Alledged chicken wing shortage inspires agency and client to go nuts!

Cuckoo in front Cuckoo’s nest

So, what’s up with this knucklehead screaming at ousted Governor, Rod Blagojevich’s house on You Tube? He appears to be fuming at the former Gov’s apparent responsibility for a nationwide shortage of…chicken wings?

As if Rod didn’t have enough on his plate. Now he’s a culprit in some avian conspiracy.

But wait a minute. I know that raving lunatic. (Not Rod. The guy in the car.) Matter of fact, he works for me! Bill Mericle, an ECD at Euro RSCG Chicago, was just doing his bit to help generate buzz around a bit of viral fun we were having in support of our new client, Kraft.

Last week a legit story appeared on a local news channel reporting that, because of the shutdown of a major supplier of chicken wings, there was likely to be a shortage of the tasty tidbits, which would lead to a raft of unhappy snackers during Sunday’s big game.

The Kraft team (client and agency) were inspired to expand on the story, implying it might be on account of hording do to the new formulation of Kraft Ranch Dressing, soon to be introduced.

With only a few days before the Super Bowl, we had no time to bog down in debate and discussion. Wednesday at noon teams were briefed at the agency. Friday night the video (see below) was posted on You Tube. A remarkable accomplishment, when you consider how long it usually takes to make a cohesive film, especially for a client as big and complex as Kraft.

The production company was Foundation, also out of Chicago. The mock news story we made together was written on the fly, sans approvals, shot and edited in 48 hours. Given all that, I’d say they did a pretty good job.

Such is the brave new world of viral filmmaking, where everything has to be done faster and cheaper than most agencies and clients are used to. But get used to it we must, because that’s where our business is going.

Kudos to Euro’s creative, production and account team for getting it done. And cheers to Kraft, for inspiring us as opposed to bogging us down. They were fearless. Oh yeah, and here’s to Crazy Bill, for taking the wing shortage way too seriously.