Did This Pigeon Poop on Your Car? Take 5 Helps Identify the Crappy Culprit

There are 8 million pigeons in America, by some estimates, so identifying the one that left those disgusting droppings on your car would be all but impossible—until now.

A marketing stunt from a nascent car wash chain called Take 5 named an “official pigeon,” outfitted it with a GPS device and let nature run its course. 

After digital tracking and on-the-ground legwork, captured in a cheeky documentary-style video, the brand turned the critter’s nasty trail of guano-covered vehicles into free car washes for thousands of drivers.

From independent agency Erich and Kallman, the stunt used Dallas, Texas, as a launching pad because the brand has a cluster of stores there. Creatives shot a mini movie on-site with some purposely melodramatic footage of the pigeon chase and a talking-head interview with a veteran ornithologist who rates “official pigeon’s” poop as “some of the best I’ve ever seen.”

Among the other standout assets are “official pigeon” images inspired by “most wanted” posters and coupons left on car windshields that say, “Congrats on the bird poop.”

The activation, which kicked off Tuesday and continues through the week, fans out to 11 total cities, including Nashville, Denver, New Orleans and Tampa Bay, representing the biggest marketing push to date for Take 5.

An unexpected marketing approach

The campaign latches onto a mildly stomach-churning occurrence that has “happened to everyone and is pretty hard to ignore,” Eric Kallman, the agency’s co-founder and chief creative officer, said in a statement. “Pigeons are notorious for it, so why not follow one around as it poops on cars and offer free washes to those people?”

The concept struck Take 5’s leadership team as “an unexpected and memorable, albeit messy, approach, and that’s exactly why we love it,” CMO Brady Noon said.

The goal, along with showing love to existing customers, is to boost trial and build brand awareness for the chain that was born in Charlotte, N.C., in 2020 and has since grown to about 400 stores around the country. The retailer, part of Driven Brands, is a sibling of Take 5 Oil Change.

Take 5 plans to give away more than 60,000 car washes nationally, plus $5 discount coupons for drivers who don’t score the freebie. No one, by the way, will actually have to prove that they got dumped on by the “official pigeon.”

“If there’s bird poop on your car this week, we think it’s safe to say the ‘official pigeon’ was responsible,” says the brand’s promo. “Even if the poop is no longer visible on your car, we’ll take your word for it.”

Along with aesthetics, there’s a practical reason to clean the poop off of cars, according to the brand. It’s high in uric acid, a corrosive element that can degrade a vehicle’s clear coat and bleach the paint itself.

Take 5 is using a range of media, including digital, social, email, radio, coupon drops on cars, outdoor posters, billboards and on-location signage, to hype the stunt. 

CREDITS:

Client: Take 5 Car Wash

President: John Teddy
Chief Marketing Officer: Brady Noon
Marketing Director: Cory Burnett
Communications Lead: Devon Prince
Creative Agency: Erich & Kallman
Chief Creative Officer: Eric Kallman
President: Steve Erich
Executive Creative Director: Rikesh Lal
Art Director, ACD: Jason Goldberg
Copywriter, ACD: Clark Chamberlin
Executive Producer: Fearghal ODea
Director of Brands: Laura Miley
Account Manager: Beatriz Salazar
Production House: Origami
Director: Quinn Brown
Executive Producer: Jim Askew
Editor: Dillon White
Media Agency: Hunterblu
Co-Founder: Jessica Blumberg
Associate Media Director: Andrea de Marco
Senior Media Planner: Cybill Cempron
Assistant Media Planner: Maraya Rivera