Launched today on Rogers Digital Cable is an advertising channel paid for by Swiss Chalet. The channel is called “The Rotisserie Chicken Channel” (yes, I am serious, see the picture above if you don’t believe me) and will feature 6 chickens being rotated around on two rotisserie racks day in and day out, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until late May. The only thing that will change about the channel, aside from how well done the chicken is as the looped footage begins or draws nearer to its end, is the ‘special offer’ directing people to the Swiss Chalet’s Facebook page where they have to “Like” the brand first before they can use the coupon code. The data alone gathered by people “Like”-ing the Swiss Chalet Facebook Page is worth something to Swiss Chalet. In fact, when I first checked the page to get a number for this sentence they were at 72,634 “Like”s – including 6 of my friends – and since I wrote this sentence, finished edited the post, and took a look at it again before pushing the Publish button it’s jumped to 72,655 and it’s still going.

According to one of the executive VPs/creative director at the agency responsible for the campaign and quoted by the Globe & Mail he himself will be tuning in, “Of course! Chicken, it’s delicious, the beautiful sound of the chicken crackling, it’s great.” I did tune in, obviously, just to see the channel (it’s Channel 208 on Rogers in case you were wondering) and to take the picture you see above. I like the idea of it as a ploy simply to draw attention to the brand but I have to wonder who is actually going to be tuning into this channel for longer than it takes for the day’s coupon code to show up?

There are other ambient channels that people probably do use (I don’t know if ‘watch’ is the right word) on Rogers such as the Aquarium Channel, the Fireplace Channel, and the Sunset Channel. These, however, serve a purpose in that they give ambiance to a room when you’re having a party or a gathering of friends and don’t actually have an aquarium or a fireplace or just want a beautiful vista as afforded by the Sunset Channel’s numerous sunsets. I can also see the sound of the aquarium and even the fireplace being soothing for some to fall asleep to as sort of a white noise generator.

But the Rotisserie Channel I don’t see serving the same purpose ever…unless you’re a die hard rotisserie chicken fan of course. Not only that, but they didn’t even spring for the Rotisserie Channel to have an HD version! I am guessing it is because it is expensive enough to buy one entire channel they decided against buying a second one to broadcast it in HD. But what about those people who want to feel like they’re IN the rotisserie with 5.1 surround sound? They’re unfortunately out of luck.

Kudos to the agency for thinking up this idea because even if no one is really watching the channel or leaving it on for ambient noise, the fact is I am talking about it on my blog, mainstream media outlets such as the Globe & Mail wrote about it, people all over the internet are mentioning, and my mother told me she heard about it on the radio, so it is bringing people’s awareness more to the Swiss Chalet brand. Will this work again if a burger place decides to make the BBQ Channel and has a channel where there are burgers being barbecued on a branded grill? (like one specific company has in their commercials) I doubt it. The ‘shock value’ of this cool, new idea will be lost by then and they’ll just be a copycat. Also, I absolutely LOVE their YouTube Preview video for the channel – the preview is ‘rated R’ (which means Rotisserie not Restricted) “For Scenes With Mouthwatering Images”. Check it out below.

Have you tuned in to the Rotisserie Chicken Channel? If no, are you going to now? Had you heard about it before you read this blog post? What do you think about it?

Maybe Swiss Chalet could throw in some episodes of Robot Chicken every now and again to keep it interesting between now and May? Just send Seth Green some chicken and maybe he’ll sell some episodes to you on the cheap!

Robot Chicken amalgamation made from Robot Chicken Desktop Wallpapers found here and here on AdultSwim.com’s Robot Chicken Page

I have no affiliation with any of the brands or agencies mentioned in the post.