Hilariously successful ad campaign began as in-house job

You know those commercials for Sonic Drive-In? The ones with the two guys in the car, or the couple, just riffing absurdly about burgers and shakes and life?

Love or hate the ads, Sonic's now 5-year-old campaign is one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history. Pat Piper, the guy who came up with the idea and still manages the campaign, talked about how the whole thing happened to a rapt audience on Tuesdayof local ad people at the Pikes Peak Advertising Federation's monthly luncheon.

The thing is, Piper said, the campaign was basically a fluke. He and a colleague at Kansas City-based ad agency Barkley, Matt McKay, were assigned to create a video for Sonic's annual franchisee meeting in 2003. They got creative and videotaped themselves driving up to competing fast food chains and asking for items that only Sonic had on the menu.

Later, Piper and McKay tried to come up with ideas for the actual TV campaign but got nowhere. Their boss suggested going back to the franchise video.

They held auditions for improv comedians in Chicago and Los Angeles, eventually picking Pete Grosz and T.J. Jagodowski, both alumni of the Chicago improv troupe Second City.

"We didn't want actors, we wanted people to act naturally," Piper said.

Then they began shooting in Phoenix, driving up to competing restaurants and having Grosz (the driver) and Jagodowski ask ridiculous questions, like could they microwave their popcorn in the oven used for the burgers (because Sonic's burgers are fresh, get it?).

Piper said he felt guilty sometimes, because often the staff at the competing restaurants genuinely tried to help.

"They wanted to be helpful," he said, "and we turned it into comedy."

A manager at a Wendy's busted them once, spotting a camera inside the car.

"The second we started shooting, we were laughing, and didn't stop laughing, so we knew we had something," Piper said.

The Sonic spots gradually gained traction. Over time, the spots moved away from the confrontational scenes to simply show Grosz and Jagodowski and, later, a couple played by Molly Erdman and Brian Huskey (no, they're not really married), riffing on the latest menu items while sitting in their cars.

"I think the best advertising is something that can break into popular culture," Piper said.

They ads are not universally popular - Piper gets hate mail sometimes from viewers turned off by the spots - but they have been hugely successful for Sonic.

"It was going to be a bridge campaign, maybe last six months - that was five years ago," he said. "I'm consistently amazed that people still enjoy it and that we're still able to come up with ideas."

The spots are shot once a month at various locations, including Denver, Piper said. The shoots produce hours of video, of which the best parts are whittled down into the 30-second spots that make it on TV.

Local advertising professionals say the spots were ground-breaking when they came out and are funny enough to stay fresh.

"It's like a little comedy show," said Jenny Schell, of the local agency Design Rangers, who was at the lunch. "That's one commercial where the whole family will stop what they're doing and turn up the volume."

Using improv gives the Sonic spots a fresh, real feel, said Mark Boswell, president of the Boswell Idea Group in Colorado Springs.

"It's a different way to think," he said. "I think people like to connect with real people.
There's something really, really funny about realism."

With so many imitators on the air now, it's hard to remember how fresh the original idea was, said Thom Hoyman, a graphic designer with publisher David C. Cook.

"When the commercials came out, they were different from any other commercials," Hoyman said. "Now, they've hit the mainstream."

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