• Adweek, Monday, July 2, 2007 11 AM

TBWAChiatDay's edgy new campaign for Ballpark Franks uses a muscular, hairy arm--reportedly of an Italian opera singer living in Brazil--protruding from the stomachs of teen boys, manhandling them into eating Ballpark hot dogs.

Though print ads use the tagline, "Hunger gets what hunger wants," the TV spots feature a primitive voiceover that delivers the line as, "Hunger get what hunger want. Big, tasty Ballpark frank," while the arm slams down money for the dog or bursts through the backdrop.

The previous campaign leaned toward the rational (Ballpark made better-quality hot dogs), but teens have deaf ears to sensible arguments, says Rob Schwartz, executive creative director at the Omnicom Group shop. So the Playa del Rey, Calif., agency undertook a "disruption" development plan, putting 30 adults into a fabricated teenager's room with layers of mess, and asking "everybody to suspend their disbelief for a day, leave their corporate self and get into the mind of a 15-year-old boy."

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