Droga5 Celebrates ‘Bratfest in Bed’ for Johnsonville

By Erik Oster 

Droga5 launched a surreal Father’s Day extension of its campaign for Johnsonville called “Bratfest in Bed.”

The ad opens as innoculously as the title would suggest, with a father waking up to find his son and wife serving him a brat on a roll for breakfast, accompanied by a voiceover saying, “This Father’s Day, start dad’s day out right.” Things get weird fast, however, when the brats start talking and then a giant brat arrives to give dad’s brat a stripe of mustard. The ad presents a series of strange twists on the theme, before the father decides one is “close enough” and takes a bite of the sausage. “Bratfast in Bed” will run in 3o and 65-second versions, promoted on the brand’s social media accounts, in the lead up to Father’s Day on June 21st.

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“It’s basically sausage Inception,” group creative director Scott Bell told Adweek. “It’s one man’s journey.”

We think another comparison is more apt, however. Since Bell acknowledged The Simpsons’ influence on the campaign previously (specifically Homer’s “you don’t make friends with salad” line), it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Droga5 once again borrows from the series’ heyday, with the father’s eventual response to his transformed family echoing Homer’s “close enough” acceptance of a reality where humans eat with lizard tongues in “Time and Punishment” from “Treehouse of Horror V” (and the rapid-fire reality jumping premise also calling that segment to mind).

“Bratfest in Bed” sees Droga5 pushing the odd humor of its initial effort for Johnsonville, following winning creative duties for the brand at the end of last year, in an even stranger direction. Father’s Day may still be almost two weeks away, but we already have a prime candidate for the holiday’s strangest ad.

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