If anything can be gathered from Wegmans Food Markets pulling a holiday ad campaign featuring Alec Baldwin, only to reinstate the ads a few weeks later, it's that the chain is very attentive to the wishes of its customers. The Rochester, New York-based Wegmans is putting its commercials featuring Alec Baldwin back on the air after complaints poured in over their removal.
The ads were first removed in response to some negativity against the brand for featuring Baldwin after he was jettisoned from an American Airlines flight in Los Angeles for refusing to turn off his mobile device. The reason? So that he could continue playing Words With Friends.
"Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving," Baldwin tweeted after the incident. When Wegmans decided to take their ads with Baldwin out of circulation, Jo Natale, director of media relations for Wegmans, said, “We had perhaps a couple of dozen complaints, and we take complaints from our customers seriously.” And that, it appeared to be the end of the issue.
However, Wegmans kept on listening and found that the backlash was starting to take a different direction: even more people were upset about Wegmans having bumped Baldwin. "We regret ending the Alec Baldwin holiday commercials one week earlier than planned in response to a couple of dozen complaints. We have decided to run the commercials again, effective immediately," Natale said on Jan. 4.
"Clearly, many more people support Alec, as evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of tweets, e-mails and phone calls we have received. We enjoyed working with Alec Baldwin and his mom, Carol, and would do it again," said Natale. That's provided, of course, that Baldwin flies low on the meltdown radar in the future.