Coq Roq

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Coq Roq
Agency: Crispin, Porter + Bogusky
Client: Burger King
Product(s): BK Chicken Fries
Year: 2005

Coq Roq ,also spelled COQ ROQ, is an advertising program created to promote international fast food restaurant chain Burger King's chicken product, BK Chicken Fries. Created by the Miami-based advertising firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky (abbreviated to CP+B), the program featured a viral marketing website, television and print campaigns and a fictional MySpace page. The program was similar to other marketing campaigns created by CP+B for Burger King, including the Subservient Chicken, Ugoff, and Sith Sense.

Contents

[edit] History

Coq Roq is a fictional "rooster metal" group with its own website and associated content. The band's musical "style" is classified as thrash or nu metal. There was a link to "BK Chicken Fries" sneaked in below all the group's information. Little is known about the actual actors or musicians involved.

Before the first Coq Roq television commercial, the website had an image saying that "Groupies love the Coq." The commercial aired with a band with chicken like masks singing on stage about chicken fries. The extra long version (available on the website) shows the band beating up on a clown (mocking McDonald's mascot Ronald McDonald), who presents the band with a box of chicken nuggets.

The first few versions had the band singing the lyric "One Nation Under Chicken Fries", which was later changed to "One Kingdom Under Chicken Fries".

The coqroq.com website was taken down in summer of 2006, but the MySpace page is still operational.

In November of 2006, Burger King released three Xbox advergaming titles. One of them, PocketBike Racer, features instrumental versions of Coq Roq's songs.

[edit] Controversies

The Coq Roq ads again generated controversy, in this instance because of complaints over the double entendres and sexual innuendo on the website, which forced BK to request content be changed.[1]

Another pair of reasons for the controversy was in the name of the "band" itself and one of its songs. The word Coq, which is French for rooster, is pronounced "cock" in English, alluding to the slang word for male genitalia (the proper pronunciation is closer to the word "coke.")[2] The fourth song from the band is called Nice Box. In one the commercials they sang about the box chicken fries were sold in, however the song is also another double entendre: the word "box" is a slang word for female genitalia.[3]

In August 2005, CP+B and Burger King became the target of lawyers of the band Slipknot, who alleged the mask-wearing rooster rockers were a blatant copy of the band's "style." CP+B countered that it was a general parody of heavy metal bands that wear masks or try to achieve a mask-like effect, such as KISS or GWAR.[4]

[edit] Members

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mitch Joel (2005-07-26). Burger King Goes Viral Again. TwistImage.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
  2. ^ A Dictionary of Slang, letter "C". Peevish.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-27.
  3. ^ A Dictionary of Slang, letter "B". Peevish.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-27.
  4. ^ AP Wire (2005-08-17). Slipknot's Burger King Beef. The Smoking Gun. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links