A while back, Mercedes-Benz came out with an ad campaign designed to emphasize the stability of its vehicles, featuring chickens:
The weird “dance” that the chickens are doing in this video is based on their ability to stabilize their heads. In other words, chickens like to keep their heads in one place as they move around. This enables them to focus better on one area, so they are more likely to see the movement of predators or small, tasty bugs in their line of vision.
According to Mercedes Benz, this mesmerizing ability of chickens is similar to the “magic” ability of their vehicle to absorb bumps in the pavement and give a smoother riding sensation to the human passengers.
Jaguar responded to this ad campaign with their own chicken commercial, in which the magic dancing chicken meets a bad end:
Although the focus of these commercials is supposed to be luxury cars, we at Home to Roost feel that the dancing chickens are the real stars!
The ability of chickens to keep their heads in one place has been the subject of scientific study in Cell and other academic publications, as well as a host of less scientific but quite entertaining articles. When you see a flock of chickens bobbing their heads while they walk, you will now know what they are up to!
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