You probably know Dokken for their brief reign as big-haired ’80s hitmakers, scoring a succession of platinum albums and penning the title track for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
But decades after they faded from the charts, they faced a new opponent far more formidable than Freddy Krueger: a raw chicken.
The showdown took place in a 2010 Norton Antivirus commercial, which aired only online. “Imagine this chicken is your hard drive, and the ’80s metal band Dokken is a computer virus,” the narrator says as the quartet glares at the camera from inside a massive hangar. “Dokken does not like chicken and wants to destroy it. The chicken, not knowing Dokken’s intentions, doesn’t really have any feelings either way. Now, you have a choice: Would you like to allow Dokken to have its way with your chicken, unleashing a wrath the likes of which the chicken has never seen, or would you like to deny it?”
Multiple versions of the commercial were filmed. In the “Deny” version, the chicken hops to its feet and flicks a switchblade at the band. “Whoa, take it easy, bro,” frontman Don Dokken says. “This ain’t over.”
In the “Allow” version, all four band members stand around the chicken and do a pelvic thrust, causing the poultry to burst into flames.
How Did the ‘Dokken vs. Chicken’ Commercial Happen?
It was a ridiculous premise that came together by happenstance. “It just fell in my lap. That was totally a fluke,” Dokken told The Classic Metal Show (via Blabbermouth). “We were on the road. Where I live, I have two houses on my property, and one of them is like a crash house for directors and producers and stuff; I rent it out. And one of the directors was gonna do this commercial, and it was supposed to [be] with Styx. And apparently, at the last minute, they pulled out and they [the directors] were at a crunch, and I just happened to be home pulling in the driveway coming off one of our shows.”
He separately detailed to Inside Metal: “A friend of mine, Ryan Ebner, was actually staying in my Beverly Hills house, and I had a guest house. And he says, ‘I’m doing this commercial and one of my bands pulled out. Do you wanna do a commercial?’
“I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do a commercial.’ He’s, like, ‘It’ll be you and the chicken.’ And I went, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no. I’m not gonna punk myself.’
READ MORE: Don Dokken Addresses Voice Complaints: ‘Don’t Come to the Show’
The frontman changed his tune, however, when he learned the “crazy amount of money” they were going to make. “And then he told me how much he’d pay me. And I went, ‘Really?’ He goes, ‘Dude, it’s Norton Antivirus.’ I said, ‘For that kind of money, I’ll wear a chicken suit. I will be the chicken. I will flap my wings and I will cluck.'” The Norton ad never made it to television, but it became an online sensation, amassing millions of views in its original incarnation. You can see both versions of the re-uploaded commercials below.
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Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli
