Chain Links

 Here's a little something I noticed over the weekend:

I live in an area with a lot of chain restaurants. Easily accessible from my neighborhood there is an Applebee's, a Ruby Tuesday (two, actually), a Bertucci's, an Olive Garden, a Longhorn Steakhouse, and an Outback. A bit further away, there's a Chili's and a TGIFriday.

I started paying attention to something over the past few days--tracking advertising on broadcast and basic cable channels, I noted that of all those places, the only one with a heavy commercial presence is Applebee's. I think I saw one ad for Olive Garden.

Now, before the pandemic, ads for all of them were ubiquitous. And in the early days of the lockdown, all of them were advertising that they were available for takeout and delivery. As far as I know, they all still are. And, in my area, all of them can be open for in-person dining, either outdoors or at 50 percent capacity indoors.

So, with the exception of Applebee's, why aren't they on TV begging people to come back in?

FTR, I'm in the Philly metro TV market. Is it any different where you are?