Advertising
"Chili's (Welcome to Chili's!)" is an advertising jingle used in Chili's Restaurant commercials to advertise the restaurant's line of baby back ribs. The song was written by Guy Bommarito and produced by Tom Faulkner Productions for GSD&M Advertising of Austin, Texas. Faulkner sings both "I want my baby back, baby back, baby back ribs..." (which is similar to the Tommy James song "Draggin' the Line"), as well as the melodic theme. The deep "Bar-B-Q sauce" line was sung by famed New York bass vocalist Willie McCoy. A 1996 rendition of the jingle features a doo-wop quartet, Take 6, singing a cappella. Advertising Age magazine named the song first on its list of "10 songs most likely to get stuck in your head" in 2004.[9] In October 2017, the jingle was revived to advertise Chili's new menu, where it was re-conceptualized as "Oh Baby, Chili's Is Back (Baby, Back, Baby, Back)".[10]
In 2008, the chain aired parody ads for "P. J. Bland's", a fictional restaurant chain with cardboard foods.[11] In 2012, Chili's used Wendy Rene's Stax single, "Bar-B-Q", in their TV commercial.[12] In September 2017, Chili's dropped about 40 percent of its menu items to focus on burgers, ribs, and fajitas.[13]
In February 2020 Chili's announced a new marketing campaign encouraging people to "laugh so hard you pee a little".[14] In September 2024, Chili's announced that its advertisement campaign was working, while other food chains in the US still struggled to entice diners into their stores. Store sales increased 14.8 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter for Chili's.[15]
In January of 2024, Chili's announced an advertising partnership with Spire Motorsports where they would serve as the title sponsor of the #7 car, driven by Corey Lajoie in the beginning of the season and later Justin Haley for the final few races. This would begin a multi-year partnership with Spire Motorsports, which has extended until this year.[16]
In June 2024, the Chili's restaurant chain obtained the license for BurgerTime to create a browser-based game called Chili’s Big Smasher BurgerTime. In this version of the game, players control the franchise mascot Joe ChiliHead in a quest to create Big Smasher Burgers across six levels of gameplay. Players who participated also had the chance to win prizes such as free burgers for life.[17]
