• by Larissa Faw , May 13, 2016

Nathan's Famous and its agency MME are celebrating the renowned hot dog hawker’s 100th anniversary with a new campaign commemorating its past with some help from some New Yorkers who are pretty famous in their own right.

“The overarching style of these commercials is ‘celebrity open mic,’” stated Don Raskin, senior partner, MME and account lead on Nathan’s Famous. “There was no formal script and we only chose people who had a passion for this iconic brand. It was really important to us that the spots sound authentic and reflect the genuine connection the celebrities have with Nathan’s.”

The summer-long campaign running through Labor Day weekend is designed to appeal to New Yorkers through traditional media including in-store materials, outdoor signage, radio and print advertising.

The creative features well-known personalities including Whoopi Goldberg, Regis Philbin, Kathy Griffin and Walt Frazier as well as local New York radio personalities. They include Evan Roberts (WFAN); Rich Kaminski (WLTW) and Skeery Jones (Z100).

Celebrities for the campaign were selected based on, "who we felt personified the different aspects of the brand’s personality, such as authentic New York; quirky; and original," the agency said.

The celebs tell their favorite Nathan’s Famous memory and wish the brand a happy 100th anniversary.

The 60-second radio spots will air on New York area stations including, WFAN, Lite-FM and Z-100.  

Outdoor signage will appear on the flagship store in Coney Island.

The print ads will run in a special section of the NY Daily News on May 22nd and there will be a special Nathan’s pull out section in the Sunday NY Daily News. 

There will also be a New York Post wrap, appearing on May 25th as well as a front cover wrap. Both of these four-color sections will highlight a special sale of Nathan’s hot dogs for five cents-- the original price of a Nathan’s dog in 1916-- to encourage people to visit the Coney Island restaurant from 11am – 2pm on May 28th.

This effort was a fun project because so many celebrities were eager to wish Nathan’s a happy 100th anniversary, says the agency. It selected the featured personalities We "who we felt personified the different aspects of the brand’s personality, such as authentic New York; quirky; and original."

MME has been the agency of record for Nathan’s Famous restaurants for twenty-six years.