Critical Role Wendy’s sponsoring Critical Role?


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Burnside

Space Jam Confirmed
Supporter
What went wrong here was a lack of due diligence. My initial reaction when they first announced the gig was surprise and mild disappointment. Two minutes of googling on their part would have turned up enough red flags to make them second guess the deal, and they did drop the ball there. The problem they ran into is that being good progressives is part of their brand and this sponsor does not track with that image at all. They're back pedaling about as gracefully as possible and I don't see where this will do them any long term harm. I also think they are over-extended and stretched too thin right now in terms of their commitments. Growing pains sometimes lead to mistakes.
 

Harzel

Adventurer
What are you even getting at, here?

Putting words in @jasper's mouth, I guess, but I think it's that it's easy for someone to run their mouth about what someone else did, harder to put skin in the game.

To be clear, I have no issue with anyone piping up and saying, "Hey, did you guys know XYZ? That doesn't seem to align with your stated values, so maybe you should reconsider." OTOH, people that go on and on about how CR have mortally wounded entire communities and everyone is now going to walk away from their show and they are horribly irresponsibly sell-outs and irredeemably compromised betrayers-of-our-trust? That small, noisy minority are, frankly, acting like self-righteous p***ks and deserve to be shown a mirror. However, to be fair, they don't seem to have shown up in this thread (yet).
 
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jasper

Rotten DM
What are you even getting at, here?

Critics weren’t the ones receiving a large payout to advertise for Wendy’s.
Ok to sum up from what I got from this thread. Wendy's created a quick and dirty RPG just for giggles and advertising. Wendy's paid CR to do an episode using the rules. CR said yes. The mob said Wendy's bad. And must have yelled at CR, "Wendy's bad". CR then said "Profits to the union".
Some people here yelled Wendy's bad, union good. I said ,"Hey you gripers how much have you donated to union? Or are you here just gripe?"
 

jasper

Rotten DM
What went wrong here was a lack of due diligence. My initial reaction when they first announced the gig was surprise and mild disappointment. Two minutes of googling on their part would have turned up enough red flags to make them second guess the deal, and they did drop the ball there. T..
I just plugged in Wendy's Bad pr. Finger in Wendy's food on page one. Nothing about the union problem on first four pages. So of us get busy and don't pay attention to what other business outside our field do. I have go deep to find out how other retirement business are doing.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
I just plugged in Wendy's Bad pr. Finger in Wendy's food on page one. Nothing about the union problem on first four pages. So of us get busy and don't pay attention to what other business outside our field do. I have go deep to find out how other retirement business are doing.

That’s almost comprehensible... but not quite. It reads like one of those phishing spam emails from Nigerian princes! What was it you were trying to say? :)

I mean, “I have go deep to find out how other retirement business are doing” sounds fun... but what does it mean?
 

jasper

Rotten DM
That’s almost comprehensible... but not quite. It reads like one of those phishing spam emails from Nigerian princes! What was it you were trying to say? :)

I mean, “I have go deep to find out how other retirement business are doing” sounds fun... but what does it mean?
Ok I work in IT in for a state run retirement system. Unless CBS has done an article on how a state retirement fund is not being funded correctly. Using google to find out how good a state run system is running is a bad idea.
Back to the subject.
Demanding small business do a deep dive on google for how a sponsor rates in "Good, Ethical, socially aware, category " is silly. Look at check, do two minute research and take their money.

Shoot I evil enough that at the church I run down to Walmart to buy church supplies with church money. Why?Because it is a mile away. My church thinks Walmart is evil. Target is GOOD. However Target is 6 miles away.
 

Burnside

Space Jam Confirmed
Supporter
FWIW, I run a small business and I absolutely vet my sponsors. I'd be silly not to. This doesn't require a "deep dive" either. When considering a sponsor or partnership, I google "(Name of thing) controversy". Doing that with Wendy's tells you the whole deal in seconds. And my small business doesn't involve endorsing things in front of 90K people on a live stream. If it did, I would absolutely make sure I knew what I was endorsing.
 

