Despite their controversial decision as a fast food restaurant to have a stance on gay marriage, Chick-Fil-A is a fabulously (perhaps not the best adjective) successful fast food chain in the Southern United States.
They ran an advertising campaign which focused on having cows advertise for Chick-Fil-A, the reasoning behind it being that the cows wanted people to eat more chickens so that people would no longer consume their flesh in hamburgers. For the cows, the ad campaign is an exercise in self-preservation.
The feature that is entrenched in this ad is sympathy. We're supposed to feel sympathy for these sentient cows, who, while not being smart enough to know how to spell, are smart enough to know the economic relationship known as a 'substitution'. Where if you are eating 'mor chikin' you are therefore less likely to be hungry for other meats, namely beef.
The feature: If you eat more chicken, these cows won't die.
Cows are cute, and as mammals we feel a stronger sense of empathy towards them than we would other animal kingdoms. This empathy leads to a sense of internal guilt when it comes to eating them. Chick-Fil-A tries to take advantage of this by trying to get people to eat chickens instead; which are ugly, less-human, and less intelligent. The cows here are also personified to add empathy. One is standing on the other's back, writing, trying a comically transparent ad campaign to get people to eat chicken.
To increase the modality of the ad, the scenario is made more realistic through a few features to make the cows seem like they are actually doing this of their own accord. Firstly, the cows are physically removed from the billboard to make it look like they are actually painting it. Second, the paint is running, this is an attempt to add some realism to the fact that cows are not professional printers who would be able to make a perfect billboard.Thirdly, the cows have made several spelling mistakes, we know that cows can't spell, but by adding these mistakes the ad is agreeing with us and saying "yeah, cows are dumb! so dumb they can't spell Chicken!". When in reality, the mere notion of cows understanding a written language is absurd. However, because the ad appeals to this logic that if cows were to spell they would do it poorly, the scenario increases its modality.
By doing all three of these things, Chick-Fil-A lends credibility to this scenario where cows are telling people to shop at Chick-fil-A. The following ad takes it a step further:
This ad features a cow falling off the water tower, mid paint job. The consumer isn't thinking "these cows sure are smart to have learned how to paint and understand market substitutes", they are thinking, "Oh look what these dumb cows have gotten themselves into". It's all about adding realism to the consistent ad campaign, which is that cows are independently telling people to eat chicken.
Notice as well the placement on a water tower. Who knows if this is even a functioning water tower or just purely a billboard. Chick-fil-A might be speaking to its folksy consumer base which might be more receptive to a water tower--which is a symbol of rural life, similar to a granary. In addition to cultural targetting, Chick-Fil-A advertises to the more rural south, where people may have had an emotional connection to cows on their farm.
Chick-Fil-A does all of this without once mentioning any of their own products in any of the above ads. After all, Chick-Fil-A isn't even advertising, it's the cows doing it. I don't even know exactly what Chick-Fil-A sells by looking at these ads, but I can assume it's chicken.
The feature: If I eat at Chick-Fil-A these hilarious cows won't be slaughtered to make my hamburger.
What does this say about our society? You don't need to advertise your own products in order to get people to buy them. You can just say why your products are more humane (or, appear to be more humane) than the competition. Chick-fil-A does that by generating feelings of guilt that you will face eating a competitor's hamburger. What this also says about our society is the connotation that eating chickens is more okay than eating cows because they are not as cute and intelligent as cows.
What does this say about our society? You don't need to advertise your own products in order to get people to buy them. You can just say why your products are more humane (or, appear to be more humane) than the competition. Chick-fil-A does that by generating feelings of guilt that you will face eating a competitor's hamburger. What this also says about our society is the connotation that eating chickens is more okay than eating cows because they are not as cute and intelligent as cows.
Furthermore, it says that you can advertise your products simply by being funny and making people laugh. Which is an interesting concept when you consider that these ads shown do literally nothing to explain their products.
