The closest Zaxby’s is 169 miles away, but a new campaign from Tombras is punking the city anyway.
Zaxby’s goes out of its way—quite literally—to dunk on Philadelphia in an amusing campaign from Tombras promoting the sandwich chain’s Fried Chicken Philly.
The campaign began a few weeks ago, when billboards quietly went up in the City of Brotherly Love featuring arch headlines about the new limited-time menu item. The ads provoked Philadelphians by suggesting the traditional Philly cheesesteak is subpar compared with Zaxby’s version, which is made with fried chicken.
“Just like the Philly you know and love, but good,” read one of the billboards. “Finally, the Philly done right. Just 169 miles away,” said another—a reference to a Zaxby’s in Virginia that’s the closest to Philadelphia among the Georgia-based chain’s 900-plus locations.
The billboards were just the beginning. To antagonize Philly further, the chain is now unveiling a TV spot starring Dolph Lundgren, the Swedish actor who played Ivan Drago—the ultimate villain to Philadelphia’s Rocky Balboa—in “Rocky IV.”
The 30-second spot shows Lundgren getting heckled as he walks the city’s streets, talking up the new sandwich, before raising his arms triumphantly on the famous “Rocky Steps” leading up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Avinash Baliga, who recently joined Tombras as executive creative director and who led the campaign creatively, told Ad Age that all good advertising today has to get a reaction—and this out-of-market trolling certainly fit the bill.
“There are certain foods that cities are very passionate about—the New York pizza, the Chicago hot dog. And the Philly cheesesteak is right up there,” he said. “We knew this sandwich would get a strong reaction. So we were like, how do we get even stronger reactions?”
The billboards reportedly did just that. Dooley Tombras, the agency’s president, said one popular Philly podcast picked up the story and complained that these were the most disrespectful billboards in town.
“Then, in the comments of the podcast, somebody was like, ‘Let’s call all the graffiti artists—we need to deface these billboards,’” Tombras added. “We were like, ‘Oh man, we should have put them lower down [on the street]’ because that’s kind of the reaction you want.”
Baliga said Lundgren was a joy to work with.
“He really got into it,” he said. “He’s obviously not done too much advertising, but it was fun because we had to write it in his voice and it was very collaborative. We went through a couple rounds kind of writing it with him. And he comes from a school of acting where he really got into the role. We’d read out the script and he’d slip into character and read it back to us.”
“Philadelphia and I have a decades-long history,” Lundgren said in a statement. “So when Zaxby’s came to me ready to take on the city’s iconic sandwich with a Philly of their own, I knew I had to be part of this campaign.”
Tombras has been doing offbeat work for Zaxby’s for years—from 2019’s nostalgia-fueled comic spots for the Zensation salad to last year’s “Guy on a Buffalo Wing” spoof. Patrick Schwing, chief marketing and strategy officer of Zaxby’s (and former CMO at Arby’s), said the new campaign reflects that same spirit—after what was a painstaking product development process.
“This sandwich and campaign pose a provocative question: Could we as Zaxby’s take an iconic sandwich and make it better?” he said. “After a year of development and testing, we knew we had a sandwich worthy of the name ‘Philly.’ And what better place to debut this sandwich than Philadelphia? For those who don’t believe, we invite you to come to your closest Zaxby’s and try it.”
Along with the OOH and TV work, Tombras also recorded man-on-the-street videos for TikTok, which really capture Philadelphians’ confusion and animosity toward the idea of a Fried Chicken Philly.
Targeting consumers in a market where you don’t have any locations is an unusual strategy. But the ensuing PR has been reaching Zaxby’s markets, and the Fried Chicken Philly has exceeded expectations, selling at almost three times the forecasted rate, the company said.
The Philly campaign continues this week, as Zaxby’s is planning to set up food trucks for one more chance at ticking off the locals.
“At this point, we may need security,” said Tombras.
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