While I enjoy critical role, this kind of thing doesn't surprise me at all. We're talking about the same people who are too busy to remember what their spells do or how sneak attack works. 🤪
 


jgsugden

Legend
I think Matt went out of his way to avoid criticizing (or even mentioning) Wendy's and even to avoid objecting directly to the toxicity of some of the criticism directed at CR. He focused on CR's experience of the whole thing, which is pretty much on-brand for him. Any implication about Wendy's is very indirect at best.
Everyone understood. Regardless of whether it was indirect, it was clear and Wendy's will not be pleased. Other potential sponsors will be aware of this situation.
 



doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Ok to sum up from what I got from this thread. Wendy's created a quick and dirty RPG just for giggles and advertising. Wendy's paid CR to do an episode using the rules. CR said yes. The mob said Wendy's bad. And must have yelled at CR, "Wendy's bad". CR then said "Profits to the union".
Some people here yelled Wendy's bad, union good. I said ,"Hey you gripers how much have you donated to union? Or are you here just gripe?"
So, gibberish and obtuse refusal to understand what others are saying. Got it.
 

While discussing a specific deal within the gaming community is considered on-topic, there's a point when you are getting into general politics, which is not what the boards are here for. Please keep the scope of discussion in-bounds.
Hilariously, the people calling for CR to "do the right thing" in regards to Wendy's are writing out their messages on Twitter where the owner gave a platform to far right hate groups and conspiracy theorists, on phones and laptops made by slave labor in China, and watch the show every week on Twitch which is owned by Amazon, whose owner is so ungodly rich that the only way he can reasonably spend a significant chunk of his money is NOT by paying his employees fairly or allowing them a reasonable amount of time for restroom breaks, but instead by sending people into space.

Wendy's is not the problem. The entire SYSTEM is the problem. McDonalds and Burger King might be slightly better than Wendy's because they joined the Fair Food Program, but lets not kid ourselves here. Every major corporation has skeletons in their closet and are NOT doing everything they can for the people who work for them.

But I guess we got CR to donate money that could help keep their doors open, so.... go us?
 

Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow
Yeah they still weren't great, KFC does good chicken burgers.

Whopper with cheese or quarter pounder with bacon or even basic quarter pounder is better than anything I had at Wendy's.

KFC is just horrible all round here, the only fastfood joint approaching good is Wendys and thats just for the baked potatoes. I prefer to get Sushi or Pita Pockets and occasionally a Subway
 

Zardnaar

Legend
KFC is just horrible all round here, the only fastfood joint approaching good is Wendys and thats just for the baked potatoes. I prefer to get Sushi or Pita Pockets and occasionally a Subway

I don't generally eat any of them but I'll occasionally eat McDonalds.

I normally go for Arabic, Indian, Turkish it's about the same price.

KFC us fairly bad but the wraps here are decent along with the burgers. Haven't eaten it since Dec 2017.

Been a bad week this week with 3 dining out meals of which 2 were junk food.
 

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
Sorry man. I’m trying to parse these sentences, and I understand each word individually, but arranged in that order I’m struggling. “Shoot I evil enough”?

I think he just left off an apostrophe and a "m". Looked like he was saying, "Shoot, I'm evil enough..."
 

Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Mod Note:

Folks, please remember that while a specific deal within the gaming community may be considered newsworthy, and up for discussion, the general ills of the world eventually becomes politics, beyond our scope, and not appropriate for these boards.

There are important things in the world - Take such discussions to appropriate places. Here, we talk about pretending to be elves.
 

Harzel

Adventurer
Everyone understood. Regardless of whether it was indirect, it was clear and Wendy's will not be pleased.

"Wendy's" is not a single person who can be pleased or displeased. It's a bunch of people who I'm quite sure will have varying reactions. If you are saying that Wendy's as a company probably would refuse being a CR sponsor again in the foreseeable future, I'd say you are very likely correct. But I'm pretty sure CR feel the same way, so I'm not sure what this observation is salient to.

Other potential sponsors will be aware of this situation.

Well, that certainly sounds ominous (and, as far as it goes, obviously true), but "potential sponsors" are an even less homogeneous group than "Wendy's". You seem to be trying to imply, without saying it explicitly, that some (or maybe all?) potential sponsors will now be more reticent (or completely opposed?) to sponsoring CR. Ok, probably you could find some, but it's only interesting if some are sponsors that CR would want considering what they've learned from this little debacle. I'm not saying it's impossible, but to me it seems like it's going to be a corner case. Would you care to make an explicit assertion that we could actually discuss?
 

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