T.G.I. Friday's is Requesting Divine Intervention

It's rare that a marketing message catches me off guard, yet this happened recently when I saw a television commercial for T.G.I. Friday's that almost knocked me off my couch. The spot was unremarkable (and clearly forgettable) as I remember nothing about it except the very last moments, when the ad ran the following text below the company logo:

Thank God It's Friday's^TM

I was awestruck. They had actually used the word "God" in their tagline. At first, I couldn't believe what I had seen. Did they really just do that? I couldn't recall a single instance of an overtly non-religious organization invoking God to hock their wares, yet there it was. To be clear, I'm not insulted by this statement, but rather astonished that they would employ such a tactic.

Now, on the surface a clear argument in their favor is that the G in "T.G.I.F" does, colloquially, stand for "God". However, I feel that the issue is deeper than this: the company is almost implying that God is endorsing their restaurants. "Thank God It's Friday's" Yes, Thank God that over-priced, poorly-cooked and unhealthy food is available at 929 locations world-wide.

Putting aside my personal convictions over the restaurant in general, analyzing this objectively from a marketing standpoint introduces additional perspectives. For one, our culture has embraced a clear delineation between it being ok to mention God and it not being ok to use his name to sell cheeseburgers. Religion is a personal experience, and, while shared amongst the majority of our population in its different forms, there is almost universal repulsion at the idea of invoking his name in marketing.

Consider Wal-Mart, which is not only the largest retailer on the planet, but also one of the most fundamentally conservative. Surely it pains them not to say "If you love Jesus, shop here", and yet they hold back at overt politicizing in their marketing. On the other hand, I was once in a Wal-Mart in North Carolina and the entryway wall was covered with pictures of soldiers fighting in Iraq and a sign that said "Pray for Our Troops". This tacit endorsement of religion was OK because the local population, those being the only ones to see it, were fine with the idea. Wal-Mart knows when to draw the line, and when to cross it when nobody is looking. T.G.I. Friday's has clearly lost this distinction.

One more thing that I wasn't sure I saw in the ad, but was confirmed within their own press releases. Look at the end of the tagline and you'll see perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of this whole idea: ^TM

"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain"

How much more vain can you get than to trademark such a statement?