• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, March 13, 2007

Dairy Queen is out with new national TV ads, and considering the reaction on YouTube, they're a hit.

The ads tout the quick service restaurant's new FlameThrower Chicken Sandwich and original FlameThrower GrillBurger, which launched in 2004. They portray three colleagues dining at the eatery, inhaling as they speak because their sandwiches are so spicy. One of them accidentally exhales, and flames shoot out of his mouth--and then, like children in church, each one in turn can't help but exhale and flames shoot out everywhere.

YouTubers are in hysterics; many say they have not seen such a funny commercial in, like, forever.

"We're trying to touch consumers in as many different ways as possible to stimulate their senses," says Tim Hawley, DQ vice president/marketing communications. The ads, which help introduce the chicken line, are an extension of a marketing plan begun three years ago, this time including "the world of new media," he says.

That new media includes what DQ calls an "advergame," wherein players navigate a hot air balloon through skies filled with birds, planes and DQ sandwiches. The game's theme is synergetic to the "Inhaling" TV spot. Players need to gobble up the fiery fare and breathe fire into their balloons, torching menacing birds, kites and satellites. DQ offers a $25 gift certificate to randomly selected players each day to keep them coming back to play.

Last month, the company launched "Slow Jam Lips Sync" online for Valentine's Day. From Feb. 9 to 19, 179,271 visitors showed up, DQ reports, forwarding the jam 24,601 times in total. Users that spent more than a minute were 27.3% of visitors against an industry standard of 12%.

Besides a combination of cable--Discovery, Home Food Network and the like--spots for "Flamethrower" are on national late-night programming and on radio. In-store POP, posters, counter toppers and drive-through signage complement.

DQ is also marketing the promotion through its million-plus member fan club and throughout the Internet.

International Diary Queen, headquartered in Minneapolis, is part of the Berkshire Hathaway company. According to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, DQ spent $76.4 million on advertising in 2006, up from $75.6 million in 2005.