Finding Time To Hide The Donuts

Michael Vale memorably played Sam Breakstone.  But he achieved a kind of cultural immortality with another advertising icon - Dunkin' Donuts' Fred the Baker.

His character had a name?

For fifteen years, from 1982 to 1997, Dunkin' Donuts sold a brand image based on their dedication to making fresh donuts every morning.  No matter how tiring, Dunkin' Donuts' employees were fulfilling their responsibilities to millions of Americans.  That's not me talking, that's Ron Berger, the ad exec who cast Vale, speaking in a 2005 interview with CNN.  Fred the Baker and his catchphrase, time to make the donuts, "was a symbol of the routine of having to get up and fulfill a responsibility."

That's what doughnuts were:  a staple of breakfast so important that Dunkin' Donuts saw it as a responsibility to make them fresh every morning.

That campaign ended in 1997.  Fourteen years later, Dunkin' Donuts is still a strong restaurant chain.  But have you noticed something about their commercials?

Check out the front page of their website.  Across the top reads links to coffee, menu, restaurants, etc.  Here's the coffee page.  Here's the menu page.  Quick question.  On any of those pages so far, have you seen a picture of even one damn doughnut?

In fact, here's the list of their menu items from their own website, exactly as they appear:

Apple Pie

Bagel Twists

Bagels

Big N' Toasty

Blueberry Waffle Breakfast Sandwich

Breakfast Sandwiches

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Cookies

Danishes

Donuts

Hash Browns

Muffins

Munchkins®

Other Bakery

Other Sandwiches

Stuffed Breadsticks

Tuna Sandwiches

Wake-Up Wrap®

Doughnuts are tenth on the list.  Tenth.

Here's the Dunkin' Donuts Twitter feed.  Read down them and find one post that explicitly mentions doughnuts.

This is a typical Dunkin' Donuts commercial today:

Rachel Ray has recorded several spots for Dunkin' Donuts since 2007.  Guess how many involved actual doughnuts.  Also, Michelle Malkin accused her and Dunkin' Donuts of sending a message that they were pro-terrorist.

The reason is fairly obvious.  Trends and reliable scientific surveys over the last twenty years have shown that Americans are, very slowly, becoming more health conscious.  Corporations have responded by following the dollars and emphasizing the healthfulness of their products.  Sometimes this means actually offering better food; sometimes it means just obscuring how bad their food really is.

My Id says this is a fine breakfast.
My Superego actually kind of wants it, too.

And doughnuts are pretty bad.  One glazed doughnut from Dunkin' has 260 calories, 14 grams of fat and almost no vitamins or minerals.  About half the calories in the doughnut come from fat.  Surprisingly, though,  Dunkin' makes Men's Health's list of worst breakfasts for a simple bagel with cream cheese (510 calories  and 78 grams of carbs make it equal to about two doughnuts, although with half the fat.  But, and this is the important part, this menu item appears to be healthier than doughnuts.  In fairness, Dunkin' also had Men Health's number one healthful breakfast sandwich.

So, the brand image of a company with donuts in its name is being remade to exclude the doughnuts.  Dunkin' does run a small contest each year to design a new doughnut, but they've actually come out and admitted that their advertising is shifting towards anything that isn't a doughnut.

Are they lying?  Are they inviting consumers to delude themselves?  Are they just following market trends and offering consumers exactly what they want:  the appearance of health without the bother of actually changing one's diet?

One thing is certain:  It could be worse.  You could be eating at Denny's.