Online+Advertising+Critique

The subservient chicken campaign was launched in 2004, immediately following Burger King’s introduction of the Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich. (Bali Sunset) The campaign begain with e-mail messages that directed recipients to Subservientchicken.com. A week later three 30-second spots were aired on network television, followed by a print ad that also directed people to the website. The website, which served as the core of the campaign, featured a person wearing a chicken costume who acted out whatever command was typed into the command bar.
 * 1. Subservient Chicken (Burger King)**



I think the “subservient chicken” campaign is targeted at age groups 10 to 40s. Probably more targeted towards male viewers because of their sense of humor but also to anyone who appreciates online nontraditional advertising. But one thing their target audiences all have in common is access to internet. What the campaign hoped to do was probably to differentiate themselves from McDonald’s. Instead of taking the footsteps of the market leader and use TV commercials, Burger King wanted to be seem “cool” with its target market. Burger King’s chief marketing officer said that, “we weren’t a brand that suffered from lack of awareness, but we were a brand that suffered from a lack of emotional attachment.” (Bali Sunset) My friend showed me this website about 2 or 3 years ago at the library. He told me he came across it on the net and thought it was pretty funny. We spent a good 10 minutes on the site typing in different actions for the human chicken to act out. I showed the website to my other close friends whom I thought would enjoy this type of humour. Burger King wanted to introduce a new chicken sandwich “Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich”. The creative director filmed an actor wearing a chicken costume. The actor performed 400 short actions. Subservientchicken.com was launched in April 2004. visitors of the site can tell the chicken to perform various actions. It is a type of viral marketing because originally, the design team only sent out 20 emails with the website link. Overnight, they got more and more hits. (Bali Sunset) Their technique was to make viewers look at the advertising and say, “that’s kind of weird.” They may appear weird because there’s only been one voice in the fast food industry and it is McDonald’s. So they want to appear unique and make people feel a bit uncomfortable while looking at their ads. I do believe they were effective for changing Burger King’s image because I used to think that Burger King was just like any other fast food chain with the same boring advertising/marketing techniques. After seeing the Subservient Chicken, I can say that the company is quite unique with their approach and I relate the fast food chain to words such as “innovative”, “hip”, “popular” etc… The website successfully took the idea of “having the chicken any way you like it” for something that really isn’t that exciting (a chicken sandwich) and incorporate it into such an innovative use of technology.
 * 1) who is their target audience?**
 * 2) what are they trying to advance?**
 * 3) when did you see this campaign, and where?**
 * 4) what techniques did they use?**
 * 5) do you believe they were effective? Why/why not?**

Dove released “evolution”, a one-minute short film to support the Dove Self Esteem Fund. The video shows an ordinary looking woman being transformed through makeup, lighting and airbrushing to perfection. Only by seeing this process can we truly comprehend the illusion that the media has portrayed of these fabricated dream models.
 * 2. Dove “evolution video” – Self Esteem**



The website is clearly targeted towards women and girls of all age and ethnicity. The objective of this 75-second viral film was to reach the target group of mothers, mentors and female role models since they have the greatest influence on freeing the next generation from false beauty stereotypes. The aim was that this primary target group would engage in WOM and WoMo with young girls and women (secondary target group) I think the website is an extension of the types of values that Dove has demonstrated for the past several years as one of the first major brands to feature larger women in their ads. Dove is concerned that the distorted portrayal of beauty was preventing women from recognizing and enjoying beauty in themselves and others. They are challenging “conventional” beauty (skinny) and trying to educate women that beauty may come in many form and size. The website isn’t just about selling their products, it is about helping women and girls redefine beauty to change their life in a positive way. This campaign is Dove’s way to illustrate their commitment in keeping women’s self-esteem in check. Dove’s objectives may also include increase sales of Dove beauty products and new product lines, attract national TV and print media coverage, and create a call to action for consumers to join the movement through website pledge that activate a donation by Dove for self-esteem awareness programs. I saw this website posted on one of my favourite beauty blogs that I frequently visit around 3 or 4 years ago. The video was posted on youtube and Dove also have their own website with the short-film on it. The video has gotten a lot of people in the blogosphere talking because I’ve seen it featured in a couple of beauty blogs that I frequently visit. The ‘evolution’ movie was created and posted on YouTube in 2006. Besides being posted on YouTube, an e-mail with a link to the movie was sent to 460,000 people in Canada. The video really has a shock value because of the model’s huge transformation which generated a lot of discussions and re-posts of the video on various blogs. Women were getting tired of being made to feel less than beautiful in order for a company to sell their beauty products. Dove became the trendsetter and innovator in the beauty industry because the Campaign for Real Beauty shattered the stereotypes of the size zero, blonde, perfect model. I believe Dove’s campaign for real beauty was very effective because I ran across the video couple of times on various beauty blogs. The most important thing about viral marketing is for the video to spread itself, and the “evolution” video has accomplished exactly that.
 * 1) Who is their target audience?**
 * 2) What are they trying to advance?**
 * 3) when did you see this campaign, and where?**
 * 4) what techniques did they use?**
 * 5) do you believe they were effective. Why/why not?**


 * References**

http://marketing-case-studies.blogspot.com/2008/04/subservient-chicken-campaign.html http://www.insites.eu/02/documents/whitepapers/08_Evolution%20of%20Beauty_Dove%20Case%20Study.pdf