Flame-grilled is launching a new app, and using the occasion to poke fun at conspiratorial COVID-19 anti-vaxxers, an expression of what it calls the company鈥檚 exhaustion with customers who refuse to get vaccinated.
In a series of parody videos, online ads, posters and social media, the 鈥淒on鈥檛 be an Anti-Apper鈥� ads poke fun at science disbelievers, fake-news proponents and other conspiracy theorists. It says the campaign has two goals: to encourage people to get vaccinated and end the COVID pandemic, and to drive traffic to the new Nando鈥檚 app.
In the videos, actors playing 鈥渞eal people鈥� make conspiratorial comments about the 鈥渄angerous new app,鈥� with such reactions as: 鈥淣o one has studied the side effects of ordering directly from your phone,鈥� 鈥淭hey say trust the science, but there is no science in the app,鈥� 鈥淐ould apps on a phone make a guy impotent?,鈥� “I don鈥檛 want the Nando鈥檚 app on my phone and I sure as hell don鈥檛 want my phone implanted with 5G,鈥� and, 鈥淚 ordered Nando鈥檚 directly from my phone once, but I realized no one has studied the side effects.鈥�
Nando鈥檚 says it feels the direct effect every day at its stores in the D.C. area and Chicago area, the only U.S. markets where it has a presence, with staff getting sick and restaurants closing temporarily because of staff shortages and illness.
鈥淐OVID is tough on everyone, of course, but the hospitality industry business has been particularly hard hit. Nando鈥檚 wants to push back,鈥� Nando鈥檚 said in a statement.
Vaccination rates are high in the D.C. area, but the chain still runs the risk of alienating customers, or potential customers by mocking the anti-vaccination sentiment.
鈥淲e certainly hope not. That is not our intention. We think that through some good humor and some tongue-in-cheek advertising, we can encourage a conversation around the benefits of vaccination,鈥� said Sepanta Bagherpour, Nando鈥檚 chief brand officer.
Nando鈥檚 often uses satire in advertising to take on social issues.
In 2020, to promote voter registration for the upcoming national elections, it had a campaign called 鈥淭he Undemocratic Meal,鈥� adding menu choices with horrible combinations, like mayonnaise on chocolate cake, to make the point that choice matters. It also added free voter registration cards to its menus.
In 2017, for Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, Nando鈥檚 鈥淓veryone is Welcome鈥� campaign draped restaurants with signs saying 鈥淢uslims, Immigrants, Gay People all welcome.鈥� It also included posters in the former Express commuter newspaper.
Nando鈥檚 was founded in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1987.
鈥淲e are a brand that started at the end of the Apartheid era in South Africa. We owe it to South Africa and we owe it to ourselves to continue to continue to have an opinion and to lean into social issues,鈥� Bagherpour said.
Nando鈥檚 has restaurants in 23 countries and its first U.S. location opened in D.C. in 2008. It now has 43 restaurants in the D.C. and Chicago areas.
Here is one of Nando鈥檚 social media videos:
This video is no longer available.
Video courtesy of Nando鈥檚 PERi-PERi.
