Fatburger seems to be trying a new marketing message. At least it was new to me. For those not in California, it's a burger joint, a little more upscale than most of the fast food chains. I don’t get there very often. As those types of places go, I think they’re one of the best. There just aren’t any close enough to me that I get there very often.

Anyway, I did have lunch there today, and their in-store signage was along the lines of in a land of tofu and wheatgrass juice Fatburger is an oasis of taste. A few years ago, all their in-store work was working overtime trying to distance the Fatburger name from any anti-health connotations. They were playing off the whole nostalgia angle. You know back when we started our humble little hamburger stands, fat meant cool or whatever fat was supposed to mean back in the day. Then they’d go on to talk about how their burgers are actually very lean and healthy, and how they only use vegetable oil for their fries.

Obviously the idea that fries could be healthy is a pretty silly message when you think about it, but in the context of somebody who has already made the decision to go for an indulgence, it was pretty sharp and effective.

This new message just didn’t seem to work for me. I know some SUV’s have made some hay off the indulgence angle, but I just don’t see it playing very well in food. At least not in Southern California. It may play in the Midwest, but even then it seems pretty iffy to me. People will indulge – obviously. I just don’t think most people really want to have to confront that. They’d rather not think about it since thinking about it brings guilt. Maybe I’m projecting my own feelings here, but I don’t think so.

I’d love to talk to their marketing folks and find out what they’re thinking. In and Out’s radio campaign with John Goodman lampooning the whole diet shake angle seemed to work fairly well, so maybe they figure that is what people are looking for. And, I hear that in recession and times of fear (look around right?) people tend to turn to comfort foods, so maybe it’s just that their ear is closer to the ground on the whole what people want to eat thing.

I’d love to see their numbers though, because even with all that, I think it’s the wrong direction for them.