I’m Done with fearing food and done with A&W;
Yes, there are hormones in your food, but are they something to fear? A&W certainly thinks so, with a new campaign promoting their beef burgers produced with “no added hormones or steroids”. It is good to know a company that says, “Being a leader isn’t always easy – but doing the right thing rarely is,” is clearly only interested in selling a few more hamburgers because of fear, rather than educating a skeptical customer.
First point: You have hormones in you right now, and whether you eat a Teen Burger or not isn’t going to change that. In fact, you may even be taking additional hormones to help keep you from getting pregnant, lessen the effects of menopause, or an incredible host of other concerns and issues. Hormones also are natural in every other living thing from a soybean plant to a duck. It is why A&W has to promote there are not ‘added’ hormones, and can’t get away with saying hormone-free.
Bravo.
A & W can pound sand.
I noticed this the other day when I was there. I got a confused look when I asked for hormones on the side.
A&W are free to treat me (and the public) like idiots.
I am free to purchase my burgers elsewhere.
And I’ve told them so.
(I’ll miss their onion rings but fortunately IHOP has great rings too.)
With how soya has an negative estrogen spiking reaction in a percentage of the male population, causing prostate problems as well as not allowing a man’s natural testosterone levels to do what they are supposed to, I cheer on A&W and say they choose to do their due-diligence in letting a cow be a cow and pass that choice on to their customers.
Beats the heck out of McDonald’s and their pink slime!!
A&W sells pretty good burgers – and if they wanted to advertise them as made from virgin martians, I’d still think they were pretty good burgers.
Their stores are disgusting pig sties. They’d be better off advertising that they’ve hired cleaners. Granted it’s not as bad as Dairy Queen but close.
We used to stop at A&W about twice a month, but have not been in one since we noticed the garbage advertising sign. I also emailed them.
A & W has been my favourite burger joint since childhood. I’ve stopped buying their products since I learned about this. It hasn’t been that big of a deal.
Agree Paul Murphy. It’s still the best burger around.
“A & W has been my favourite burger joint since childhood.”
That’s because you’ve never tasted my wife’s 1/2 pound venison special topped off with a slice of Balderson old cheese and garnished with a bit of horseradish and washed down with a non-union brewed beer!
de gustibus non est disputandum
Everybody has their own tastes and almost all are correct. Tastes in hamburgers are like taste in women. Some like them fat, some like them thin. Some like them hot. Some like vegetarian. If you don’t like what you get, don’t order it again.
A&W has successfully lost me as a customer already just with the cutesy burger names and the pitiful food. The hormone thing, while stupid, doesn’t make me want to go eat there any less. Once was enough.
A&W is one of those franchises that destroyed their own reputation back in the 1970s with crappy food and crappy service. I guess the drive-in gimmick stopped working, and they cost-cut themselves to death. Their resurgence as one more burger joint makes me roll my eyes and wonder how it is people with that much money to throw around can be that dumb. I’d sooner eat at McDonalds, and I don’t like McDonalds.
In truth, eating out is generally an expensive bore. Other than sushi, I prefer meals I burn myself. When I make it at least I know if it got dropped on the floor.
Their campaign is certainly stupid, but their stock price has certainly benefited since the campaign.
When visiting Puerto Rico as a young sailor in the 70’s, we were advised to stay away from eating chicken because of alleged hormones used to fatten them up in a short period of time. In the same vein, proponents of whey protein from New Zealand claim it to be the only whey that’s free from hormones because the Kiwi government forbids their use in the cattle industry. And while I like the Teen burger I prefer the Whopper.
There is crap in everything we eat nowadays, so go for the gusto and stop whining about hormones … jesus is that your big problem? … that someone put up an ad about no added hormones …. If you take that as meaning ‘hormone free’ then you are simply gullible. That is how politicians win elections … they put up an ambiguous ad people suck it up and get worried then …. we get an asshole like Justin Clouseau who will ban those ambiguous ads for you so you can get some sleep.
Christ people are dull witted. And I talking to you? Maybe.
Advertising is always suspect, but that’s who people sell product. I do not eat at anyplace that offers a drive through burger and fries pick up. that is not healthy food and should be regarded as a treat like ice cream and not as genuine nutrition.
I know a few people including my wife … who do eat that shit frequently and they all agree, that A&W is the best of them … so let’s lighten up on the poor old Root Bear …. he is just trying to make living.
I’ll continue to eat A&W burgers with or without this latest marketing campaign (to which I’m utterly indifferent).
Heck, I’ve eaten in more than a few vegetarian restaurants in my time. Not because they were vegetarian but simply because I thought their food was good.
You got me there. Eating food we grow/hunt and prepare ourselves is the tastiest and healthiest way to go.
Yeah well, I guess you fell for that “pink slime” nonsense.
That product is safe and nutricious, mixed into ground beef is undetectable….unless you have an active imagination. It increases profits/lowers costs for the entire system…from producer to consumer.
Otto Von Bismarck said state policy and sausages should both be made behind closed doors…or words to that effect.
I have always enjoyed A&W food, especially the apple pies which are coated with good old white sugar. I also used to enjoy their self-deprecating commercials featuring the unassuming little guy who had to deal with dumb employees and oddball customers. Now their commercials feature the same little guy who comes across as a sanctimonious dick. That being said, I guess they’re just trying to appeal to a certain segment of society, most of whom wouldn’t know a steroid from a hemorrhoid. Personally speaking, I don’t give a rat’s ass if their burgers contain steroids, hormones, antibiotics or sawdust. If they taste good, I’ll eat them.
Heck, I don’t care what they taste like. I do care that their stock just keeps going up and up.
Now I can eat at Ruth’s Chris Steak House.
