Coq Roq

Coq Roq
Agency:	Crispin, Porter + Bogusky
Client:	Burger King
Product(s):	BK Chicken Fries
Year:	2004 - 2005

Coq Roq, also typeset as COQ ROQ, and pronounced "Cock Rock", was an advertising program created in late 2004 to promote international fast food restaurant chain Burger King's chicken product, BK Chicken Fries. Created by the Miami-based advertising firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky (abbreviated to CP+B), the program featured a viral marketing website, television and print campaigns and a fictional MySpace page. The program was similar to other marketing campaigns created by CP+B for Burger King, including the Subservient Chicken, Ugoff, and Sith Sense.

History

Coq Roq was a fictional "rooster metal" group (albeit composed of various real-life musicians) with its own website and associated content. The band's musical "style" was classified as punk-sounding rock n' roll, thrash or nu metal. There was a link to "BK Chicken Fries" snuck in below all the group's information. Little is known about the actual actors or musicians involved.

The first version of the single 'Bob Your Head' had the band singing the lyric "One Nation Under Chicken Fries", which was later changed to "One Kingdom Under Chicken Fries".

The coqroq.com website was taken down in summer of 2006, but the MySpace page is still operational. However, it has not been updated in some time.

In November 2006, Burger King released three Xbox advergaming titles. One of them, PocketBike Racer, features instrumental versions of Coq Roq's songs.

Controversies

The Coq Roq ads again generated controversy, in this instance because of complaints over the double entendres and sexual innuendo on the website, which forced BK to request content be changed.^[1]

Another pair of reasons for the controversy was in the name of the "band" itself and one of its songs. The word Coq, which is French for rooster, is pronounced like "cock" in English, alluding to the slang word for penis.^[2] The fourth song from the band's EP is called Nice Box. In one of the commercials they sang about the box chicken fries were sold in, however the song is also another double entendre: the word "box" is a slang word for female genitalia.^[3]

In August 2005, CP+B and Burger King became the target of lawyers of the band Slipknot, who alleged the mask-wearing rooster rockers were a blatant copy of the band's style. They were sued for an undisclosed amount.

CP+B and Burger King then filed counter-suit against Slipknot, stating that the Coq Roq band was fictitious, visually and musically bore little resemblance to Slipknot's style, and at best was a general parody of heavy metal bands that wear masks or try to achieve a mask-like effect, such as Mushroomhead, KISS or GWAR.

Partly mentioned in the counter-suit included the notion that Slipknot were parodies of bands themselves, further citing the specific example of Cleveland Ohio rockers Mushroomhead, who wore near identical style masks and jumpsuits, and had been gigging several years before Slipknot even formed, let alone went mainstream.

Both suits were eventually dropped, and Burger King ended the campaign shortly after. ^[4]

Members

• Fowl Mouth: vocals
• The Talisman: lead guitar
• Kabuki: rhythm guitar
• Free Range: bass
• Sub-Sonic: drums
• Firebird: fire breather

See also

	Florida portal
	Companies portal
	Food portal
	Drink portal

• Burger King Advertising
• Burger King Products
• Subservient Chicken
• Ugoff

References

1. ^ Mitch Joel (2005-07-26). "Burger King Goes Viral Again". TwistImage.com. http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/000264.html. Retrieved 2007-10-07. 
2. ^ "A Dictionary of Slang, letter "C"". Peevish.com. http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/c.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-27. 
3. ^ "A Dictionary of Slang, letter "B"". Peevish.com. http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/b.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-27. 
4. ^ AP Wire (2005-08-17). "Slipknot's Burger King Beef". The Smoking Gun. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0817052slipknot1.html. Retrieved 2007-12-03. 

External links

• Burger King website