A staycation may be a relaxing and affordable way to recover from the stress of vacation travel, but it’s a recipe for disappointment in a disjointed commercial for the Bloomin’ Brands Outback Steakhouse restaurant chain.
Created by the agency Mischief @ without fixed addressThe 30-second spot begins as a fairly conventional promotion for the chain’s latest limited-time offering, zooming in on steak plates topped with onions and starting at $14.99.
The movie boasts that the “steak-cation” deal is better than a stay-at-home deal, but it takes a dramatic turn with a teenage girl who throws a tantrum and flips the board game her family is playing.
She shouts, “I thought it was a steak-cation, not a staycation,” before rushing to her room. Her father tries to comfort her, but she doesn’t let him in, shouting, “I wish you were a steak.” »
His desperate response is “me too”. The commercial then cuts back to a group dining at a restaurant, with plates piled high with meat.
“We really wanted to cross the ocean of sameness,” Leah Burgess, Bloomin’ Brands’ senior director of strategic growth marketing, told ADWEEK. “We start with the traditional business format of a limited-time offer, then take you on an unexpected emotional roller coaster. We wanted a “wait…what?” » moment that turns heads.
The campaign will continue until February 2. Outback is also promoting the deal on social media and its website as a way to “cure your winter woes,” promising that one bite of the new Bloomin’ Onion Sirloin will make you “forget.” all about the collapse of Monopoly in our country.
“The spot is rooted in the idea that we regularly feel like we need break after break,” Burgess continued. “It’s also a cheeky nod to our roots: it’s summer at the moment and many people have spent the last two weeks on vacation.”
Mischief became Outback’s agency of record in 2023 after working with the channel on a tie-in with Netflix’s crime drama Glass Onion, which encouraged consumers to murder a Bloomin’ Onion and destroy the evidence.
The agency has since brought its signature humor to other Outback campaigns, providing the opportunity to replace your flaky friend with an actor and launching a “Steakmas” campaign that features the brand’s koala mascot as the arbiter of who deserves a steak dinner.
