Don't Believe This Myth About The Wendy's Logo
Back in 2013, Business Insider revealed that square-burger giant Wendy's had adopted its first new logo in 29 years (and this remains the company's logo to this day). At the time, Business Insider made the observation that many people had noticed a "hidden" or "subliminal" message in its rendering of "Wendy," comprised of a simple drawing of a little red-headed girl with bright blue ribbons in her hair, a white collar with blue trim, and what appears to be a blue pendant. Specifically, Business Insider pointed out that the blue trim — together with the black scalloped edge at the top of the collar — appears to spell out the word "mom."
Apparently, some people thought that the company had invoked "mom" in an attempt to conjure warm and wonderful images of home-cooked comfort food served with love. And sure, it sounded like an interesting theory. The only problem was the word "mom" did not exactly jump out at us in the new logo. Nor had it been part of any prior Wendy's logo (via Logopedia), which we encourage you to explore while reminiscing about what Wendy's menu looked like the year you were born.
While Business Insider pointed out that you could see the "mom" a lot more clearly in the one-color versions of the logo, we were not all that convinced. And apparently, our instincts were right on target. The whole mom-in-the-Wendy's-logo thing is just a persistent fast-food myth that no one should still believe.
Mom had nothing to do with it — and Wendy isn't even the logo girl's real name!
As it turned out, a Wendy's spokesperson had already told Business Insider that there was no "mom" in the Wendy's logo. "We are aware of this and find it interesting that it appears our Wendy cameo has 'mom' on her ruffled collar," the spokesperson stated. However, the spokesperson also went on to say, unequivocally, "We can assure you it was unintentional."
But apparently it's all good as far as Wendy's goes. While the sweet subliminal logo story is just a myth that you should not believe, it makes for a great story and has become just one of the many untold truths about Wendy's, along with its secret menu items and the tragicomic revelation that the red-headed girl in the logo was actually then-8-year old Melinda "Wendy" Thomas, one of four children of Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas; she was called "Wendy" only because she could not pronounce "Melinda."
In 2019, Melinda "Wendy" Thomas Morse, as she's now known, told People she only got the "gig" as the Wendy's logo girl because "Wendy" was an easy name to remember, and her red hair, freckles, and buck teeth helped make her immediately accessible and adorable to Americans. Unfortunately, being the face of a fast food joint did not make life easy for Morse as a child. There was teasing, she admitted to People, but she did understand that it goes with the territory.