The chicken is pre-meditated

The subservient chicken was the distraction of choice in the newsroom late last week. It's really pretty fun if you get creative with it. One of my favorites was, "Build a fort." Give it a try.

Folks were wondering if it was a live web cam, and who that crazy man with too much time on his hands was? When I first saw it earlier last week I didn't notice that it was branded by Burger King. I think it wasn't branded at all when they launched it. Over the week, if my memory serves me correctly the branding increased - now it's pretty obvious.

As for the live webcam - that was doubtful. Today's USA Today confirms that one. The online version of the story doesn't go into details, but the printed version has an inset about the chicken which says it is indeed a database driven list of pre-recorded actions.

USA Today mentions that the chicken was an experiment to try and reach the "illusive" younger male audience. Judging from the chortling young chaps I saw glued to the monitors last week - it worked.