US Ad of the Day: Netflix and Outback Steakhouse invite fans to murder their hunger

The streaming giant and the popular restaurant chain are serving up a frighteningly hilarious spot designed to generate hype around the forthcoming debut of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – the Netflix sequel to Rian Johnson’s wildly popular 2019 film Knives Out – as well as Outback’s ever-popular Bloomin’ Onion appetizer.

“It is in Outback Steakhouse’s nature to bring our guests exciting and over-the-top experiences,” said Danielle Vona, senior vice-president and CMO of Bloomin’ Brands, in a statement. “Given that Glass Onion is a twist on the classic murder mystery film, in collaboration with Netflix we had ambitions to bring to life a partnership that would complement the film’s narratives of subverting expectations. Something different. Something unexpected. Something comedically dark.”

The playful spot riffs on film’s key themes, imagining the story of a high-intensity murder that takes place at an Outback Steakhouse – the victim, being, of course, a Bloomin’ Onion. The perpetrator does everything in his power to cover up the evidence, from wrapping his Outback receipt into a rug alongside cinder blocks to be sunk in the sea to burning the clothes he wore at the scene of the crime.

Created in partnership with creative agency Mischief, which counts heavy hitters like Coors Light, Tinder and Pfizer among its clientele, the campaign aims to push a simple concept to its comedic limits.“We started with the one thing the film and restaurant share: an onion. As we thought about the absurdity of where this could take us, we landed on the idea of murdering a Bloomin’ Onion and destroying the evidence,” explained Mischief’s creative director Zack Roif in a statement.

As part of the campaign, Outback is incentivizing guests to ‘murder’ a Bloomin’ Onion of their own. Fans can upload a picture of how they ‘destroyed the evidence’ in a creative way to www.BloominGlassOnion.com – and as a reward, Outback will offer them a free Bloomin’ Onion on their next visit.

“We had fun playing with the tropes of a tradition promotional commercial and a murder mystery,” said Roif. “You 99.9% will never again get the opportunity to take part in a game that involves two very different types of onion – and murder.”

Starting December 23, fans can stream Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, on Netflix, whose all-star cast includes Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr, Kate Hudson and many more.

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