Popeyes is running its first-ever Super Bowl spot, during the first quarter of the game.
The :60 spot, made with creative agency McKinney, stars comedian Ken Jeong and promotes the brand’s new Wings offering.
“Popeyes is always at the forefront of culture – and this is one of the biggest cultural moments of the year,” said Jeff Klein, chief marketing officer for Popeyes. “We launched our permanent Wings offerings in late November, and we wanted to leverage the biggest advertising stage to showcase a product that has once again shaken up the QSR industry.”
The brand decided to make the media buy as Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day for wings consumption, said Klein, and of course more than 100 million people tuning in. “It felt like the right moment for us to highlight our new Wings and encourage trial,” said Klein. “We really believe in our Wings product and it’s been one of our most successful launches, so we want to ensure that everyone knows that we have these delicious, high quality wings at a value for all occasions and gatherings.”
The brand is also running the “Wings for Wings” promotion, giving away free 6 piece wings with any online or in app purchase if a football team has wings in its name, logo or mascot Super Bowl.
The TV spot tells the story of an eccentric billionaire (played by Jeong), who was so obsessed with chicken wings but couldn’t find the perfect one and was cryogenically frozen waiting for the best-ever to be created.
“Upon awakening to Popeyes new range of Wings, he also discovers a series of ‘futuristic’ vignettes, like drones, self-driving cars, or goldendoodles,” said Klein. “We are thrilled with the end result and feel that it really tells the story that Popeyes Wings were worth waiting for. Many people can’t believe that Popeyes didn’t already have wings on the menu – it just doesn’t make sense – so we really wanted to play off of that.”
