Publicis Kaplan Thaler Brings BBQ to the People for Wendy’s

Publicis Kaplan Thaler recently launched a campaign for Wendy’s new barbecue offerings, entitled “#BBQ4Merica.”

The online campaign debuted with a kind of mock PSA, introducing Wendy’s new menu items as tackling the issue of “barbecue inaccessiblity” for people in places like Miami Beach, Cape Cop and Malibu. “Hi I’m a celebrity, and these are just a few of the geographically underprivileged places where millions of Americans don’t have easy access to quality barbecue,” says a solemn Carlton Alfonso Ribeiro in the ad. He’s joined by Ralph Macchio and Steve Austin for the effort, and the trio appear individually in a series of other videos for the campaign (stick around for a couple after the break).

In addition to the online videos, the digital effort includes a call to make barbecue the “National Dish of America” and an invitation to “sponsor” friends by tagging them on social channels using the hashtag “#BBQ4Merica” There was also a recent 24-hour tweet-a-thon event hosted by Ribeiro, in which participants helped unlock content and win swag. (more…)

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What Would You Want a Celebrity to Do for a Klondike Bar? Joel McHale Launches a Challenge

Back in the 80s, some ice cream sandwich-makers asked, “What would you do-oo-oo-oo for a Klondike bar?” Then, a balding businessman made monkey sounds. Today, reaching greater heights of sophistication, we’re crowdsourcing challenges via social media to humiliate washed-up celebrities. The new question is, “What would you want _____ to do for a Klondike bar?”

In the Klondike Celebrity Challenge hosted by comedian/The Soup host Joel McHale, the blank is filled first by Alfonso Ribeiro, otherwise known as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s cousin, Carlton. The contest submission period has ended, so Klondike’s Facebook page has no evidence of people’s weird ideas. But on July 15th, we’ll presumably have a new video featuring the winner.

For now, watch Joel McHale wandering his ice cream museum. The videos are directed by Tristram Shapeero and written by The Soup writers Boyd Vico and Brad Stevens. It’s not half bad, actually. Maybe we have evolved since ’83.

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