I quit all fast food burgers after seeing the video of McDonald’s getting their burger meat from China. That floored me. I won’t eat any food made or processed in China and if McD’s does it, they likely all either do or will do it.
they may contain a hemorrhoid too.
I still like the A&W teenburger best of all , even though I am a grandpa. by the way , why is the grandpa burger the largest when a teen can eat double what I can. ?
I am frankly amazed at the haters here. Selling their products as hormoan free is nothing but good advertizing and marketing. If I love my Teenburger and root-beer and they tell me it is hormone free then bonus, I can munch merrily away in front of the eco-wackos and point to the sign.
Kind of reminds me of the “light” food syndrome where they cut back on an ingredient and declare it “lighter”, which was and still is true. Same as “gluten free” label will increase sales even if the original product had no gluten in the first place.
By the way, is Jamie MacMaster advertizing that his wife has a burger joint, or did he just invite all the SDA to come over for deer & beer?
I know several livestock haulers who wont eat at micky d’s either. Theyll eat at other fast food burger places.
Exactly. The same people who complain about waste food in landfills are the ones who “exposed” the process of using what would normally be thrown away but made into edible finely textured beef. With beef prices skyrocketing they should be so proud that they removed an affordable additive to keep prices low. Since the companies that were making it went bankrupt.
Some 60 years ago when I attended a summer camp I was warned by other campers not to eat the oatmeal at breakfast because they put saltpeter into it. (to keep us from getting horny)
Their campaign also promotes the chicken with no antibiotics. I always ask my wife – “Do you want the sick chicken with H1N1 in your meal, or the healthy one that got some antibiotics?”
All those extra hormones ingested as birth control; or hormone replacement therapy end up excreted and become part of the waste stream treated at the sewage plants. the problem is that pharmaceuticals including hormones can not be treated and eliminated from the discharge so we are adding huge amounts of hormones into the seas and rivers with out any idea what the end result is going to be. impact on the aquatic wildlife is obvious but what other effects are waiting to hit us?
http://www.snopes.com/military/saltpeter.asp
So I guess that means that A & W pay all their hookers. After all, how do you make a hormone? Don’t pay her.
Well, if synthetic hormones were the same as natural hormones, they couldn’t be patented. Just sayin’.
This is a third person twice removed testemonial from fjord. Real scientific rigor. I would not consider livestock haulers to be expert on what MacDonalds have in their burgers.I think livestock haulers are more expert as to what comes out of a cow’s butt as opposed to what go into their ovaries. ALL, I mean ALL meat going into MDs products is USDA inspected, as is the meat lyour knocker man gets from the cow you take in. Or reason both out countries are in such sad shape is that the average reader of blogs gives as much or more credence to those ignorant opinions as they do to those who know what they are doing.
I’ve treated myself to a Papa cheeseburger every month or so since I can’t remember when. With root beer in a giant chilled glass mug. They taste the same now as they did before the “no hormone” campaign. Best commercial burger out there IMO. Except maybe for “Son of Baconator” on a pretzel bun.
The little guy in the commercials used to be funny. Can’t be funny anymore, someone will get offended. Remember him hanging from the sign, as people rush for the 6 burgers for $2? “The signs’ wrong!” Do that now and there’s a sanctimonious segment on the TV news about how there’s supposed to be two people on the ladder.
So the little guy’s sanctimonious now too. Having “no hormones” is serious business. We want to feel superior to the masses eating at Micky D’s. We neeeeeed to feel superior. Heh, heh, heh.
Relax. It is just an ad. It will pass as quickly as one of their greasy burgers.
Within a 5 minute walk from my workplace are an A&W, McDonald’s, KFC, Taco Time and Burger King, and 3 private restraunts of good reputation. I used to go out for lunch to one of these at least 3 times a week, and sometimes A&W or McD for breakfast. I’ve cut out all for the last 3 months in favour of bringing lunch from home. My wallet has gotten fatter, and I’ve gotten thinner.
Shame really. The burger-fattened little guy used to be so cute and likeable and now he’s just a pill.
Quit eating at A&W over their sanctimonious ads. Shame as I really loved the Papa with/cheese.
Dairy Queen is the fast food burger of choice now.
Anytime someone tells me they are better because of some fad they are done with me.
I don’t pay attention to any advertising; it’s beamed at the segment of the population with below average intelligence, who obviously can’t think for themselves. I don’t eat the advertising posters, what they say is irrelevant. Where I choose to dine is based on the quality and taste of the food, the cleanliness of the store and the attitudes of the staff. In my town A&W is the best of the type on all counts, so that’s where I go if I want a good burger.
Couple weeks ago I was on the road for work, heading home. Seeing an A&W coming up, I realize it’s been like a year or 2 since I last had a milkshake.
I order a medium shake. They charge me about twice as much as what I remember the ‘large’ cost. The thimble of a cup they hand me is smaller than the ‘small’ cup they used to serve. It tastes like No-name chocolate syrup and chalk.
A&W is dead to me, they’ve gotten as bad as DQ.
I quit patronizing A&W several months ago and told them so. I had been a regular customer since the 60’s.
Why I quit:
1. The ads and their “we know what’s best for you” crap that drives these types of campaigns;
2. The new packaging for the burgers. It used to be that an A&W burger stayed warm until you could eat it. Now, half the burger is exposed and the rest of it is almost exposed – result? Cold burgers.
But mostly it was the ads that “educate” people about their meat, their eggs, and whatever else they are using now to drive sales. I don’t watch the ads anymore – I mute the TV when they come on. I haven’t encountered one person yet who is impressed by these ads. But then I don’t live in Toronto.
Notice how there are no farmers or ranchers testing their burgers in the commercials?
Maybe that’s because they would call BS on the no hormones crap.
None of the burgers I get at A&W are cold. Nobody else I know who eats there gets cold burgers. Perhaps it’s something you’re doing