This is by far one of the goofiest ads that I have seen in a very long time.
And I LOVED it.
Every so often, the YouTube algorithm pumps out something that I actually want to watch and throws it into my Recommended For You section. This one came into my life in the sidebar to another Mercedes-Benz ad that I was watching, and I am so happy that it did. Every time that I watch it, I start cackling so hard that I find myself flapping and bobbing like one of the flightless chickens in the ad.
Let’s unpack this, shall we?
This ad comes from Jung von Matt/Neckar in Stuttgart, Germany, brought to us by a creative team that featured executive creative director Peter Waibel, creative directors Robert Herter and Lucasz Brzozowski, art director Lucas Osis, and copywriter Nico Baumann (2013). Until seeing this ad, I hadn't heard of any of these names. But now they're all on my radar, and I'll be looking for more of their work going forwards.
Why is that?
Because this ad, this simple, goofy, chicken-wiggling-and-bobbing ad, puts a colossal smile on my face every time I see it. It's what I pull up to watch on bad days. It's what I pull up on good days. It's what I pull up when I want to convince my friends that advertising isn't all evil. They made an ad so good that it convinces my friends who have ad blockers on, who fast forward through commercials on their TVs, who absolutely hate advertising, that it can actually be good sometimes. Anyone who can do that needs some sort of commendation, in my opinion, especially nowadays, where a large percent of the population is hypercritical of the media that they encounter and is so eager to criticize it, particularly advertisements.
It's not just that it's hilarious and absurd. It's extremely clever. It exemplifies the point that it's trying to convey perfectly. No matter how much the white-gloved people wiggle those chickens around, their beaky little heads stay perfectly stable. Stability at all times.
People in the comment section of the video seem to love it, too, one person even saying that, "Watching a chicken for 52 seconds made me buy a Mercedes. Thank you."
How did watching a chicken have anything to do with Mercedes?
Timing. They put the logo at the perfect time. The audience, myself included, was so captivated by the bobbin' birdies that they just kept on watching, until the logo was hatched on the screen. You probably don't even realize how long you've been watching for, until it's over. And that's the best kind of ad: the one that sucks you in, and lays you back out.
I used to wonder why people found rubber chickens so gosh darn funny.
This ad showed me, and I'll keep on watching it show me again and again and again.
Bibliography
Mercedes-Benz "chicken" by Jung von Matt/Neckar. (2013, September 27). Retrieved May 29, 2018, from https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/mercedes-benz-chicken-jung-von-matt-neckar/1213774
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