• McSavvy Marketing

    Posted on July 10th, 2007 by and currently 9 commenting.

    htYesterday, we learned via SGClark’s blog, that McDonald’s has leveraged one of our favorite pieces of citizen marketing, the “I’m into Nuggets Y’all” video, for a mainstream commercial running during MLB. My gut reaction is: brilliant. This rap is an earworm in the first degree. All it takes is for one person around the Brains on Fire office to say “I’m into Nuggets Y’all” and I hear “Ketchup and Mayo, Ketchup and Mayo” running through my head for hours. It gives the best advertising jungles of all time a run for their money and my guess is it will look to most viewers like a piece of passionate, inspired consumer marketing and get a lot of people thinking McNuggets for lunch. (Disclaimer: I am now craving McNuggets for lunch).
    The irony of the decision to use this video comes only after you dig a little further. Those who keep up with the Church of the Customer blog or who have read Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell’s Citizen Marketers know that the video’s creators, Fernando Sosa and Thomas Middleditch, are not fans of McDonald’s. They spontaneously created the rap one night while waiting to go onstage at Chicago’s Second City and it became such a hit that they had a friend video tape them performing it in front of a McDonald’s across from Wrigley Field. The rest is YouTube & Stupid Videos history.

    On McDonald’s, Middleditch comments in Citizen Marketers, “I try to stay away from it; it’s pretty bad for you…I helped this big evil corporation out – for free. Oh, it’s so bad.” Maybe they got over the concern of supporting a big evil corporation and their high-fat wares when the “for free” portion of the equation changed? Regardless, McDonald’s wisely acquired a powerful piece of marketing that will look to most everyone like a brand Love Letter. I wonder if asking the creators not to share any more quotes with the press was part of the licensing?

    This does have me wondering – if it looks like passionate citizen marketing and sounds like passionate citizen marketing, does it matter if the citizen marketers actually like the product?

  • http://www.brainsonfire.com Mr. Steve

    Doesn’t this kinda smell like all those people who sell themselves to the highest bidder, then wander around town pretending to like a certain product. There are plenty of companies that hire attractive young people to pretend to like something, and plenty of attractive young people who make a good living off of it.

    Personally, I don’t know where I stand. Are they sell-outs? Absolutely. Are they opportunists? Yes. Are they talented comedians? Certainly. Did they have a stage to show off their TRUE beliefs (McDonalds is bad for you)? Yup.

    I don’t feel so good about this. To me, it seems like just another commercial with that “homemade” feel…kinda like the fake testimonials Spike talked about in the last post.

  • http://www.churchofthecustomer.com Jackie Huba

    Virginia,
    I am trying to verify if in fact McDonalds did use their video in a commercial. I’ll let you know.

    About your question of where it looks and sounds like citizen marketing, does it matter if the citizen marketers actually like the product? I think it does. Otherwise they are just shills who lose credibility when they are found out.

    And they will be found out. And it will be documented in their Wikipedia profile ; )

  • Pingback: McDonald’s viral video: Two thumbs up! « Marketing Monster

  • http://www.whatsthediff.com Christy

    How much do Sosa and Middleditch benefit from all this hullabaloo? Quite a bit, I’ll bet.

    I had no clue who they were before reading this post… who else will “discover” them through this?

    I fall on the “shill” side of this from the marketing perspective.

    However, from the performance angle, this is a great exercise that demonstrates just how talented these two are — they can suspend their personal beliefs enough to still create something that others (who DO enjoy the product) can rally around. Fabulous talent in these two.

  • http://foreels.net Fernando

    Please know that I was eating McNuggets when we came up with this spot. I don’t know what you consider to be a “fan” of McDonalds; I mean I don’t eat it everyday but I do indulge from time to time. I resent being called a sell-out or shill. It’s an attack on my integrity which is very important to me. Let me say here that I don’t speak for Thomas or for McDonald’s. These words are of my own. The spot initially was meant as a joke. The joke being the ridiculousness of taking something so mundane as a chicken mcnugget and being super retarded about it. That’s it. There is no hidden truth about it. I am a performer of comedy and I wanted to make a few people laugh. I never expect to be paid for video. I did however expect an acknowledgment from McDonalds which had not been given at the time of the Jackie Huba interview “Citizen Marketers.” Now I have it and am content. The most exciting aspect of this whole thing, for me, is the fact that with this commercial I am now able to promote myself and my comedic sense. The check was just a bonus. Bottom line: There is no scandal here. No controversy about it. “I’m into Nuggets, ya’ll”.

    Fernando

  • Thomas

    It’s pretty hard to be a comedian. You do a lot of shows for free and sometimes the audiences aren’t even on your side. You go on auditions and get turned down a thousand times more than you get picked up. If we, by chance, made something that was marketable and then someone wanted to give us money for it, we’d be fools to say no. That’s pretty much it. Anyone who is an actor/comedian/dancer/model, whatever, would know exactly what I’m talking about.

    In this particular commercial, we didn’t even have to audition, we made it. We made our own commercial. So instead of Fernando and I appealing to McDonald’s weak attempt at capturing urban culture and having us playing basketball to an a-ccapella hip-hop beat, it’s us being stupid and rapping about McNuggets which is both retarded and funny.

  • http://www.adhack.com James Sherrett

    In my opinion what we have here is a discussion about credibility, which seems a little naive.

    Does everyone who creates an ad or tells a story about a company have to be 100% onboard with the company? Do the people working at ad agencies or in the creative teams of companies believe 100% in the company?

    Of course not. At the same time, people respond to credible stories, and credible stories are credible because people think they are. So does trading on that credibility diminish it?

    I don’t know. I think it’s contextual. In this situation it seems like the guys who created the ad did it because they wanted to, not for commercial reasons. The payout was the result of good luck and striking the right note at the right time.

    Incidentally, I think that this DIY approach to advertising is how more and more ads will get made. I’ve even build a business around it — AdHack.

  • http://www.whatsthediff.com Christy

    I think the discussion was naive when it was one-sided. I love that Thomas and Fernando came out to speak on this — they have cut the telephone wires and eliminated the “passing of the story.” (Which, of course brings out the old Dan Rather discussion, too!)

    I still stand on my comments that they were in the right place, at the right time, and are brilliant artists. I even still stand by my “shill” statement, because I didn’t specifically identify who I felt was the shill — marketing people like me.

    I think honesty and credibility are so much more important than making a buck. That’s why I don’t run the business. I don’t think honesty is a “discussion point,” it’s required.

    Thomas and Fernando are helping me make my point — they clarify that while they’re not huge “nugget fans,” they do consume the product every once in a while. They found the product fascinating enough to create a piece of social commentary on people who *do* get into “nuggets, y’all.”

    They’re being totally honest in their motivations. I don’t think the commercial created from the original video conveys that honesty.

  • Dr. Fred

    These strikes me as a lot of mental masturbation that overlooks the central ethical issue. This is stuff is unhealthy for those who eat it and should not be promoted. Period.
    Act accordingly.