The Subservient Chicken is a promotional campaign of Burger King's line of chicken sandwiches. The campaign is primarily based on a web site that features an actor dressed in a chicken costume who performs visitor's commands. Creators of the web site, advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky of Miami, filmed the actor performing approximately 400 different actions in a basement apartment, including Michael Jackson's 'moonwalk', riverdance and the chicken dance (Hein, 2004, p.27). The site encourages visitors to command the chicken to perform a desired action in what appears like an interactive web cam. But in fact, the chicken performs only what is "one of many pre-recorded functions in his exhaustive repertoire as if he were the voyeuristic visitor's personal slave" (Hein, 2004, p.27). The Subservient Chicken web site became an innovative phenomenon and set a new standard in the interactive category (Creativity, 2005, p.57).
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The web site remains active to date, and by January 2005 it had attracted 14 million unique visitors and generated almost 400 million hits worldwide, including one million within a day after its launch (O’leary, 2005, p.4). Two weeks after the site was launched, the US national news media could not get enough of the improbable celebrity (Hein, 2004, p.27). Hein (2004, p.27) highlights that the Subservient Chicken appeared on 63 broadcast segments including as host for Fox's popular Sunday night lineup. It has also won numerous awards, including a gold and bronze lion at Cannes (Anderson, 2005, p.25).
In conjunction with the increased brand awareness, Burger King reported an increase in sales of its chicken sandwich which ended a 21-month slide in 2004 (Daniels, 2005 p.16).
However, Burger King's chicken sandwiches did not always have success. As Anderson (2005, p.24) points out, "BK has never been the leader in chicken sandwiches, and until it introduced the TenderCrisp Chicken sandwich in March 2004, its original Chicken sandwich had lagged behind similar fast-food chain offerings". Therefore, Burger King introduced a new product (TenderCrisp Chicken sandwich) in an unconventional way but nevertheless stayed true to the brand's old slogan, "have it your way" (Anderson, 2005, p.25). Creative director of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Andrew Keller, believed an internet campaign was a logical place to explore the "have it your way" strategy with its guaranteed interactivity of bossing around a chicken (Anderson, 2005, p.24). The objective of the site was to highlight that consumers can have a Burger King TenderCrisp sandwich anyway they want.
The web site was forwarded to a small group of people and went live on April 8; almost a month after the TenderCrisp chicken sandwich was introduced in stores (Creativity, 2004, p.32). "A week later, three 30-second TV spots began airing on late night network television, showing the Subservient Chicken living and interacting with 20-somethings, who all lusted after the chicken" (Anderson, 2005, p.24), along with only one print ad.
A successful viral campaign is founded upon an idea that is unusual and interactive whilst remaining true to the brand. Subservient chicken tied into Burger King's "have it your way" promise but was also incredibly amazingly different and such an innovative use of technology (Aitken, 2004, p.18). Burger King's chief marketing officer, Russ Klein, concluded, "There’s nothing like experiencing the success of something like this to give you a true appreciation of viral marketing" (O’leary, 2005, p.4).
Donnabel Guillermo 23:36, 12 Oct 2005 (EST)
