• USA Today, Monday, April 6, 2009 11 AM

Enough already with the gloom and doom! Let's turn to marketing the way we know and love it: singing fish in the grand tradition of the "Sorry, Charlie" School of Advertising. A McDonald's spot showing a fish mounted on a wall plaque in a garage singing "Give me back that Filet-O-Fish" has taken on a life of its own, says McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud.

Google reports that searches for "McDonald's fish" are up 100% in the past four weeks and that the ad has been viewed on YouTube more than a million times, reports Theresa Howard. And the ad and its infectious jingle have spawned a ring tone and a series of knockoff ads.

The talking fish looks like the "Big Mouth Billy Bass" gag gift advertised on cable TV a while ago. Arnold Worldwide came up with the parody idea after struggling to create an ad that local franchisees could air for the Filet-O-Fish promotion that is done every year during the 40-day Lenten period.

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