Time for 8 Billion Sonic Commercials to Pay Off

On the way to Mt. Rainier on Saturday, we passed a Sonic Drive-In in Eatonville that was having a grand opening and resolved to stop on the way back to Seattle. You may have seen Sonic's relatively clever (clever compared to, say, Taco Bell's "Fourthmeal" campaign which should be criminal) commercials on your television.

The Sonic ads are on a lot. On the one hand they're relatively clever. On the other hand, until yesterday there wasn't a Sonic within a day's drive of Seattle. Nothing makes you feel like a pissant so much as being saturated with advertisements for a product that is not even available to you. Whenever we get to thinking that Seattle maybe has some clout in the world, we have to remember that our eyeballs are worth such a pittance that Sonic can blanket us in advertisements that are intended for Idaho or somewhere. The entire Puget Sound metro area is just an add-on.

It turned out it was a "Friends and Family" affair at Sonic and while we tried to bullshit the line attendant--"Why, yes, we are friends and/or family"--we couldn't produce a paper invite and so were sent on our way, burgerless. They opened to the public yesterday. The menu they gave us didn't look so hot anyway, so we concluded we weren't missing out on much. One round of Dirty Mad-Libs down the road we found a Herfy's--the most unchain-like of chain restaurants: never on the TV and available right in Georgetown--and dined.

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By Dan in Food on April 28, 2009 10:05 AM

Comments [rss]

davidswidler

Sonic is one of the few restaurants Aubrey McClendon can afford.

kathrine

I'm pretty excited about Sonic coming to WA state. For someone who grew up in Oklahoma it's not about the food, but the drinks and the nostalgia factor.

Seth

Furthering the irony, Robert Swift is working the Puyallup Sonic.

greycat

Honestly, you aren't missing much. I just moved from Austin, where there was literally 3 sonics on the same street (on which I lived) within about a mile distance between each other.

I love the foot long coneys and the tots though. The drinks are pretty good too, I have been getting cherry dr. peppers since i was a wee young un.

Phoebe206

Hey Greycat-

Taco Time "mexi-fries" are REALLY good tots to be had within the Seattle city limits!

Enjoy.

Finn

Does anyone else find it ironic that Sonic, based in Oklahoma City, OK is transporting its JV version of fast-food to (near) Seattle only AFTER they stole our f$#%ing basketball team of the same name? Irony? Anyone? I call for a boycott - if you're going to transplant some crappy out of state fast food here, at least make it good crappy out of state food. Where in the hell is an In N Out Burger or a White Castle when you need one?

Troy Morris

Whatever, I was looking on the map and it was close enough.

Why is Alltel in bold?

NxNW

Maybe we can use our Alltel cellphones to order via SonicMobile?

And for the record: Ferndale is not Bellingham. thx

Troy Morris

Also, there's one in Puyallup and one in B-ham

purplecomet84

That is the coolest thing ever! We used to discuss this very thing in my office all the time, with all those ads you're bound to have a huge customer base!

Even better, my dad lives about 5 minutes from Eatonville!!

Troy Morris

Also, never been impressed by Sonics. Could be the name, could be the commercials and could be there traditional locations are in places I deem 'crappy'

Like the outskirts of Las Vegas and LA.

Troy Morris

I was going to proclaim nothing is as silly as spending years advertising something far away (I think there's a sonics in Oregon). But finally opening one in the middle of, relative, nowhere and making it invite only is definitely sillier.

rakka

(disclaimer: i'm more excited about a sonic within driving distance than i should be. it's one thing i haven't been able to find a replacement for in the pnw.)

you're missing the drinks. that's what sonic is about. dick's can't make a shake like sonic can.

see also: vanilla cokes (with real vanilla syrup), cherry limeade and the thing called "ocean water".