Fish singing 'Gimme back that Filet-O-Fish' catches cult following on YouTube
by Sara Bonisteel / Photo by Arnold
"Gimme back that Filet-O-Fish, gimme that fish!" an animatronic fish sings to a bearded man eating a McDonald's Filet-O-Fish. "Gimme back that Filet-O-Fish, gimme that fish!"
Since it was first broadcast in late February, the commercial has found a cult following, inspiring a slew of remixes and ringtones, and garnering more than a million views on YouTube.
"It's very catchy," Danya Proud, a spokeswoman for McDonald's USA, told AOL Food on Tuesday. "Excuse the pun."
McDonald's, which traditionally advertises its fish sandwich during the Lenten season, ran the commercial in select markets across the country, Proud said.
"We sell 300 million Filet-O-Fishes annually, and we sell approximately 25 percent of that during Lent," Proud said. "So I think that this has certainly increased awareness and certainly made people think more about the Filet-O-Fish sandwich."
The spot was hatched, ironically enough, in a conference room called the "Fish Bowl," said Pete Harvey, the copywriter for the campaign created by the Arnold ad agency in Boston.
Food Ads - Annoying or Endearing?
Welch's Grape Juice Girl
There's something about the Welch's Grape Juice Girl. Maybe it's the eyes that make her look possessed by demon juice. Or maybe it's the ultra-creepy French accent she uses as she says 'It's like your tongue says: "Hey, this is magnifique." And your lips answer back: "But of course."'
Click here to see the ad.
YouTube
Burger King King
Royalty ain't what it used to be. With his terrifying blank stare and his creepy, glossy exterior, if this 'King' shows up in one more commercial or in our heart-shaped tub taking a flame-broiled bubble bath, we may just scream and call 911. And what's up with the SpongeBob square butt?
Click here to see the ad.
Bud Light's Spuds McKenzie
The quotes say it all about this English bull terrier: 'What a super party animal!' the announcer says. 'Spuds McKenzie parties right with only Bud Light,' sayeth Robin Leach. 'Spuds gives motion to the ocean,' the blonde model says. Wait, what? Let's hope they were in international waters cause we're pretty sure that's illegal 'round here.
Click here to see the ad.
YouTube
Carl's Jr. Western Bacon Cheeseburger
The tagline for this Carl's Jr. burger ad starring 'Top Chef' host Padma Lakshmi is 'more than just a piece of meat,' but sadly that's all Padma seems to be as she inhales a messy Western Bacon Cheeseburger and uses her tongue to lick up the barbecue mess.
Click here to see the ad.
YouTube
Yo Quiero Taco Bell
Reports in the last few yeas of vermin in New York City-area Taco Bells have us wondering whatever happened to the loveable Spanish-speaking dog with the big ears. Is he really in that big chalupa in the sky?
Click here to see the ad.
YouTube
Where's the Beef?
You know that your ad campaign is a winner when elementary-school kids start sporting 'Where's the Beef?' glitter T-shirts at recess. Wendy's certainly made the early 1980s fun with their little old lady asking 'Where's the Beef?'
Click here to see the ad.
YouTube
McDonald's Mac Tonight
For a brief time in the late 1980s when 'Moonlighting' was hot and the Contras were not, McDonald's adopted a moon singing about the Golden Arches on a rotating Big Mac to the tune of 'Mack the Knife.' Yeah, we're confused too.
Click here to see the ad.
YouTube
Dunkin' Donuts Karate Smoothie
Kaaaaraaateeeee! We've loved They Might Be Giants for the 25-plus years that they've been making albums, soundtracks and goofy answering machine messages, but they truly tried our patience with this screechy ode to car-pool schlepping. Yeah, a band's gotta make a buck, but We Fans Might Be Really Annoyed.
Click here to see the ad.
YouTube
Nestle's Alpine White
Creamy white, dreamy white. Wow. Somebody on the Nestle team stepped into an a-ha video and decided white was the new milk chocolate. Too bad they made a commercial that only appeals to the 'Pretty in Pink' Blanes of the world. Not smooth, Nestle, not smooth.
Click here to see the ad.
