Digital is not a Channel

Abstract

On April 7, 2004, an assortment of unsuspecting people received a link to a surprising, one might even say troubling, web site. The SubservientChicken.com home page was Googlesque in its simplicity, consisting of what appeared to be a web cam window against a black background. Visitors were met with the sight of a humanoid figure dressed in a chicken suit accessorized with a garter belt. A text box invited viewers to “Get Chicken the Way You Like it” and to enter a command. When visitors typed in whatever impromptu directive came into their heads—“Sit down,” “Skip” or “Do the moonwalk”—the seemingly impossible happened. The chicken sat down, or skipped or moonwalked. The whole thing, from set decor to the grainy look of the video to the name of the site smacked of DIY web porn, by design. The first few people who were emailed or IM’d the link were relatively sophisticated media consumers. But this was a site the likes of which even they had never seen. So, they did what the site compelled them to do—they spent, on average, nearly six minutes playing with the magic chicken, and then they passed it along to everyone they knew.