Dive Brief:

• Arby's has broken the record for the longest TV commercial ever run.
• The 13-hour ad features a piece of brisket inside a smokehouse oven .... just cooking, and cooking, and cooking.
• The ad aired in the middle of the night and was carried on only one station: channel 9 in Duluth, MN.

Dive Insight:

We love a good publicity stunt as much as the next guy. And this one is positively delightful. For what was certainly not a lot of money (TV time in the wee hours in Duluth over a holiday weekend can't be pricey, and the production values of the ad clearly didn't require a substantial crew or state-of-the-art technology), Arby's managed to produce something that generated coverage on Websites and newspapers across the country during what is traditionally a very slow news period.

And Arby's isn't done with this yet. The entire 13-hour ad is set to run on the Web starting Wednesday morning. And folks who watch can win prizes.