“The real news about this sandwich is the brisket is smoked for 13 hours and really nobody knows that,” Mr. Heath said.

Image Arby’s intends to set the record for the length of a TV commercial by showing the 13 hours it takes to cook its beef brisket.

To get the entire process in a single take was not without its complications, with the first attempt scuttled when the window grew too dark with smoke, and a second when a light bulb in the smoker burned out. Mr. Heath and a small crew stayed awake for about 24 hours, and while he is in on the joke that this is not gripping cinema, there were moments when he got sucked in.

“Drama is in the eye of the beholder, and even the smallest little things to us were the coolest things ever,” Mr. Heath said. “When it got to the point where it started dripping and you could hear the sizzle of the brisket as the juices were dripping out of it, that was very entertaining.”

In Duluth, the commercial will begin Saturday at 1 p.m. Central time and end at 2 a.m. Central time on Sunday on My9, the local affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It will then air online just once at www.13hourbrisket.com on Wednesday, from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. Eastern time.

Online viewers of the broadcast will be eligible for prizes that will pop up on the website intermittently throughout, including 13 cash prizes of $1,300. After the online showing, the microsite will link to the video on YouTube, where it will appear in its entirety. The entire cost of the effort, including production and the advertising expenditure, is estimated at $250,000.

Arby’s Restaurant Group, which is owned by Roark Capital Group, spent $94.7 million on advertising in the United States in 2013, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP.

Peter Shankman, author of “Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work — and Why Your Company Needs Them,” was skeptical about the effort.