El Pollo Loco Introduces New Hispanic Ad Campaign

Building on the momentum of last year's highly successful Hispanic advertising campaign which contributed to record system-wide sales for the Mexican chicken chain, El Pollo Loco announced the launch of a new Hispanic campaign titled ``Una Locura sin Fin'' or ``A Never-ending Craziness/Madness.''

Last year's television commercials focused on a single character and explored the often amusing ways he or she enjoyed the taste of El Pollo Loco. The new campaign continues last year's stimulation of the senses and delves even deeper into the elements that were successful in 2000.

Set to a lively mambo featuring long trumpet sounds and voices of excitement in the background, the new commercials feature several characters and focus on their expressions as they each experience the taste of El Pollo Loco.

"By featuring more characters in each spot, we are able to show greater variety in the way people experience the taste of El Pollo Loco,'' said Maite D'Amico, president and chief creative officer of Los Angeles-based cruz-kravetz: IDEAS, El Pollo Loco's Hispanic agency-of-record since 1998.

"Those experiences are enhanced with upbeat new mambo music and an abundance of El Pollo Loco's delicious food. The result is a well integrated campaign that effectively captures the qualities that make El Pollo Loco special.''

The new Hispanic television campaign will feature six characters, three males and three females, ranging in age from 12-49 years to represent El Pollo Loco's broad consumer appeal. The characters will be combined in different ways throughout the year to promote the chain's offerings.

The television spots will begin with a close-up of each character and mid-way through will unveil a group enjoying a meal from El Pollo Loco. While the characters will be very different in the way they experience the taste of El Pollo Loco, the result is the same—complete contentment and gratification.

"Our goal for the new campaign was to capture the powerful connection our core customers have with El Pollo Loco,'' said Margaret Jenkins, vice president of marketing for El Pollo Loco. "Appropriately titled `Una Locura sin Fin,' we believe it does just that by conveying in an engaging and upbeat way the passion people have for El Pollo Loco's authentic flame-broiled chicken.''

The television campaign includes both 15 and 30 second spots that began airing in select West Coast markets on March 5, 2001. The first commercial introduces Hispanic consumers to El Pollo Loco's Chicken Burrito Madness event and the launch of two new burritos—the Ranch Chicken(TM) Burrito and the Spicy Chicken Burrito.

Several executions of the commercial's theme will run throughout the year and feature El Pollo Loco's current offer.

In addition to television advertising, the campaign will feature 60 second radio spots beginning March 26, 2001 in select West Coast markets. The spots will reinforce messages delivered through the television campaign and will carry the same mambo tune.

El Pollo Loco Inc., a privately held company with headquarters in Irvine, is the nation's leading quick-service restaurant chain specializing in marinated, flame-broiled chicken.

In addition to individual and family meal quantities of its famous pollo, the chain offers a wide variety of "Fresh Mex'' entrees including Pollo Bowls®, Salad Bowls, made-to-order specialty burritos, tacos al carbon, hand-rolled taquitos, and more. El Pollo Loco currently operates domestically 280 restaurants in four states— California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas.