Year: 2004
Developed by: Keith Butters
Agency: The Barbarian Group
When The Barbarian Group's Keith Butters gave Web surfers the ability to make an animated chicken dance, he changed the digital landscape.
Working with ad agency Crispin Porter Bogusky on behalf of Burger King, the Barbarian Group created the wildly popular "subservient chicken." The seemingly interactive video let users control a chicken-costumed actor's actions through their keyboards. Type in any of some 300 commands -- ranging from common ones like "dance" or "sit" to the less-intuitive "poke your eye out" -- and the chicken would oblige.
A sly riff on webcam culture, the site instantly went viral. Within 48 hours it had 25 million hits.
"All of a sudden, digital was the central part of the marketing campaign," Boulton recalls. "Viral marketing suddenly became mainstream." Burger King still features the famous video on its site today.
