16248: Searching For Sense In “New” Popeyes Campaign, Finding Nonsense.

 

Adweek spotlighted the “new” Popeyes campaign from White advertising agency McKinney, which feels like a hackneyed—and culturally clueless—redux of past campaigns.

 

The tagline, “We Don’t Make Sense, We Make Chicken,” makes little sense, reportedly based on an “authentically New Orleans” strategy. To declare that the city’s uniqueness doesn’t make sense reflects ignorance of its cultures and traditions—as well as its people. Not surprising from a White advertising agency with offices in multiple locations, excluding New Orleans.

 

Besides, does anyone really care about Popeyes’ Louisiana roots any more than KFC’s background from Kentucky? That’s some contrived and lazy strategery.

 

Also disturbing is the Black woman featured in the commercial. Is she supposed to be Annie the Chicken Queen 2.0? Can’t help but wonder if she’s “authentically New Orleans,” or like the original Annie character, just an actress faking it?

 

In summation, the “new” Popeyes campaign is disingenuous dookie that presents authentic cultural cluelessness.

 

McKinney’s First Work for Popeyes Debuts an Authentically New Orleans Ad Strategy

 

The brand wants you to know it doesn't make sense. It makes chicken.

 

By Olivia Morley

 

McKinney’s first work for Popeyes debuts a new positioning for the brand, fittingly titled “We Don’t Make Sense, We Make Chicken.”

 

The 30-second spot revolves around New Orleans culture and is set to air on digital channels next month, before nationwide out of home and TV activations launch in June. The short ad packs a punch, capturing all the eclectic and memorable sites and scenes one might take in while strolling the French Quarter.

 

Popeyes, founded in New Orleans in 1972, wants consumers to remember the city it hails from. It also wants them to recognize that just like New Orleans, it does things a little differently than its competitors. It’s got colorful beads, bikers and rolling reclining chairs—the endearing things that have become New Orleans’ cultural staples. The brand wanted to make an authentic campaign that captured things you couldn’t find just anywhere. In pursuit of authenticity, the brand also hired New Orleans-based actors to star in the spot.

 

“Popeyes has been a brand that was really good at spikes of interest,” said the brand’s CMO Jeff Klein. He recalled the “Chicken Sandwich Wars” that took the brand viral on social media and led many locations to sell out of sandwiches.

 

It was clear that the food (plus a savvy social strategy) could hype customers. But Klein wanted a brand strategy that could become deeply ingrained in customers’ minds—a narrative that could define Popeyes for the next three-to-five years. If all goes according to Klein’s plan, the campaign slogan will become part of consumers’ “vernacular.”

 

“What we really needed was a creative framework where we could improve our messaging to consumers kind of on an everyday basis…We want to build memory structures over time,” Klein said.

 

The spokesperson is a place

 

That tracks with McKinney’s purview as described to Adweek earlier this month: Highlight Popeyes’ New Orleans roots and sell more chicken. Although the brand’s (technically) called “Popeyes, Louisiana kitchen,” consumers tend to just call it just Popeyes. To remedy this accidental disconnect from its New Orleans heritage, the brand’s decided to focus on New Orleans in its marketing.

 

“When you have something that can’t be copied, that you can own, that is authentic…then you should lean into it,” said Jonathan Cude, McKinney’s chief creative. “And in this case, that was what happened. Popeyes has something in its heritage, in its DNA, that is authentic and comes from a certain place in the world.”

 

At the heart of the campaign, and what Popeyes hopes viewers understand, is that its approach to making chicken is different than its competitors. The cooking method is uniquely New Orleans—the slow-marinated and hand-breaded food’s got Cajun spices and fresh ingredients. Its time-consuming cooking techniques might not make sense for a so-called fast-food restaurant to employ, but as the creative describes, they work for Popeyes.

 

“It doesn’t really make sense. If you were trying to make chicken the most profitable, efficient way, you wouldn’t go through all the trouble that Popeyes does,” Cude said. “[New Orleans] defies logic. It’s a town that was intentionally built below sea level, right?”

 

When conflicts of interest benefit clients

 

The new brand strategy follows several changes within the organization. Klein joined Popeyes last year after departing his former role as marketing lead at Little Caesar’s. The CMO brought a pre-existing relationship with McKinney along with him. The agency, which still services Little Caesar’s, became Popeyes’ interim partner for a six-month trial period before eventually winning the AOR role. When that change went into effect, Popeyes parted ways with its former agency Gut, which had handled its creative since March 2020.

