Burger King and Slipknot locked in a death match.

As I have sat in my home and watched hours and hours of TV over the years, I noticed how the commercials that were shown were, in a word, lame. The ad wizards always seemed to jump on a trend about 6 months too late. Two years after hair metal was killed by Seattle grunge, commercials were still riding the hair metal bandwagon as long as it could. Unless it was a Sportscenter commercial, I tend to not watch them. Now, I DVR everything and skip all commercials.

I have, however, noticed a certain set of commercials lately. They are Burger King commercials. This time the product is lame while the commercials are hilarious. Burger King has hit on a trend that is still going on. The trend is that metal, especially 80’s metal, is becoming somewhat popular again. Burger King has invented a band named Coq Roq. They have a website at coqroq.com.

The big question I have is how BK got the FCC to let them use the name Coq Roq. I know it isn’t spelled the same and it is a “band of chickens,” but come on. Coq Roq? If you haven’t seen the spots, the band is performing a concert hyping the new BK chicken fries. The band is dressed, or disguised, in chicken masks. The first time I saw this, I thought that looks like a Slipknot gag.

For those who do not know of the metal band Slipknot, they are a pure heavy, speed metal band that may or may not worship satan. That is to be debated. Many bands put out satanic like music to get publicity and attention. The whole “there is no such thing as bad publicity” thing. Whether Slipknot is or is not satanic, they kinda give off that impression. That is why I was so surprised to find that BK had actually approached Slipknot to appear in a BK ad campaign to “motivate young people to vote.” I thought Slipknot wanted to motivate young people to riot, but that’s just me.

Apparently Slipknot thought this over and finally decided they did not want to be associated with hamburgers. BK decided that wasn’t good enough and they invented there own chicken Slipknot. At least that is how the real band looks at it. Slipknot sent a cease and desist letter to BK and then BK filed for a federal action that lets them keep on keepin’ on.

I really have to wonder what the head guys at BK are smokin’. Of all the bands in the world, why would you want Slipknot to be associated with you? I don’t know if BK realizes how lucky they are that Slipknot turned them down. I can’t imagine the protests and boycotts that would have been called out. I am also surprised that big, bad Slipknot is even acknowledging the fake chicken band. I would think they wouldn’t even pay attention to something this stupid, but everybody’s got lawyers, I guess. I guess we will have to wait and see if Slipknot can cut the head off of BK’s Coq.