The year was 2004. MySpace was popular, and laughter was still trending. I was out with coworkers one night when one of them mentioned Burger King's Subservient Chicken: a cult classic ad campaign that piggybacked The King's "Have it Your Way" movement. Curious, I blew the dust off my modem when I got home to run a search. What I found was nothing short of spectacular.
After clicking the link, visitors would find a person dressed in a chicken suit wearing a garter belt, standing in the middle of crappy living room with bad lighting, staring directly into their souls. It felt dirty and wrong. Obviously, this was right up my alley. Underneath him was the slogan, "Get chicken the way you want it," followed by an empty box encouraging viewers to submit a command that the bizarre creature could perform.
My first instinct was to ask the chicken wave. I remember feeling seen when he did it, but after a few generic requests, I got bored and creative, asking if he'd break dance or do a few cartwheels. By the end of the night, he was walking up to the camera and tapping it with his beak. "Tsk, tsk," he would motion with his claw finger, shaking his head in disapproval. Busted. He was on to my games, and probably everyone else's because who wouldn't ask for a chicken strip?
Still, it was entertaining, even when he stood motionless. The chicken was programmed to respond to a few hundred trigger words and, believe me, they thought of them all. The site also included a link to a cut-out chicken mask for eager fans, instructing them to be subservient. It was a huge hit, despite poor technology glitches, and we had a lot of fun with it. In fact, we loved it so much, Burger King brought it back in 2014. Keep scrolling to see the hilarious teaser ad they threw together promoting the remake.
For all these reasons and more, it seems like an opportune time for the company to reunite us with one of the craziest ad campaigns the world has ever seen. Here's a small taste of what, other than a sandwich, we've been missing all these years. Let your voices be heard! Sharing is caring...
#subservientchicken #hilariousadcampaigns #funnyadcampaigns
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