Wendy's casts Charlotte Crosby as every member of staff in a mockumentary tour of its revamped Kingston restaurant

Key Takeaways

• Wendy's has revealed Charlotte Crosby as its celebrity new hire in a comedic brand film for UK audiences, created by The Fitting Room.

• The mockumentary takes viewers behind the scenes of a Wendy's restaurant, with Crosby playing the manager, counter staff, chef and cleaner.

• The film was shot at Wendy's in Kingston, one of the first UK restaurants to receive the brand's Future Fresh redesign.

• The film was revealed on 9 November and focuses on the brand's personality and humour rather than on a specific menu item.

Wendy’s has revealed Charlotte Crosby as its celebrity new hire in a mockumentary that takes viewers behind the counter at one of its UK restaurants. As the camera makes its way around the restaurant, it becomes clear that Crosby has taken on just about every job going, from running the place to cleaning it.

Most of Wendy’s UK marketing has focused on what’s on the menu, so giving Crosby the run of the restaurant marks a shift. For a chain that’s still introducing itself to much of the British public, casting one of the country’s most recognisable reality TV personalities gives people a familiar face to latch onto and lets Wendy’s show a bit more of its sense of humour.

Wendy's new hire film with Charlotte Crosby was shot at its Future Fresh restaurant in Kingston by The Fitting Room

The film was created by The Fitting Room, which works as the culture and communications agency for Wendy's UK and led the creative direction and production.

Crosby said that "As a genuine, longtime personal fan of Wendy's, I had so much fun creating this," adding that "I'm basically playing myself, just about six different times!" Michael Clarke, managing director of Wendy's UK, said that the brand "wanted to create something that felt unmistakably Wendy's but also unmistakably British", and he was clear about the purpose of the film, saying that "This isn't a traditional food ad."

Danielle Every, global business director at The Fitting Room, said that "We wanted to create something unexpected and full of Wendy's personality." Clarke also explained the casting by pointing to Crosby's "humour, confidence and ability to not take herself too seriously", which suggests the brand wanted a star who would happily play the cleaner as well as the manager.

Kingston was among the first UK restaurants to receive Future Fresh, an international design with a bolder blue that references the first Wendy's, which opened in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969, together with a digital-first customer experience. Filming there means that every shot of Crosby at the counter or in the kitchen also shows off the look that Wendy's wants customers to associate with the brand as it opens more restaurants, so the film doubles as a showroom for the redesign.

Wendy's returned to the UK in 2021 and had 48 restaurants by July 2026, with an ambition for 400

Wendy's left the UK in 2000 and returned more than two decades later, when its first new UK restaurant opened in Reading on 2nd June 2021 with an ambition to reach around 400 restaurants across the country. Its launch platform that year was the All Beef No Bull campaign by VMLY&R London, which ran across outdoor, digital and social channels alongside the Reading opening, and later work included a Camden mural in June 2022 where Instagram followers voted between punk, emo and bouffant hairstyles for the brand's red-haired mascot.

The brand has since tried more unusual formats, including The Burger Files, a seven-episode true crime style podcast that launched in October 2023 to promote the Baconator, although none of that earlier UK work put a celebrity at the centre of the brand. Growth has been steady rather than explosive, as Wendy's reported 48 UK restaurants in July 2026 as it marked five years in the country and rolled Future Fresh out to Kingston and Reading, which means the long-term goal of 400 sites is still a long way off, even though the company said in March 2025 that it planned more than 150 new restaurants in the UK and nearby countries by 2028.

That gap explains why a personality-led film makes sense now, because many British customers still have no Wendy's nearby and know the brand better through its American reputation than through their own high street. Crosby, who became famous on Geordie Shore in 2011, went on to win Celebrity Big Brother in 2013 and later fronted Charlotte in Sunderland for BBC Three, brings broad recognition and a self-mocking style that suits a brand trying to seem friendly and familiar, and her Sunderland roots give the brand a distinctly British face to sit alongside its American name.

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