How dare they use Philly to sell this delicious chicken sandwich

That was one terrific sandwich they flew in from Georgia for me to try: Juicy, lightly breaded chicken cubes and a spot-on pepper-and-onion mix, all napped in an American cheese sauce and served on a toasted roll resembling a dense, extra-large hot dog bun. The garlic aioli made the whole thing pop.

Zaxby’s, a chicken chain out of Athens, Ga., is calling it the Fried Chicken Philly, and it went on sale at Zaxby’s 900 locations in the South a few weeks ago. Sales so far are about double projections, the company said.

A Philly, though? And it’s not even sold in Philly?

Zaxby’s has Philadelphians to thank, not only for the inspiration of its new sandwich — also available in grilled chicken — but for the ad campaign, now running on TV, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Simply put: We’ve been used.

First, they stole the cheesesteak. Zaxby’s is not the first brand to co-opt Philly’s homegrown combo of bread, steak, and cheese. “We knew that there was an awesome amount of consumer demand for that kind of product innovation,” said Patrick Schwing, Zaxby’s chief marketing officer. (Zaxby’s, by the way, is unrelated to the Philly coffee brand Saxbys.)

Of course, Zaxby’s does chicken and not beef, so its “Philly cheesesteak” would be different from the start. It also would not be sold in or even near Philadelphia, since the closest Zaxby’s location is in Chantilly, Va., 169 miles away.

“We took some liberties with the interpretation to make sure it worked with chicken, but we think it’s fairly true to the intent of ‘the Philly,’” Schwing said, using a term no one ever uses for a cheesesteak. “We weren’t trying to replicate it because I don’t think the world needs another great Pat’s or Geno’s [sandwich]. We were simply trying to evolve it in a way that worked with our chicken concept, but yet pull through some of the parts that make the Philly cheesesteak special, famous, and delicious. We respect that, but we wanted to play into it because we think it creates intrigue around the product.”

But how to sell it to Zaxby’s customers? They not only stole the cheesesteak but channeled the famed Philly attitude, too.

So step two: Get Philadelphians involved, but make it sneaky.

“We’re playing on the insight that [the cheesesteak] is a great product and there’s a lot of very strong feelings, particularly among Philadelphians who grew up with the product,” Schwing said.

As Kenzie Grubbs, a Brooklyn-based account director at Tombras, Zaxby’s ad agency, put it: “We wanted to play into that angst.”

And that’s how a chicken chain based in Georgia created a sandwich with “Philly” in the name, ran provocative billboards in Philly for a couple of weeks, and then created a final ad campaign featuring the predictably annoyed reactions of Philadelphians.

Two billboards — one in Center City and the other visible from I-676 and bearing such cheeky slogans as “Philly, here’s a sandwich actually worth naming a city for” — went up for 11 days, starting Sept. 19. Zaxby’s also drove mobile billboards past the Liberty Bell, Love Park, Lincoln Financial Field, and Geno’s Steaks.

The pump primed, Zaxby’s conducted on-the-street video interviews with passersby beneath the billboard near 12th and Market Streets and outside of Geno’s, goading them into trashing the sandwich for ads running on TikTok.

Told that the sandwich has fried chicken, one woman tells the interviewer, “Stop right there!”

“No cheesesteak from Philly has got chicken,” one man said.

“I think you guys are trying to make people hate you,” a second man said, chuckling.

As a bonus, Zaxby’s hired actor Dolph Lundgren, the villain of Rocky IV and Creed II, to jog, Rocky-style, along the top of the Art Museum steps. In an Instagram video — Lundgren has 3.1 million followers — he’s shown from the back, wearing a red outfit with Zaxby’s logo, hoisting a sandwich, and bellowing, “Philly! Come get some!”

Gonna cry now.

“Obviously it’s all done in good nature,” Schwing said. “We don’t seek to knock down the Philly cheesesteak per se. We do want to open people’s minds to the possibility that there could be another version out there from a brand that might be unexpected, such as Zaxby’s, that is really, really good and worth trying.”

Zaxby’s is considering setting up a pop-up in Philadelphia to show off the actual sandwich. “Everything that we are trying to do is about putting our product to the test, and we do believe that the most discerning palates are that of Philadelphians who grew up with this,” Schwing said. “We know people have strong feelings about this, but at the end of the day, food is fun and it shouldn’t be taken too seriously.”

Sure, pal. If you say so.