Shakes or Fingers?

By now most people have heard about the lady who claimed she found a human finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili.

Well now the man who lost the finger has been identified. He lost his finger in an accident with a trucklift according to a Reuters report. And he gave the finger to a co-worker to settle a debt for $50.

I'm not so certain that everyone has heard about the woman, Anna Ayala, who found the finger being charged with grand theft and conspiracy to present a fraudulent insurance claim. She's still awaiting trial and is in jail. The court felt she was a flight risk and set bail at $500,000.

To combat the lost sales it's currently experiencing, last weekend Wendy's gave away 15 million free Frosty's. Now I am no Wendy's connoisseur (because I don't like square hamburgers), but if you wanted to prove to people that there aren't fingers in your chili, wouldn't you give away chili?

This is pretty straight-forward crisis management activity in the long run. But you still worry about copycats if you're the company. Prosecutors in the case claim that Wendy's has lost 2.5 million in sales and been forced to layoff employees. That means that Wendy's has to feel that their corporate reputation has taken a bigger hit than 2.5 million if they gave away 15 million Frosty's. They also had the president and COO jetting around the country to meet with customers at the restaurants.

I still hear Dave, the funniest man in the world, making finger jokes. I'm not sure what else the company could do. Maybe give away copies of the Freddy Got Fingered DVD? Trips to the Finger Lakes in New York?