 

While Klein admits he and McKinney had a successful prior working relationship, he maintains that the agency is the right fit for Popeyes specifically because of its deep retail and franchisee experience. Popeyes’ biggest opportunity as a brand, Klein believes, hinges on its expansion via successful franchises. And to succeed, franchisees must execute the overarching marketing strategy on a hyper-local level. Historically, franchisees worried that brand messaging felt disjointed, and according to Klein, are now excited to have more overarching direction.

 

“It’s very important that the advertising works really hard today…The best way for us to grow our business is for franchisees to make money,” the CMO added.

 

Spokes-pelicans and Easter eggs

 

The tagline “We Don’t Make Sense, We Make Chicken,” lends Popeyes some flexibility to experiment and get a little weird. By its own admission, it doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t have to. Consumers might expect to see eclectic campaigns and a punchy social strategy. Klein is willing to experiment, even if some concepts are a little funny.

 

“What if we had a spokes-Pelican?” he wondered, adding, “that makes no sense. It does for New Orleans, but not for a chicken chain.”

 

The brand’s also building out a digital experience strategy. It has hidden 12 images of Popeyes’ chicken icon, Poppy, in an interactive commercial on the Popeyes website.

 

You’d need to watch the commercial frame-by-frame to catch them all, Klein said. The ad asks viewers to navigate a digital version of “Where’s Waldo” to unlock more yet-to-be-disclosed brand experiences.

14519: CarMax To Stage A Competitive Car Wreck.

Advertising Age reported CarMax is shopping for a new White advertising agency, potentially trading in its White advertising agency of roughly five years for a fresh model. Given that advertising executives and car salespeople consistently rank high among the most dishonest professions, the competition could become a bullshitters shootout. Plus, CarMax is based in Virginia, where local politicians are dealing with multiple blackface and sexual assault charges. So don’t be surprised if the competitors includes Campbell Ewald, The Martin Agency and any shop freelancing Ralph Watson, Ted Royer or Jeremy Perrott.

CarMax creative account is up for review

Used-car retailer spent nearly $100 million in U.S. measured media in 2017

By Megan Graham

Used car retailer CarMax is test-driving new creative agencies.

The Richmond, Virginia-based company confirmed to Ad Age that it was reviewing its “advertising agency relationship.” A spokeswoman for CarMax said McKinney, its current agency, is participating in the review.

Durham, North Carolina-based McKinney has worked with the brand since 2014. An agency representative couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

CarMax said it works with Vizeum as its media agency.

CarMax has more than 195 stores across the country, according to its website. The company spent an estimated $97.9 million in measured media in the U.S. in 2017, the most recent year for which full-year figures were available, according to Kantar Media.

With CarMax, McKinney’s “Greenie” work — its response to a mock luxury ad for a couple’s 1996 Honda Accord in 2017 — won a bronze Cannes Lion for real-time response in the “Social & Influencer” category. As bidding for the car on eBay skyrocketed, CarMax could only offer the Kelley Blue Book value to the couple, so made a video offering much-inflated prices for each of the personal items shown in the video, like a cat and a sandwich, for a total of $20,000.

CarMax said in December it is piloting an “omnichannel” buying experience that lets customers purchase cars online or start the process at home and complete the purchase in-store.

13182: Shitting On McKinney Hype.

AdFreak spotlighted an effort from McKinney that protests the North Carolina Bathroom Bill targeting transgender citizens. Now, MultiCultClassics has spanked McKinney in the past for its appearance on The Pitch, as well as a self-promotional stunt involving a 12-year-old minority intern and a Black History Month campaign. So this latest concept is hardly unprecedented in its hypocrisy. Apparently, the agency hatched the project “because we value equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights…” Yes, and the McKinney brain trust perfectly reflects the agency’s commitment to such high-minded tolerance. Perhaps McKinney should use the oh-so-clever toilet paper to wipe up its own bullshit.

McKinney Printed N.C.’s Bathroom Bill on Toilet Paper. You Know What to Do With It

An effort to ‘Flush HB2’

By Patrick Coffee

“It makes great cocktail napkins, bookmarks, facial tissues. But you know what’s best to do with it!” Yes, Durham, N.C., agency McKinney knows where its home state’s controversial House Bill 2 belongs—in the toilet.