YouTube
Avoid the Noid ... at All Costs
What's a Noid? Us, after one too many servings of late 1980s Dominos spots featuring a pizza-ruining Claymation super-sadist. The Noid's hyperactive giggling and scheming may have ensured his enduring mascot infamy, but most of us just tried to avoid those ads.
Click here to see the ad.
YouTube
A few weeks of wrangling in the Fish Bowl lead the team to remember the Big Mouth Billy Bass, a mounted singing novelty fish that found its way into American homes at the turn of the millennium. And so, McDonald's Frankie the Fish (in English) and Pepe de Pescado (in Spanish) were born.
"What if it were you hanging up on this wall?" Frankie sings in the English-language spot. "If it were you in that sandwich, you wouldn't be laughing at all."
Pepe's song is slightly different: "Tu amigo ha comprobado al dejarme aquí colgado que nunca le supe tan bien. Filet-O-Fish dorado muy bien acompañado el pescado en filete es mejor! El pez quedo pescado y en McDonalds lo hacen ¡bien!"
"Our singing fish knows he didn't make the cut to be a Filet-O-Fish, and that is why he ended up on a wall," says songwriter Fernando Ruiz. "Because the Filet-O-Fish is the one and only tasty fish out there, he's jealous."
But it's the English lo-fi garage rock spot that really became the overnight sensation.
"Oddly enough, it was the first YouTube posting that told us that this might be a phenomenon," Harvey said. "We didn't post it ourselves: Some guy in his living room videotaped his television while the commercial ran, posted that on YouTube and by the next morning, it had 10,000 hits."
Harvey said he's heard of a hockey team that uses "Gimme that Filet-O-Fish" line as a chant before they hit the ice ("which makes no sense, but it's funny") and a man who used a variation on the commercial to propose to his girlfriend.
Gemmy Industries Inc., which sold millions of the Big Mouth Billy Bass fish in 2000-01, this week released a new recordable Billy Bass at Cabela's, a company official told AOL Food. Gemmy also plans to release an iPod Billy Bass application in about a month.
Jason McCann, Gemmy's senior vice president of marketing and product development, told AOL Food on Thursday he thought Arnold's Filet-O-Fish ad was "a riot."
"I sent them a thank-you note," he said.
Love it or hate it, the "Gimme That Fish" jingle seems to be here to stay.
"It's a polarizing commercial as a lot of popular commercials are," Harvey said. "Some people love it and some people hate it, and luckily we've been in the camp where more people love it than hate it."
Click here for more singing fish at AOL Shopping.
Fast Food Reviews
Domino's Mac and Cheese Bread Bowl
Grade: C-
This turbo-carbed heart stopper, bubbling over with cheese and penne pasta, was everything we expected it to be. We commenced chowing our way through the center, which was stuffed with a satisfying, if not especially adventurous take on mac 'n cheese and eventually tore apart the puffy crust. No kid in the world could pass this up. Our recommendation -- cut the pie into four pieces and enjoy a small portion. Sure, you could skip the extra starches altogether and order it without the bread bowl, but where's the fun in that?
McCafe Iced Mocha and Latte
Grade: A
One sip and we were hooked. A nonfat iced mocha loaded up with whipped cream was quite potent, with a strong aroma of Arabica coffee beans. To be honest, if we had been blindfolded, we wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a Starbucks chiller and these eye-openers. They don't escape without some criticism; decaf is not currently an option. Lattes are, however, available with a shot of vanilla, caramel, hazelnut or sugar-free vanilla.
Wendy's Hand-Spun Twisted Frosty
Grade: A+
The Hand-Spun Twisted Frosty is perfection, and here's why: Most candied shakes only blend in one or two teaspoons of toppings (see: McFlurry). The Twisted Frosty, however, does not scrimp. They swirl in obscene amounts of toppings - nearly a 50-50 ratio of ice cream and candy, and the resulting maelstrom of flavor is all we've ever wanted from a candied shake. It's like drinking liquid Oreo! (Also available in equally delicious M&M and Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough.)
Rachel Been, AOL
Wendy's Hand-Spun Frosty Shakes
Grade: D
Wendy's, purveyor of the illustrious Frosty, has recently introduced two new varieties of their famous milkshake: The Hand-Spun Frosty Shake and the Hand-Spun Twisted Frosty.
