Featured image for Arby's Real Turkey Pillow Sold Via Fake Infomercial

Arby's Real Turkey Pillow Sold Via Fake Infomercial

by Rudy Sanchez on 11/09/2020 | 2 Minute Read

Those that have spent a long sleepless night watching TV are more than intimately familiar with infomercials, or what the industry calls “direct response advertising.” They are either short 30-second or long-form thirty/sixty-minute pitches, with a phone number or URL that viewers call or visit to purchase the product. Usually, it’s for some new workout, diet supplement, gag gift, or single-purpose gadget. Often they’ll use over-the-top acting and dramatizations to highlight the product’s features and benefits. These spots get produced cheaply, and graphics are about on par with what your aunt can do using MS Paint and clipart.

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These late-night ads get parodied a lot, and often it’s hard to tell when it’s a joke, especially when Saturday Night Live mixes them into the show. If you watched the latest episode with host Dave Chappelle and Foo Fighters, you might have seen the ad for a turkey pillow and think it was still part of the show.

And you’d be wrong.

As it turns out, the turkey pillow is real, and it’s a promotional campaign for fast-food chain Arby’s new line of deep-fried turkey sandwiches. True-to-form, the cozy meat helmet is presented as a solution to a common problem - getting drowsy from eating too much turkey. Though turkey does indeed include the sleep-inducing amino acid tryptophan - mentioned in Arby’s ad - turkey doesn’t contain enough to bring on the Zs. It’s really from pigging out. Either way, the turkey pillow promises a good nap post-gorging, providing a soft capsule that helps void out the world and your annoying family.

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The pillow quickly sold out, so now the only chance at grabbing one is by winning one, entering a sweepstake at ArbysDeepFriedTurkeyPillow.com. Best of luck, and enjoy your turkey hat.