Web 2.0 is all about interacting with your audience and today I found an absurd example of how interaction and marketing have merged to advertise chicken.

Burger King has a site call the Subservient Chicken in which you are able to type in a verb command and a person in a chicken suit in someone's living room will respond.

I tried jumping jacks, sitting, laying an egg, singing and my personal favorite: skipping.

There is a short delay from when you type your command until the chicken responds in which the chicken waits patiently for your direction.

How ever did the marketing gurus at BK come up with this idea? And why is it working. Officials at BK say that chicken sales are up and within the first five days of launching the site they had over 5 million visitors. Gee, it took McDs longer than that to sell their first 5 million Big Macs.

The site, apparently reaching kids, has a chicken mask that you can print, cut out and presumably wear while playing on line with your new chicken friend.

There is a single link at the bottom which takes you to a page advertising a new chicken sandwich for a buck.

Is it clever or silly? You decide. Visit the Subservient Chicken and watch him/her dance!

Deborah Chaddock Brown