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2004

Subservient Chicken Breaks into the Viral World

A chicken…
dressed in garters…
controlled by a keyboard…

Yup. That was the first campaign to ever go viral. Burger King released Subservient Chicken as a launch for their new chicken sandwich, taking the tagline “Chicken Your Way” to an all too literal place. Released discreetly via internet chat rooms, users would spend large chunks of time trying various key combinations trying to stump the chicken. Alas, to no avail. The chicken would dance, watch tv, and workout, among other commands. The microsite had 20 million hits in the first week and sales for the new sandwich rose 6% per week after the initial release.