Now, we love Frosty original. Its unparalleled vanilla-chocolatey thickness is the yardstick by which we measure all other fast food milkshakes. That said, these Hand-Spun Frostys are a downgrade. They start with a teeth-itchingly sweet vanilla Frosty base, then swirl in strawberry syrup (which tastes like Robitussin) or chocolate syrup (which tastes decidedly inferior to Frosty classic).
Next: Wendy's Hand-Spun Twisted Frosty
Rachel Been, AOL
McDonald's Filet-O-Fish
Grade: B
Remember the last time you ordered one of these? Neither could McD's, so they've whipped up a whole new wave of ads for their classic fishwich -- which so far as we could tell hasn't changed a bit in the decade or two since we'd downed one. The fried fish block melds softly into the featureless cheese slice, generous blob of tartar sauce and mushy bun with little to no variance in flavor or texture. Weirdly enough, this isn't a bad thing, but rather somehow comforting -- as if time had stood still. Now where's a McDLT when you need one?
Rachel Been
Wendy's Premium Fish Fillet Sandwich
Grade: B-
"Oh, it's made with real fish, right?" parroted just about everyone we polled. The ad campaign sure is working, but upon first bite our question is -- why make a big splash about real fish if it's not really good fish? The fillet we sampled was decently seasoned, but rather toughly breaded, stringy and swiped with a stingy bit of overly astringent tartar sauce. We applaud the effort, but this sandwich is gonna need some more schooling if it wants to swim with the big guys.
Rachel Been
Burger King Angry Whopper
Grade: A (if you're a chilehead) / F (if you can't take the heat)
Woah, BK -- simmer down now! What did our poor, innocent mouths (and digestive systems) ever do to you? With eight thick, unseeded slices of jalapeno, and very little else to soften the sting, this burger is more like a fraternity hazing than an item actually meant for human consumption. The little nibbles of bacon, fried "angry" onions and sweet "angry" onion sauce we managed before our tongues got their keisters whupped were holding hands and singing Kumbaya in comparison. Once the peppers muscled their way in it was impossible to concentrate on anything but the pain they packed. Even for a few hardcore chile lovers, it proved impossible to eat without an asbestos tongue. Seriously, BK, can't you enroll them in a yoga class? Spa retreat, perhaps?
Rachel Been
Wendy's Buffalo Dipped Chicken Sandwich
Grade: F
A fried chicken patty meets a sickly, stinging, neon orange sweet-and-sour sauce in a sandwich we wouldn't inflict on our worst enemy. One puckery, cloying bite scorched the throats of the testers and caused at least one to skip dinner that night. The taste of the chicken? We wouldn't know, because it was so completely overpowered, but it sure wasn't anything we'd call "Buffalo."
Keith Morrison
Burger King Mushroom and Swiss Steakhouse Burger
Grade: A-
After another burger chain's venture into mushroom-swiss terrain left our palates scarred, we were hesitant to sample another. But holy shrieking 'shrooms, were we glad we did! An intensely savory slathering of Worcestershire balanced a sweet kiss of BBQ sauce, and also seemed to nix the rubbery texture factor that plagues most mushroom-topped fast food. Swiss cheese and crisped-up onion were just barely visually evident, and played little to no role in the overall flavor. No matter -- that tasty meat slab totally ruled.
Keith Morrison
McDonald's Southwest Chicken Salad
Grade: B+
When we told our photographer this robust salad was from McDonald's, he nearly dropped his lens cap. Save for a few Titanic-sized chunks of lettuce core, vegetables (including roasted corn and tomatoes, tender, savory black beans and poblano peppers) held shockingly pleasant flavor and freshness, making for an appealing texture contrast with crunchy, zesty chili-lime tortilla strips and shreds of cheddar jack. We opted for the crispy chicken (the same well-seasoned patty used for their new Southern Style Chicken Biscuit and Sandwich), but a grilled cilantro-lime glazed version is also available. Additional dressing is eater-administered via a lime wedge and packet of Newman's Own Southwest Dressing.
We hope the folks at McD's are feeling their ears burn in the same pleasing way ours were after scarfing down this fiery and flavorful salad. More like this, please!
Nathan Ellis Perkel
