Wendy’s, the American fast-food chain best known for square hamburger patties and its now-deceased founder Dave Thomas, is trying to reinvent itself. Earlier this year, Wendy’s rolled out a new, simpler logo for its stores and packaging:
“It’s a tangible symbol of change,” explained chief marketing officer Craig Bahner when the logo was first unveiled. But there’s a less obvious symbol hidden in there, as well. Do you see it? Take a closer look at the ruffles on Wendy’s collar:
Her collar appears to spell “mom.” See it?
It’s one of those seemingly subliminal messages that, now that it’s been pointed out (by the blog Stock Logos over the weekend), can’t be unseen. However, Wendy’s says we’re reading too much into her collar. “We are aware of this and find it interesting that it appears our Wendy cameo has ‘mom’ on her ruffled collar,” spokesman Denny Lynch wrote in an email to Quartz. “We can assure you it was unintentional.”
Nevertheless, Wendy’s is likely to enter the pantheon of logos with hidden messages, alongside FedEx, Amazon, and many others. And you’ll never look at a take-away bag from Wendy’s the same way again—which, for the privately held company trying to reinvent its image, may not be a bad thing.
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