YouTube can be the cause of much workplace displacement activity, and Mercedes’ ingenious ‘disco chickens’ advertisement has probably been a guilty pleasure for many desk-bound office workers in recent months.
With around 560,000 hits, it’s become an internet sensation, and uses a chicken’s natural tendency to keep its head still when the rest of its body is moving (very useful when you’re roosting on a wind-blown tree branch) as a way of flagging up the stability control systems used by the car maker.
As for the filming itself, much of it involved animal handlers lying on the studio floor, holding the chickens over their heads. This inevitably resulted in some unfortunate accidents, but a combination of wearing overalls and enjoying this rather bizarre experience meant that the handlers, like the birds, soldiered on.
Much of the footage was choreographed on the spot, with the finished 53-second video edited together from hours and hours of material.
MORE: To see the video, go to YouTube.com and search for ‘How is as chicken like a Mercedes-Benz?
