Steve Peace, director of communications planning for Carat Fusion, subdivides clever interactive into four categories:

• What a weird world this is: things that are compelling simply because they're so odd.
• Someone else's misfortunes: things that make us laugh while we're cringing
• Incredible feats: people doing things that impress and astonish us.
• Social commentary: content that sparks or supports conversation about current events.

Burger King's SubservientChicken.com combined bits of the first three to become an instant interactive classic. It appeared a little kinky at first, then folks started to realize the branding that was involved. Strictly speaking, the campaign by Crispin Porter + Boguski was not deceptive; it contained several unobtrusive links to the brand and the tagline, "chicken the way you want it." But the site didn't attract traffic based on viewers' love of chicken sandwiches. Thousands of people visited the site for an average six minutes at a time to tell a man in a chicken suit to sing, throw pillows or lay an egg.

Subservient Chicken in action

Weird? You bet. Clever? Undeniably. SubservientChicken.com even managed to grab the attention of people who don't dine on fast food. Maybe they noticed the brand connection, after they stopped laughing.