Jaguar spoofs Mercedes with a sacrificial chicken

Mercedes' "Magic Body Control," a system available on the new S-Class that scans the road via cameras and adjusts the suspension prior to surface changes, is quite inventive. But as a marketing guru, how do you make a commercial that documents its key abilities without coming off all James May? The folks at Mercedes got creative, enlisting the help of everyone's favorite farm animal: A chicken.

The result was ingenious, telling the story while eliminating boring explanations. Success. It went viral, garnering more than 7 million views since late September. Other automakers will have seen this: How do you steal the limelight away from your competition?

Simple: Spoof it. And that's exactly what Jaguar has done, poking fun at Mercedes while feeding a chicken to a hungry cat.

Let's look at Mercedes' original chicken commercial, documenting the benefits of Magic Body Control — which Mercedes insists on writing in capital letters to underscore its importance:

Now let's look at Jaguar's take, claiming it's not the motion, it's the reflexes:

Time will tell whether Jaguar can outdo Mercedes in this viral video contest of sorts. And will Mercedes issue a response — or let Jaguar have this chicken fight by default?