workers.

16597: GSD&M DEIBA+ PR & BS.

 

Advertising Age reported GSD&M launched its latest heat shield: a DE&I advisory committee to support diverse-owned vendors.

 

David Ogilvy was wont to saying, “Search the parks in all your cities, you’ll find no statues of committees.”

 

Yet Adland is wont to creating committees to address DEIBA+ initiatives, delegating responsibility to others versus taking direct accountability, responsibility, and action.

 

So, the GSD&M stunt feels like performative PR for a heat shield delegating diversity to Human Heat Shields and ERGs. Quite a maneuver from those wonderful folks who brought you Annie the Chicken Queen.

 

GSD&M launches DE&I advisory committee to help diverse-owned vendors

 

Business owners, leaders and supplier diversity advocates will be at the helm of the committee

 

By Arvelisse Bonilla Ramos

 

Omnicom Group’s GSD&M is launching an advisory committee to help drive change for diverse-owned vendors who say they continue to face little progress within the ad industry.

 

The Vendor Advisory Committee will consist of six members, including diverse business owners, leaders from various production areas and regions and advocates for supplier diversity within the industry.

 

The founding members include Qadree “Q” Holmes, founder and executive producer of Quriosity Productions; Yvette Cobarrubias, co-founder and managing partner of video editing company Cosmo Street; Pamala Buzick Kim, founder and executive director of Free The Work; Max Rutherford, VP of vendor partner diversity at GSD&M; and Keisha Townsend-Taitt, chief inclusion officer at the agency.

 

“Committees like this matter. I have found that many of the diversity, equity, and inclusion champions find themselves talking in a room full of people that look like themselves,” Holmes said in a statement. “If we aren’t speaking to leadership, then these efforts become ineffective. Leadership commitments make these committees very real.” 

 

Holmes hopes the committee will help address the “broken promises” faced by diverse directors, editors and crews.

 

“We are hoping that people take notice and realize the impact they can actually have,” said Holmes. “We will always stand out as the first group that actually implemented a real program where the checks are being cut to change the systematic issues that exist in all sectors of business.”

 

The committee’s main responsibilities include consulting and collaborating with the GSD&M leadership team and providing guidance on supplier diversity issues, organizational matters, as well as strategies for sustainable development and growth of small and diverse businesses. It will also serve as a sounding board on supplier diversity matters.

 

“We reached a point where we cannot internally make any changes other than what we’ve [already] made. We need that external voice to come in and help us present the right story that will engage our agency folks, as well as our clients and the industry in general,” said GSD&M’s Rutherford. “We’re needing their expertise because they live this life. They live the life of trying to get through the gatekeepers.”

 

The committee’s launch comes two years after GSD&M conducted its first survey of diverse partners in the advertising industry. The results of the 2023 survey of 2,000 diverse-owned vendors mirrored the 2022 survey of just over 1,000 vendors.

 

In the survey conducted last November, about 79% of vendors said they received little to no feedback when not awarded a project, essentially the same amount as in 2022. About 78% of vendors said they believe agencies prefer working with established partners, overlooking new companies, also flat year over year.

 

The survey found that 48.7% of respondents think they don’t have enough connections or partnerships with agencies, which rose from 46% in 2022.

 

“Momentum overall is plateauing for DE&I, and all of that eagerness we saw in June of 2020, these commitments and these statements, have stalled,” said Townsend Taitt.

 

The slowed progress is evident in overall media spend: Investment in diverse media grew much slower in 2023 than in 2022, according to recent research from the ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing. (Some agency executives, however, believe that the slowed growth was expected given the 2022 surge.)

 

Taitt said there are “really simple things” agencies can do to improve relations with diverse vendors, such as providing feedback.

 

“That’s going to help them. Make sure the budget and the parameters of a bid are well defined before you’re making calls so that you’re not wasting people’s resources because we know that’s a heavier burden on small and minority-owned businesses,” she said.

 

Taitt noted that quick responses are crucial for minority-owned agencies. With fewer employees and resources, every response costs money because time is money for these smaller, more diverse companies.

 

The advisory committee will also be part of the agency’s annual Diverse Partner Summit. The summit, last held in December, featured in-person and virtual programming aimed at connecting diverse partners with agency decision-makers. Some 126 people attended.

 

As part of the summit, anyone in the industry can register to meet diverse vendors in pre-scheduled 15-minute virtual meetings. There were 251 virtual meeting registrations in 2023, compared to 126 for the same event in 2022. The number of meetings increased to 150, up from 75 in 2022.

16533: Popeyes Super Bowl Game Plan Is More Nonsense.

 

Advertising Age revealed Popeyes’ first-ever Super Bowl commercial will star comedian Ken Jeong. It’s a safe bet that Annie the Chicken Queen and/or her Nonsensical Successor will not be making an appearance in the campaign. So much for Louisiana authenticity. Then again, Annie was hardly a Louisiana native…

16520: Popeyes Super Bowl Wings Promotion Gets Clipped.

 

With the defeats of the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens, the Popeyes promotion promising free wings if the Super Bowl LVIII Vince Lombardi Trophy goes to a team with wings has been grounded.

 

Was the Louisiana Kitchen affected by Offensive Karma? After all, Popeyes did dump a minority-owned advertising agency in favor of a White advertising agency—and dismissed Annie the Chicken Queen too.

16517: Speaking Out For Spokespeople.

 

The New York Times published a report titled, “When Being A Spokeswoman Attracts Leering Trolls,” chronicling the trials and tribulations of Milana Vayntrub, aka AT&T Store Saleswoman Lily.

 

Not to discount the traumatic turmoil experienced by Vayntrub, but it seems like the actress has garnered quite a bit of publicity from the troll-induced violation.

 

Why, she’s even received support from fellow actress-spokeswoman Stephanie Courtney, aka Progressive Saleswoman Flo. Um, no comment—except to say that Internet trolls cover a diversity of deviants.

 

At least Vayntrub got public backing from AT&T, per a company statement issued in 2020 that read: “We will not tolerate the inappropriate comments and harassment of Milana Vayntrub, the talented actor who portrays Lily in our ads. We have disabled or deleted these comments on our social content that includes Lily and we will continue to fight to support her and our values, which appreciate and respect all women.”

 

Hey, the AT&T declaration is a lot compared to the silent shrugs expressed by AB InBev and Bud Light for Dylan Mulvaney, who arguably took far more abuse than Vayntrub or Courtney—not to imply it’s a contest with varying degrees of unacceptability.

 

Given that women of color are disrespected and assaulted at much higher levels—and with far less coverage—versus White women, one can only imagine who else is facing such outrageous harassment.

 

Was Annie the Chicken Queen forced to abandon her advertising role after being abused? What about the Pine-Sol Lady and Honey Bunches of Oats spokeswoman?

 

In these times of inclusivity and gender equality, don’t forget to verify the safety of the Old Spice Man and Jake from State Farm.

 

And who knows what level of obscene behavior these spokespeople might endure on production sets from advertising agency predators.

16502: Popeyes Party Poop.

 

Annie the Chicken Queen’s nonsensical replacement crashes a wings party via a Popeyes commercial that feels like witnessing a car crash.

 

 

16501: Winging It With Popeyes.

 

Popeyes’ first-ever Super Bowl appearance involves a promotion for free wings if the championship trophy goes to an NFL team with wings—although it’s not clear if the designation refers to the team logo or whether having a wingback on the squad qualifies too. The official details are as vague as the terms and conditions.

 

The associated commercial features Poppy the Popeyes mascot. Annie the Chicken Queen and her nonsensical replacement are nowhere to be found. Guess they’ve been demoted to wing women.