Arby’s Cooks Up A Tasty 13-Hour Commercial In Minnesota
Arby’s is hoping its customers in Minnesota have a long attention span.
The fast food chain is offering viewers in Duluth a chance to watch a chunk of meat roast inside an oven for 13 hours straight. According to the folks at Gawker, this extremely long and seemingly unbearable commercial was reportedly put together to promote Arby’s smokehouse brisket sandwich.
If you’re a resident of this Minnesota town and have absolutely nothing to do over the extended Memorial Day weekend, then you can sit down and watch the restaurant cook something beginning at 1 pm. Unless someone bothers you with outdoor activities or family get-togethers, you can park your behind in front of the telly until 2 am without bothering to change the channel.
Must see #TV? Arby’s airing 13 hour commercial today in Duluth, Minnesota. http://t.co/zY7MQoG1T0 – @nytimes pic.twitter.com/NBJPM4qbox
— Katie Chrystler (@kchrystler) May 24, 2014
The Duluth News Tribune reports that Arby’s fanatics who wish to tune into this lengthy commercial should set their dials to My9 this afternoon. That’s where Arby’s intends to dazzle your mind with epic plot twists and deep characterization.
Jeff Baker, who serves as director of brand experience for Arby’s, explained why the company is eager to broadcast an uninterrupted 13-hour commercial to promote the triumphant return of the beloved smokehouse brisket sandwich.
“As you’d expect, the idea around airing a commercial for 13 hours required that we cast a pretty wide net. There were very few folks who could do this the right way, and we had the most confidence in working with My9 and… their ability to be quite flexible with what I’m certain was a very challenging request,” Baker explained to the outlet.
He added, “The focus of this was really around the authenticity of the sandwich.”
Here’s what you can expect plot-wise from the Arby’s commercial: Someone will open the over door and stick the chunk of meat inside at around 1 pm. For around 13 hours, viewers can watch as it cooks inside the aforementioned oven. Once it’s properly roasted, someone will remove the meat and make the sandwich. By this point viewers should have worked up a considerable appetite.
Slate reports that Arby’s coughed up $250,000 for this 13-hour block of time on My9. This writer is definitely curious to know just how long the average viewer will spend staring at a piece of meat cooking inside an oven on TV. Although we’d assume not very long, you never know how many folks might find this thing thoroughly engrossing. Regardless of what you may think of the publicity stunt, Arby’s experiment is certainly intriguing.
[Image via Arby’s]
