Marketing in the News: Pusha T Arby's Ad

   

 There is a new Ad for Arby's and the only way to describe it is unconventional. I haven't heard about or thought of Arby's in years because it wasn't a place that would come to mind when I wanted to go out to eat, but when I saw this Ad, Arby's was definitely on my mind. 

    This ad doesn't just try to make you want Arby's, it specifically does not want you to eat at McDonald's. The whole advertisement is directed at McDonalds and how there fillet-o-fish is something nobody should want to eat. What brought forward this assault on McDonalds though is the fact that Arby's has a new fish sandwich that they want you to try. While showcasing there new sandwich they didn't just happen to have McDonalds in there crossfire, the whole ad was made to attack McDonalds even down to the person rapping the ad. At the forefront of this ad, is none other than the rapper Pusha T, who if you didn't know, wrote the "I'm Loving it" jingle for McDonalds. The relevance of why Pusha T was the perfect person for this ad is fully explored in the RollingStone article on this topic. Going from the writer of McDonald's famous jingle, all the way to writing and rapping a comedic diss track for there competitor. 

    Arby's has a value proposition of "Inspiring Smiles Through Delightful Experiences." This is shown very well by this ad, unless of course you are McDonalds who probably was not inspired to smile in this less than delightful experience. I sure smiled when listening to this because it was a unique way to show a new product, like there new fish sandwiches, while also taking a not so subtle aim at there biggest competitor. Through the rap, they are able to showcase this new product with clever wordplay and good visuals of the product. This sales strategy is something I have not really encountered before on a scale of this size so it really works as a marketing strategy. 

    The problem Arby's will have with this new release of theirs is the sole fact that other fast food chains are bigger, with McDonald's being the biggest. Overcoming this obstacle would have been a huge problem facing their company because there are not a bunch of things you are able to do when your smaller. Overall I don't think this will hurt McDonalds, so its not really wiping out the competition, but Arby's knew this and they also know this will bring in people who otherwise would not eat there. Rap fans and people who like things that are outside of the box will see this and it will be in the back of there mind next time they are trying to decide on what fast food to eat. This ad may even have people go as far as actively seeking out a Arby's. 
        This ad is one of the best I have seen in recent memory. The only differences I could even think of is having more than one famous rapper or artist on the song. This may work to diversify who is attracted to this ad, but it could also hurt it because the backstory of Pusha T writing the McDonald's jingle helps out the ad. Another thing I would add is to change when the dissing of McDonalds happens, because for the big picture the ad is still about Arby's fish sandwich and starting with dissing McDonalds sends a slight mixed message to the point of the ad, plus people skip over ads after a small amount of time so you aren't getting the most amount of people seeing your ad as you could. With all this said though, it is still a fun and unique ad that I truly believe is effective and will help out Arby's in bringing in new customers.