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Checkers Restaurants to use "Japanimation" look in ad campaign
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In a press release last week, Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc. (who recently aquired the Rally's drive-in chain as well) announced that it had hired Peter Chung, creator of Aeon Flux, to do a series of animated commercials. The campaign, known as "Hi-Performance, Human Fuel" will feature a sexy animated heroine named Holly in a muscle car across an "action-packed, alter-universe", and is seen in her pursuit of fast-food.
Aeon Flux, originally a series of shorts produced by Chung for MTV's Liquid Television series (and then in a stand-alone series), have often been confused by non-fans as being representative of Japanese animation. Chung is, in fact, American. (In fact, the press release credits Chung with the creation of "Japanimation" altogether.)
The attraction of anime fandom has long been seen as a potential goldmine by advertising agencies, who see the look of the art-form as something that could be potentially marketable, mainly in the males age 16 to 34 demographic, which comprises 78% of fast-food sales. However, Checkers' ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky is believed to be the first to be quite so blatant in the endeavor.
"Our new tagline 'High Performance, Human Fuel' summarizes our philosophy", said Rich Turer, Checkers' vice president of marketing. "Checkers and Rally's are all about refueling the human mind and body. Holly is someone people can relate to because she is strong, independent and passionate about her fast food and fast cars."
