FOXSYLVANIA

– – Not to be confused with the Big Mouth Billy Bass fish, a horrendous novelty gift of almost ten years ago, Frankie the Fish is a similar but distinctive item who memorably hawks McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich.

“Gimme back that Filet-O-Fish/Gimme that fish,” sings Frankie in his own distinctive fashion in a commercial that tends to run through your head over and over again until you’re ready to filet yourself.   Notable is the fact that the two human actors in the ad don’t talk at all, one shrugging off the singing  fish on a plaque and the other displaying surprise.  The sandwich is made from cod and pollock, and originally a taxidermist created a pollock fish with a remote control device to operate his head and tail.  That creation was considered too scary, so the fish was made more toy-like to be less creepy.

McDonald’s sells about 300 million Filet-O-Fish sandwiches annually, 25% of them during the 40 days of Lent.  Frankie himself is quite the spokesfish, with the ad viewed on You Tube more than a million times…