Richards Brings Outdoor Humor to Indoor Screens for Chick-fil-A
DALLAS–Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A will kick off a five-spot television campaign during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Dec. 31 with some familiar faces.
The national buy on ESPN includes five 30-second executions that continue to use the chain’s “Eat mor chikin” positioning from The Richards Group in Dallas.
The commercials also will air nationally during LPGA events in 1999 and in limited spot markets including Atlanta and Columbia, S.C. Chick-fil-A signed as title sponsor of the Peach Bowl in December 1996.
The chain’s 1999 media budget is about $8 million, according to Steve Robinson, the client’s senior vice president of marketing. Richards handles creative duties and consults on media. Buying is handled by Julie French & Associates in Atlanta.
The new commercials feed off of the client’s four-year-old humorous outdoor campaign, which has cows creating billboards encouraging people to increase their chicken intake.
The premise of the new TV spots, according to Richards creative director Doug Rucker, is that the cows have commandeered broadcasting equipment and are interrupting programming to deliver their anti-beef message to the masses.
One spot begins with a steak commercial being interrupted by a “Cow TV” broadcast. Grainy black-and-white footage of a UFO landing in a field is accompanied by on-screen text that reads, “Warning: alleyuns hav landed in our pastur. They sed thay woodn’t blow up our planit if peeple would eat mor chikin. A lot mor chikin.”
As the text scrolls, the UFO is clumsily revealed to be a pie pan hanging from a cow’s hoof.
The Cow TV prem-ise ties together the four other spots. In one, the cows use an overhead projector to display a revamped food pyramid made up exclusively of chicken and desserts.
Robinson said a total of 10 spots was shot. Five will air in flights throughout 1999; five additional ads will appear in 2000.
Chick-fil-A operates more than 430 shopping mall locations and over 145 freestanding restaurants.
