Arby's Bids Farewell to Its Favorite Hater, Jon Stewart, With an Ad Featuring His Insults The chain proved its brand savvy as it bid Stewart #JonVoyage.
By Kate Taylor
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Jon Stewart may have beef with Arby's, but the chain has nothing but love for the comedian.
Sometimes Jon's jokes about us were hard to digest, but we kept watching #TheDailyShow anyway. #JonVoyage pic.twitter.com/FGoLhf6QyX
— Arby's (@Arbys) August 6, 2015To bid Jon Stewart farewell from his 16-year gig as host of The Daily Show, Arby's purchased two ads in his penultimate episode, which aired Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reports. One of the two is a compilation of Stewart's best, anti-Arby's quips, such as "Arby's: Isn't there anywhere else we can eat?" and "It's like shock and awe for your bowels."
Despite Stewart's history of hating on the sandwich chain, there are no hard feelings from Arby's. The brand ends the commercial with text reading, "Not sure why, but we'll miss you."
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Arby's was also on the scene when Stewart announced his retirement plan in February, with its corporate account tweeting:
Jon, feel free to reach out to us at careers@arbys.com.
— Arby's (@Arbys) February 11, 2015Stewart responded, "I do not accept your peace offering. We shall always be enemies!"
Brands were reportedly paying roughly $230,000 for 30 seconds of time in Stewart's final show, making this a pricy, but savvy, move for Arby's. Spending big bucks to connect with millennials is the norm for the sandwich chain: in 2014, the chain bought Pharrell's infamous hat for more than $44,000 on eBay after a tweet about its similarity to Arby's logo went viral.
Hey @Pharrell, can we have our hat back? #GRAMMYs
— Arby's (@Arbys) January 27, 2014Related: Two Men Accused of Using Taco Bell as a Meth Lab
If you want to revisit the best of Stewart's rants about Arby's, set to the dulcet tones of 'Thank You for Being a Friend,' check out the commercials below:
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