Under its new owners, the Wendy's fast-food chain is zigging where others are zagging.

Rivals such as Burger King and Taco Bell are aiming squarely at the young-lunkhead set with advertising messages that, for example, extol the manly virtues of cramming as much greasy, fatty food as possible into one's gullet. But Wendy's will henceforth target older, wiser eaters, according to its new owners at Triarc Cos.

The concentration on consumers aged 24 to 49 is a big change for Wendy's. Its current campaigns, clearly aimed at younger men, tend toward the silly. Roland Smith, CEO of the new Wendy's/Arby's Group, promised "a breath of fresh air from the red-wig campaign". Those are the commercials that feature young dudes in wigs (to look like "Wendy") enthusing over the freshness of Wendy's burger meat and characterizing the customers of rival chains as mindless lemmings.

The new campaign, Smith told the Wall Street Journal, will focus on the quality of Wendy's food. Now there's an idea!

Wendy's has struggled in the marketplace since famous owner Dave Thomas died six years ago. It finally put itself up for sale last year and Triarc swooped in to buy it for $2 billion.

Smith told the Journal to expect menu changes, both to address the sinking economy and to improve quality. Doing both at once will be a challenge, but Smith didn't offer anything in the way of details, except to say the chain will emphasize "freshness."

He did address Wendy's breakfast problem. Where other burger chains have seen huge increases in traffic in the mornings, Wendy's breakfast offerings, where they exist at all, are scant. And it is still serving Folger's coffee, while chains like McDonald's are serving stuff that tastes almost like Starbucks.

Another challenge will be the chain's planned remodeling of thousands of outlets. As the Journal understates: the "credit crunch is likely to make that more difficult for franchisees who need to borrow money to fund the renovations".