It’s the second Friday of Lent and as I sit behind my laptop I can’t help but reflect on the important parts of this special season.....prayer, repentance, alms-giving, and quality fish advertising. It comes as no surprise that during these 40 days, restaurants and fast-food companies work hard to appeal to the pious side of their Catholic customers, highlighting their seafood options and deals for fish, on Fridays in particular. So for this week’s Friday Flashback, I can’t think of any better example of Lenten advertising in the past to highlight than McDonald’s “Filet-O-Fish” commercial.
Premiering in 2009, this advertisement’s strength rests in it’s simplicity: “Frankie the Fish,” a mechanized version of Big Mouth Billy Bass, hangs mounted on a wall plaque in a very plain-looking garage, singing the short diddy: “Give me back that Filet-O-Fish” over and over again. Meanwhile, two friends eat the sandwich and watch the fish without saying a word.
It’s amazing how such a simple commercial can have such a great effect on customers. The advertisement led to an increase in sales, inspired a Facebook fan page with more than 40,000 members, increased online searches for the sandwich at Google by 100% in the subsequent four weeks that it aired, and even led to mounted “Frankie’s” that sung the jingle being sold in stores.
During this Lenten season, businesses can learn a lesson from McDonald’s popular fish sandwich campaign: keep it catchy and simple. After that, when it comes to their customers, all businesses have to do is have a little faith.
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