My Most Immortal Ad: Tahaab Rais

The evening before I was asked by LBB to share my Most Immortal Ad, my wife asked me about what pulled me to advertising, communications and creativity. I replied without blinking twice because I knew the answer.

In 2004, Burger King did something that attracted me, then a 19-year-old business management student who wasn’t interested in advertising or marketing, to spend an hour on his PC telling a chicken, online, to do crazy, quirky and fun things for me.

“Viral Marketing”. “Interactive”. “Digital”. “Experiential”. “Branded Entertainment”. Before these words became commonplace, at a time when digital marketing was limited to websites and static banners and an after-thought, Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” pushed marketing into a new realm; one that was more targeted, more focused, more measurable, more entertaining, more participative and more than just ads on TV. 

It spoke to the right target audience (men aged 18-45 who spent a lot of time on the internet), importantly, it delivered on the brand’s promise and set the tone for other hits that followed, such as the Whopper Freakout.  And it made me get into the field I love that helped me to do the work that got me onto the Immortal jury. So, yeah, that’s the one!