Amy Cohen Efron shares her surprising discovery of one of the best examples in ASL marketing.
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Amy demonstrates a promotional give-away, the pack-of-6 SONIC® Wacky Pack® Kids’ Meal toy that was distributed through SONIC® Drive-In Restaurants in 2006.
You may wonder what is SONIC®? SONIC® Drive-In Restaurants, which is the nation’s largest drive-in chain serving hamburgers, sandwiches, Coney dogs, and famous Slushes to customers from coast to coast and in Mexico. Today, SONIC has more than 3,000 Drive-Ins. SONIC® offers Wacky Pack® Kids’ Meal which comes with a meal and free promotional fun ‘toy’.
Here is a pack of 6 SONIC’s® Wacky Pack® Kids’ Meal “Speak in Sign Language” promotional give-way set. Look at these pictures below that explains about American Sign Language, and it is an excellent way to promote ASL!
This set has six card decks, which includes information about American Sign Language, ASL alphabet and signs! Each deck comes with their topics and they are:
Deck #1: Numbers & Colors
Deck #2: Simple Phrases
Deck #3: Animals
Deck #4: People
Deck #5: Food
Deck #6: Feelings & Emotions
What is really surprising to me that this promotion give-way was distributed in 2006, which was so recent. Honestly, I have never heard or read about this. It was only two years ago!
I decided to check online to find out bit more about this SONIC® Wacky Pack® “Speak In Sign Language” promotion, and I came across with a very few links about this wonderful marketing tool.
There is one link from Kansas School for the Deaf’s monthly school newsletter, Kansas Contact published in April 2006. Please go to the link that takes you to the PDF file: Kansas Contact : Volume 5, Issue 3. Go to page 3. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open this file.
In this article, Kansas School for the Deaf was approached by one company called C3: Creative Consumer Concepts, which is an integrated brand marketing agency. C3 works with SONIC® Drive-In Restaurants on their promotional Wacky Pack® give-away. The designers of C3 contacted staff members at KSD because they wanted to be sure that the individual signs they were designing were correct.
Here is another link that I discovered that is related to this promotion, Courtney Campbell who is
lead designer/illustrator on the SONIC/Wacky Pack account, and she has 5+ years of professional experience with graphic design. With this involvement with this promotional project, Ms. Campbell received a national recognition of SONIC Speak in Sign Language premiums within the deaf/education community in 2006. See the link: Courtney Campbell’s resume
I am very IMPRESSED with this amazing partnership between KSD and C3 representing a large restaurant company! Kudos to Kansas School for the Deaf! Hand waves for your successful partnership. Thank you Courtney Campbell and C3 company made a very wise decision to contact KSD for consultation, thus having this successful promotion marketing American Sign Language to the mass audience!
Now, that is one of the successful marketing techniques using American Sign Language.
What’s next? McDonald’s® Happy Meal® promotion or Burger King’s® Kids Meal promotion?
Think about it.
25 comments on “Wow! Sonic’s Wacky Pack in ASL!”
misha
Amy…
Wow, that’s friggin’ awesome!!!! I’d like to see McD or BK take on that similar promotion as well because those serve billions of people all over the world. Sonic is not everywhere at all. I think it’s located in South and Mid-West but I’m not sure because my oldest son and daughter who had been living in Florida years ago loved going to Sonic all the time. They told me Sonic is better than McD, BK and Duchess. *shrugs* I never tried Sonic myself. Oh well…..
Still…wow, awesome!
Misha 😀
Grant W Laird Jr
Yeah, someone told me about it last January 2007 and I shared it with deaf network of texas mailing list.
http://deafnetwork.com/wordpress/blog/2007/01/10/share-this-news-with-everybody/
Thanks for bring it up again! –gwlj
COMMENT BY Amy Cohen Efron
I checked that and it seems like they made the second set! Can anyone obtain the copies of Speak in Sign Language 2?
Thank you for pinpointing to your DeafNetwork.com!
Is there anyone else know about this?
Amy
RLM
Will the AGBell send a letter of objection and concern to the Sonic Drive-In Restaurants anytimne?
Or the AGBell will resort to more sleath and sneaky method at this time?
We should send a letter of appreciation and thanks to the Sonic Drive-In Restuarants for promoting the real diversity of the American and Canadian society’s cultural and linguistic minorities.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog
KH
hi, thank you for letting me know..WOW!!!! that iw really COOL! i will go and check SONIC closeby. again thks KH:)
abcohende
Hi RLM!
I don’t care about AG Bell’s marketing techniques. We can study their approaches, and we can do it better.
Yes, you brought up a very good point about sending a letter of appreciation. I am in a full agreement that Sonic needs to hear our appreciation.
Amy Cohen Efron
LaRonda
Great vlog, Amy! And kudos to KSD for its partnership in advising the production of these educational toys! I hope we see more of them!
~ LaRonda
abcohende
Hi KH!
These toys were passed along in 2006. Sonic is no longer giving out them.
You can go and ask where are the ASL cards. Maybe they will create another pack of 6?
Who knows?
I think it is really cool!
Amy Cohen Efron
abcohende
Hi LaRonda,
I agree with you that KSD deserves their kudos!
