Clio Music - Final Deadline

Winner Winner? FanDuel's Chickens Wax Philosophical

Maybe we all wind up as dinner in the end

Barnyard chickens contemplate questions of cosmic import in a pair of entertaining spots from FanDuel Casino.

One convo starts like this:

  • “Would you call yourself a religious bird?”
  • “Nah, I stopped going to church. But it gives me comfort to think there’s something bigger than just ourselves. Restores my optimism and hope. Helps me answer, ‘What purpose does my life serve?’ Why do you ask, bro?”
  • “Well, I noticed a lot of my friends—brethren, whatever—going to the chopping block lately. It got me thinking of my mortality and whether it’s best to live a good life, or just let it rip, morally speaking.”

Does the story end well? For the chickens, no.

Predictably, humans fare far better, as FanDuel Casino offers free chicken dinners for new sign-ups. Acclaimed chef Jennifer Carroll will host festivities at a branded pop-up restaurant in Philadelphia later this week.

“As the official food of winners, it seemed only natural FanDuel Casino should open a chicken dinner restaurant,” says Pete Lefebvre, creative director at Mischief @ No Fixed Address, which developed the campaign. “Winners get chicken dinners. It says so right in the Constitution. And if it doesn’t, it should.”

Can’t argue with that. Pass the coleslaw!

“We never start a campaign thinking about how it’s delivered or executed,” says agency ECD and partner Kevin Mulroy . “Everything is strategy first, and then idea. Once we get to a core idea, we think of the most interesting or provocative way to say it. Sometimes it’s a spokesperson, sometimes it’s a spokesanimal.”

These days, Mischief’s all about creatures great and small. The agency just put foxes in ads for Eos, and its big bunny-driven work for Tubi won the Super Clio as the Big Game’s best ad.

Those campaigns, along with this fresh outing for FanDuel, succeed because the creatures don’t seem overly cute or cloying. The humor’s semi-dark—well, just dark (and meaty!) for the chickens.

That edge, delivered through sharp writing and compelling visuals, sets the creative apart and leaves us hungry for more.

The Clio Awards - Creative Summit