Viral Marketing: The Subservient Chicken

In 2004, Subservient Chicken, the Burguer King’s Web Campaign was a funny (and still is) and effective campaign. The campaign belongs to the viral marketing category: Subservient Chicken site racked up a million hits in the first 24 hours. The Barbarian Group, an interactive production company, programmed a list of actions, coded with keywords, to string together the video clips that create the interactive responses. They shot the footage of the chicken in an apartment because they wanted the living room to look like a stereotypical Webcam feed. With the command “chicken sandwich” the chicken pretends to be a sandwich by lying on the floor squashed between two sofa cushions. Chris Ulbrich, from Wired Magazine, compares this campaign to those of pornographers that have used the Web to stage interactive peepshows. What do you think of it? Have a look at Subservient Chiken.