Sonic Guys :: Love em or Hate em?

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ADVERTISING & MARKETING 2-23-05

Sonic ads drive reaction


By JENNIFER MANN

Columnist

Never in memory has an award-winning ad campaign generated such feedback as the one Barkley Evergreen & Partners produced for the Sonic Drive-In chain of restaurants.

E-mails and phone calls started coming in early Tuesday after the marketing and advertising column mentioned that the campaign featuring two guys sitting in a sport-utility vehicle discussing Sonic's food won a slew of awards at the Omnis, including Best of Show for the second year in a row and Best of Radio.

The communications continued through early Friday afternoon. Interestingly, all callers and e-mailers were men and all were pretty passionate in their contempt for the spots.

A sampling of one e-mail, this one from area resident Ken Jennings: “The two guys in the ad are whiny and brainless in their attempts at being pointedly funny. They miss the point and are just plain irritating and chafing.”

Another one, this from Mitch Eagan from Olathe: “I too, along with a lot of my friends, agreed this was the worst, most stupid, dumbest of the dumber commercials of the year. Wow … this commercial should be fined by the FTC for insulting, bad influence to the TV watchers in the area.”

The phone calls were more pointed, including one in which the caller wanted to know why anyone would want to watch two homosexuals sitting in a car at Sonic talking. When queried as to why he thought the two characters, Pete and P.J., were homosexual, he said: “Just look at them — they're bickering like a husband and wife.”
Greg Haflich, vice president of marketing and brand development at Sonic Industries Inc. headquarters in Oklahoma City, has heard it all before.

“There is a group out there that really don't understand what two guys would be doing in a car at a Sonic by themselves without a girlfriend or a wife,” Haflich said. “They're part of what I call the polar edge of the lunatic fringe.”

Haflich said there's another edge to the fringe: people who call and want compact discs of the commercials to give as gifts.
“And then in the middle, there's a whole group of consumers who respond to the ads,” Haflich said.

The proof, he said, is in the numbers.

“Since we introduced the campaign, same-store sales are up more than 10 percent. We've had advertising-awareness increases in the markets where we compete, exceeding both Burger King and Wendy's, and they outspend us 2-to-1.”

“We're starting to get up to where McDonald's is in terms of recognition, and they spend $2 million a day on advertising,” he said. “I don't have a business reason on behalf of our stockholders to make a change.”

Brian Brooker, chief executive officer and chief creative officer at Barkley Evergreen, said the two characters are sometimes polarizing, “but it's scary sometimes the way people perceive advertising,” he said.

The two actors work in comedy and are given an idea for the spots, and then improvise.

“When you look at fast-food advertising, there's really nothing that's consistent, and here we are starting to develop these icons,” Brooker said. “I take these comments with a grain of salt.”
ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Sonic ads drive reaction


By JENNIFER MANN

Columnist

Never in memory has an award-winning ad campaign generated such feedback as the one Barkley Evergreen & Partners produced for the Sonic Drive-In chain of restaurants.
E-mails and phone calls started coming in early Tuesday after the marketing and advertising column mentioned that the campaign featuring two guys sitting in a sport-utility vehicle discussing Sonic's food won a slew of awards at the Omnis, including Best of Show for the second year in a row and Best of Radio.
The communications continued through early Friday afternoon. Interestingly, all callers and e-mailers were men and all were pretty passionate in their contempt for the spots.
A sampling of one e-mail, this one from area resident Ken Jennings: “The two guys in the ad are whiny and brainless in their attempts at being pointedly funny. They miss the point and are just plain irritating and chafing.”
Another one, this from Mitch Eagan from Olathe: “I too, along with a lot of my friends, agreed this was the worst, most stupid, dumbest of the dumber commercials of the year. Wow … this commercial should be fined by the FTC for insulting, bad influence to the TV watchers in the area.”
The phone calls were more pointed, including one in which the caller wanted to know why anyone would want to watch two homosexuals sitting in a car at Sonic talking. When queried as to why he thought the two characters, Pete and P.J., were homosexual, he said: “Just look at them — they're bickering like a husband and wife.”
Greg Haflich, vice president of marketing and brand development at Sonic Industries Inc. headquarters in Oklahoma City, has heard it all before.
“There is a group out there that really don't understand what two guys would be doing in a car at a Sonic by themselves without a girlfriend or a wife,” Haflich said. “They're part of what I call the polar edge of the lunatic fringe.”
Haflich said there's another edge to the fringe: people who call and want compact discs of the commercials to give as gifts.
“And then in the middle, there's a whole group of consumers who respond to the ads,” Haflich said.
The proof, he said, is in the numbers.
“Since we introduced the campaign, same-store sales are up more than 10 percent. We've had advertising-awareness increases in the markets where we compete, exceeding both Burger King and Wendy's, and they outspend us 2-to-1.”
“We're starting to get up to where McDonald's is in terms of recognition, and they spend $2 million a day on advertising,” he said. “I don't have a business reason on behalf of our stockholders to make a change.”
Brian Brooker, chief executive officer and chief creative officer at Barkley Evergreen, said the two characters are sometimes polarizing, “but it's scary sometimes the way people perceive advertising,” he said.
The two actors work in comedy and are given an idea for the spots, and then improvise.
“When you look at fast-food advertising, there's really nothing that's consistent, and here we are starting to develop these icons,” Brooker said. “I take these comments with a grain of salt.”
To advance the campaign, Sonic recently introduced three new spots featuring a married couple, Molly and Brian.
“We're doing it to give the campaign more legs, because the Sonic guys have been exposed a lot and we don't want consumers to get fatigued,” Haflich said.


To advance the campaign, Sonic recently introduced three new spots featuring a married couple, Molly and Brian.


“We're doing it to give the campaign more legs, because the Sonic guys have been exposed a lot and we don't want consumers to get fatigued,” Haflich said.