We need to talk about that Chicken Tonight commercial
Back when we all still worked ‘normally’ in the office, I hardly watched TV. Netflix and Videoland were perfectly adequate, because they have enough series and films that I can (and want to) watch all the way through. But I do need to pay a bit of attention to those — most of them, anyway. So now that I work from home, I often have the TV on in the background. I simply can’t work in complete silence and want some background noise. Well, I got background noise. AND HOW.
Because I really want to talk about that one Chicken Tonight commercial. And yes, if you’ve seen it, you immediately know which one I mean. Because you don’t just forget it. And if you haven’t seen it, you probably had the same first reaction we all did: huh? Isn’t Chicken Tonight dead? Does anyone seriously still eat sauce with chicken from a jar? Which, by the way, isn’t kept in the fridge, so it’s pretty striking that the chicken doesn’t need to be kept cold and that it stays good for so long? IS IT EVEN CHICKEN? Anyway, those questions. I was completely convinced that Chicken Tonight was lying in the graveyard and that not very many people were mourning it. I was wrong.
A word about that commercial
Yes. Terry Stinger. Of course, an ex-tremely clever wordplay on the nineties series Jerry Springer. At least they acknowledge that they haven’t been relevant for years, and perhaps still were in the ’90s. In that sense, they have self-awareness. But this commercial is just so unbearably over the top, isn’t it? And I can only see that man as Barteljaap (Rundfunk fans will understand me), which already distracted me quite a bit personally. Yes, the commercial is nostalgic, but I simply can’t relate to it. I’m more Bartelj- uh, sorry, Jeroen’s wife. ‘BUT IT’S CALLED CHICKEN TONIGHT’ she screams in incomprehension, full of fury that her husband suddenly no longer wants chicken in the dish whose star ingredient is chicken. Girl, I get you. Completely. You’re being portrayed all wrong in this commercial, because YOU are right.
And when she tastes it; ‘this is f**** delicious holy sh***’ is of course completely worthy of Springer, because that show contained as much swearing as possible, followed by beeps. But it’s not about whether it tastes good or not; it’s simply NOT Chicken Tonight. Don’t let Jeroen and crazy neighbour Anja fool you.
So Chicken Tonight is back
Or well, half back — let’s make that clear. The ‘tonight’ part is back because you can eat it tonight, but the ‘chicken’ part is nowhere to be found anymore. Now, I have to say that I already had trouble with concepts like the Vegetarian Butcher. It just causes a short circuit in my brain; at a butcher’s, you don’t buy something vegetarian by definition. Except for the sauces alongside the meat. But okay; I managed to process it, and by now I’m also pretty happy with how good the vegetarian varieties are. But if your entire product, your entire concept — it’s even in the NAME — is chicken… Then surely you don’t bring a vegetarian product to market under the same name? After, I don’t know, 15 years? Of silence?
And then you could at least play on that a little, but they don’t even do that. It’s still simply called Chicken Tonight. What a missed opportunity. ESPECIALLY if you do manage to come up with such a terrible pun as Terry Stinger… Then they let us down. Pfff. Why not It’s No Chicken Tonight? Chickened out Tonight? Chickenless Tonight? Do something with it. This is SO confusing. Proof: I’m trying to figure out on the Albert Heijn website which Chicken Tonight is actually No Chicken Tonight, and I simply can’t work it out. Every product says: “is not vegetarian.” That’s also the only information. I suspect they don’t even have a clue themselves what’s actually in it. But I’m almost certain now: that really isn’t chicken.
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