How Arby's reversed decline by going viral

Arby's Restaurant Group, the US quick service restaurant (QSR) chain, took up a "Good Mood Food" position: food that would make you feel better.

How Arby's reversed decline by going viral

Geoffrey PrecourtWarc

On the first day of January 2000, Subway changed the nature of quick-service restaurant (QSR) marketing with a new television campaign that insisted fast food could be healthy food.

A decade later, Arby's Restaurant Group – a chain featuring primarily roast-beef sandwiches – decided it was time to explore another QSR positioning. This time, new agency BBDO proposed, the offerings wouldn't necessarily improve your health. But they would make you feel better.

And America heard the message: Good Mood Food

"It was a cross between 'Glee' and 'We Are the...

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