About

Wendy's Employee Training Music Videos are a series of music videos created in the late '80s by the fast-food chain Wendy's to train their new employees. These helped familiarize them with the basics of daily restaurant operations with a catchy tune to help them remember. Songs that feature a food brand and product by name have been a part of pop culture and meme culture for decades.

Origin

Though it can be hard to properly date the videos or tell where exactly they came from, there are some clues as to when these original videos were made. The earliest video archived was uploaded to YouTube on June 20th, 2007, by noobthatpwns. The title of the video^[1] "1980's wendys training video" and the description claims to have grabbed the video from the now-defunct Filecabi.net website. Since being uploaded, the video has gained 441,000 views and 1,500 likes in 14 years (shown below).

Spread

The videos would later be rediscovered in the early 2010s, and inspired several remixes and covers, as well as commentary from numerous YouTubers, such as Cr1TiKaL and jacksepticeye. Cr1tikal's video^[2] was posted to his YouTube channel on September 7th, 2019, and received 881,000 views in two years (shown below, left). Jack's video^[3] was posted to his YouTube channel on April 26th, 2020, and received 2.5 million views in one year (shown below, right).

The videos were also parodied on an episode of Steven Universe, in a video titled "Do or Do Nut" (shown below). The video^[4] was uploaded to YouTube on January 5th, 2016, receiving 935,000 views in five years.

Viral Music Videos

Hot Drinks

Hot Drinks covers how long coffee should last before making a fresh batch, and how to serve hot chocolate and hot tea for both dine-in and take-out orders. The song was written and performed by Marvin Hawkins^[5] in the style of late 80s pop music similar to Michael Jackson. The video was posted to YouTube^[6] on September 20th, 2010, and has over 3 million views (shown below).

Cold Drinks

Cold Drinks covers the different sizes of cold drinks and how much ice to use in soft drinks and iced tea. This video is performed in a pop music style similar to Paula Adbul. It was uploaded to YouTube^[7] by Chuck Drake on September 20th, 2010, and has over 1.9 million views (shown below).

Chili Can Be Served With Cheese

Chili Can Be Served With Cheese covers how to prepare chili before serving and how to top it with cheese. It also shows how to serve Wendy's Frosty dairy dessert, as well as simpler menu items such as milk and cookies. This video was uploaded to YouTube^[8] by Chuck Drake on September 20th, 2010, and has over 1.2 million views (shown below).

Grill Skills

Grill Skills is far longer than the others. It uses not only a rap song style but transitions into a country-style rock song afterward. It covers the basics of cooking burger patties on the griddle, including the "four-corner press" technique, and how long the patties should cook before serving them. This video was uploaded to YouTube^[9] by Matt Purdue on January 28th, 2013, and has reached over 700,000 views (shown below).

Got To Serve The Drinks

Got To Serve The Drinks is the lesser-known video of the series. It covers front counter tasks, as well as basic employee cleanliness and etiquette, and is performed in the style of gospel music. The video was uploaded to YouTube^[10] by John Crowley on August 30th, 2015, and has only received over 2,000 views (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Reference Links