I hope that other schools for the deaf can think of partnership with companies, or even NAD or state associations? Lots of opportunities that we could do!
I do want to see more of them!
Amy Cohen Efron
Susan
Awesome Amy,
This is a great idea!! better keep looking in those boxes for more great stuff.. smile
🙂 Susan
cnkatz
amy,
we need to help refine how hearing people explain asl. i am a bit tired of seeing this being said, language used by deaf and hard of hearing people. Not true anymore!
“ASL is a (add ur adj,)______________ language used by deaf AND hearing people.”
Yes ASL originated from deaf people ourselves, of course. Our hearing parents, our hearing children, our hearing teachers signed with us. So its not the language used by D and HoH, no more!
As we see ASL grow exponentially, the way the public (and ourselves in the asl community) define asl needs to improve.
by the way, great vlog, amy, nothing new – a strong “d” pat on ur back.
Kim Hungerford Carwile
Hi Amy,
Thank you for sharing your v-log with us and it’s been fabulous to learn about the C3’s working relationship with KSD. I applauded their effort to contact them for their feedback. Their colorful pictures represent friendly and positive. That really reflects a healthy dialogue and feedback between our community and business world. I can see their promotion to raise respect and support for our community and future deaf generation who are encouraged to the fully access of both language – ASL and English.
I was not fully aware of their promotion with Sonic while living in Kansas. I moved to begin my graduate study in East Coast in 2007.
I enjoyed their milkshake – what was that…ummm, I believe it was a mint. I often waved to get the waiter’s attention to walk and meet with me via written communication or point at the menu on my driver’s view without any problem. They were always positive for me.
That’s just once of my lifetime. Smile,
Kim
deb ann
Wow! We’re on the way to Sonic for our desserts! Thanks for showing all the decks to us! Kudos to Sonic for supporting the sign language. Beautiful 🙂
Cave Spring
I’m surprised you just learned about this. Nearly everyone at Georgia Deaf School in Cave Spring got this from Sonic restaurants in Rome and Cedartown when it first came out.
RESPONSE FROM AMY COHEN EFRON
Yes, I was surprised. It was in a box shipped to AASD from Oklahoma, and that box was unopened until late last week. I was surprised to see this.
It happened in 2006, and there was no mention ONLINE about this promotion, except one small mention in one of the deaf forums.
I am thrilled to hear that nearly everyone at GSD got this, and no one blogged about this? Drats!
We can always thank Sonic for their wonderful promotion. Don’t you agree? Hopefully other chain restaurants can take up this exciting opportunity.
Amy Cohen Efron
Jay
Hello Amy
That was here in Texas long ago. where you been? haha kidding.. yes this is so cool..
Jay
abcohende
Hi Jay,
Yes I was wondering where have I been in two years? I didn’t go Sonic for their food, and I usually try to keep up to date with deaf issues, yet still missed this window of opportunity.
It wouldn’t hurt to ‘revisit’ this and tell the people about this exciting promotion. Maybe it was old hat/news for you, and its so important that when we see something exciting, toot our horn! Promote! Tell the world! Vlog about it! Blog about it!
So that everyone in United States, Canada and everywhere else will know about the promotion. Not just southern states.
Do you agree, Jay?
Amy Cohen Efron
bluestar
that s awesome !!! my friend and i will go to sonic someday thank you for sharing
Peachlady
I never knew about it!
I am disappointted there is not enough publicity about this cool ASL marketing!
I would have gone to Sonic to get the toy for myself!
Lisa C.
Great vlog, Amy! Awesome!
If you guys would like to get them, check ebay, Goodwill or thrift stores. I had seen so many toys from McDonalds, Burger King, Sonic, etc there. I had collected them and sold some to ebay knowing that people like to buy some to add to their collections.
drmzz
Cool. Any sign for “ketchup” since cashiers tend to ask all the time? LOL Come to think of it, I never ate at Sonic. Just have to find it anywhere nearby (if any) someday!
Dennis Bacon
Wow, I never knew about them. I often go to eat Sonic which is my favorite for long time. I live in Missouri. Jeez, I wish I know about that so I would collect and keep them as history. I am glad you bring it up as a good history. I hope other Restaurant chains follow up with wonderful marketing on ASL.
Fairlady
What a GREAT tool to bring awareness of our language.. I’m all for it! What a good idea to send appreciation letter to those who promote those toys.
debby
Neat but ironic. Sonic drive-in restaurants are near my hometown but I don’t go there often because their drive-ins like all other drive-in restaurants are designed for hearing people who order food and drinks through microphone that deaf people can’t use. McDonald’s bags were written on in sign language, I think about a year ago and also ASL signers on TV. However, hope to see more surprises include ASL for kids to learn while they eat.
Rita
WOW that awesome… those deck of cards need to also be avablie at BK or mac donalds or other resturants… way to gooo… i would like to collect those awesome deck of cards…
Dr. Edda Díaz
Recently I went to Atlanta and my grandchild had Speak in Sign Language toy .What kind of promotion! It made think about the social responsability of SONIC. I would like to Know how can I get the others five.( I only get Feeling & Emotion.) Can I get some permision to translate to spanish? I direct a Community Base Organization for people deaf and retarded people.
amanda
no #5 is sports and pack #4 is transportation and travel