I love writing and producing commercials for Arby’s. For one thing, food is a great subject–everybody eats, and everybody gets excited about where to go for lunch. It’s a fun topic.
Over the nearly two decades that I have been “the Arby’s guy” for radio stations in Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, many of the same promotions and menu items come up over and over. We do reuse commercials in many of those cases…there are commercials that have been re-edited three or more times to update the current Arby’s slogan, change the price point, etc.
But lots of times, you need (or want) to do something new. So today I am presenting two sets of ads that handle either the same general topic, or specific menu item. The idea is that there are lots of different ways to approach the same content.
First, we have three ads for Italian menu items. Two are dramatizations, one is a straight read with some production flourishes. (Straight reads are a rarity with Arby’s.)
Next, here are three spots for the same menu item. Each uses humor, but with a slightly different approach in every case:
As always, Herr Kroheim von Gyroheim contributes greatly to these commercials…his “Greek wrap” made a big impression when that ad originally aired! As always, any attempt at humor is tied directly to the sales pitch. Funny commercials (or even mildly amusing commercials) aren’t productive if the marketing message doesn’t come through.