The Charlotte City Council passed a nondiscrimination ordinance in February that included a rule allowing transgender people to use public restrooms assigned to the gender with which they identify. Furious opposition groups supported by Gov. Pat McCrory then ran ads arguing that the ordinance would make it easier for male sexual predators to get closer to victims by posing as women.

The state legislature later called a special session to pass “HB2,” which requires all North Carolina residents to use the public restrooms associated with their birth gender. The move has enraged civil liberties groups nationwide, and North Carolina has been the focus of plenty of backlash over HB2.

McKinney proposes a solution to the HB2 problem: Flush it. And they mean this quite literally, as you’ll see in the video below.

As noted in the clip, PayPal cited the bill in announcing that it would abandon plans to open a facility in Charlotte. And the NBA also raised doubts about hosting its 2017 All-Star Game in the city’s Time Warner Cable Arena, home of the Hornets.

Last month, McKinney chairman and CEO Brad Brinegar became one of more than 100 chief executives across the country to sign an open letter asking McCrory to repeal the new law. That group most prominently included Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook and Brian Chesky of Airbnb. The letter called HB2 “bad for North Carolina, bad for America, and bad for business.” Brinegar also recently appeared on CNN to speak out against a bill he called “regressive” and “reactionary.”

McKinney was inspired to create the project by advocacy groups Equality NC and Human Rights Campaign, which launched “Turn Out NC” encouraging residents to petition their legislators regarding the bill’s repeal. (The agency does have a connection to the latter organization; its longtime COO, Joni Madison, became COO and chief of staff at Human Rights Campaign last month.)

In a statement, McKinney told AdFreak that it worked on this project “because we value equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights … and we don’t care which [bathroom] you feel most comfortable using.”

“We tried to create something that could stand as a visual for what many North Carolinians think about the bill,” added group creative director Will Chambliss. “We hope people read it and then, well, you know the rest.”

Gov. McCrory has so far resisted calls to revisit HB2, but the bill continues to serve as a considerable headache for the former Charlotte mayor and city councilman. Public opinion polls now show his oppontent, Democratic attorney general Roy Cooper, with a small lead six months before November’s gubernatorial election.

McKinney mailed AdFreak a roll of the toilet paper so we might join in the efforts to “flush this bill down the toilet of history.” We’ll let you know how that goes.

12790: Diversity Stunt From McKinney…?

McKinney seems awfully proud of itself for hiring the industry’s youngest intern, shamelessly maximizing the PR opportunities via Digiday and Durham magazine. However, MultiCultClassics predicted White advertising agencies would eventually recruit embryos to boost diversity figures—so handing an internship to a 12-year-old is no surprise. A peek at the agency website clearly indicates McKinney is struggling mightily to lure adult minorities. The North Carolina-based agency previously displayed cultural cluelessness when appearing on AMC series The Pitch in 2012. But bringing a kid on board for a mere week is, well, weak. That said, Glenn Green deserves an ADCOLOR® Award at least.

12254: CarMax Picks New White Shop.

Adweek reported CarMax selected McKinney as its new White advertising agency, following a shootout including BBDO in Atlanta and The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia. As previously noted, adpeople and car salespeople rank high among the most dishonest professions, so the review could have boiled down to determining which untrustworthy White agency lied best in order to service the deceptive client. Don’t know too much about McKinney, although a peek at the agency website shows the leadership is predominately White. Plus, the shop once embarrassed itself competing on AMC series The Pitch. Guess the CarMax win is a step up for the North Carolina agency. Congratulations!

CarMax Picks Its Next Lead Agency

Brand spends $60 million in media annually

By Andrew McMains

CarMax has selected McKinney as its new lead creative agency, according to sources.

The used-car retailer spends about $60 million in media annually. The selection came after a review in which there were two other finalists: BBDO in Atlanta and The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va. Final presentations took place on Friday and Monday at CarMax’s headquarters in Richmond.

McKinney and CarMax could not immediately be reached. But sources said CarMax shared its decision with contenders.

As lead agency, McKinney succeeds Silver + Partners in New York, which did not participate in the review. Silver, formerly known as Amalgamated, has worked on the brand since 2010 and created this year’s “Slow Clap” ad for the Super Bowl.

The search coincided with the installation of a new chief marketing officer. Jim Lyski, former CMO at Scotts Miracle-Gro, arrived in August, filling a vacancy left by the December 2012 exit of Joseph Kunkel, who was svp of marketing and strategy.