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Wendy’s today announced today they would be coming out with an ‘irreverent’ ad campaign aimed at targeting the 18-35 year old audience. By my count that would make them the 1,584,475th corporate advertiser to think that bad jokes sell product. With this move Wendy’s will not only fail to distinguish themselves from the crowd, but become lost in it.

Perhaps my old curmudgeonly self is getting too dimwitted to appreciate the knee slapping good times a man drinking from a sprinkler can provide? Maybe a woman dunking her head in a fish tank makes the rest of society blow a gasket laughing, then pull a ‘u’ turn to their nearest Wendy’s. All I know for sure is that I’ve traced it back to Craig Kilborn on ESPN’s Sportscenter. One guy makes some jokes, then gets his own show with the Mad Magazine "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" approach and suddenly all the advertising world is convinced they've got 'irreverence' down to a mass produced art. I wait for the day when a commercial with an Improvesque comic asking ‘Are you ready to laugh? Then head to Burger King!" comes on.

Perhaps Depends can sell their product with comedy. They could have Shecky Greene doing standup at Retirement World, making the residents p**s themselves laughing. “Has this ever happened to you? Hi, I’m Paul Martin….”