Subservient Chicken
Burger King2004
Subservient Chicken is a 2004 interactive website for Burger King, created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky (with The Barbarian Group).
Why it works
The weirdest literal brand idea ever to work: "Have It Your Way" became a man in a chicken suit who obeys typed commands. Launched in April 2004 from 300 pre-filmed clips assembled to feel live, subservientchicken.com drew a million hits in a day, 20 million in a week, and ultimately more than 450 million — numbers that made viral marketing a mainstream discipline overnight. It is studied as the first proof that an interactive website could be a brand's main media channel, for the mechanics of seeding (the agency sent it to a few friends; the internet did the rest), and for tone: barely branded, faintly unsettling, and precisely calibrated to be forwarded. Every 'weird internet thing' a fast-food brand has done since descends from this chicken.
Techniques
- Participation Visitors type commands and a man in a chicken suit appears to obey them, turning the promise of having it your way into a game.
- Humour Barely branded and faintly unsettling, a costumed chicken doing whatever users ask is an absurd joke built to be forwarded.
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