Back in the 80's there was a commercial of a guy cooking in his back yard.  I think the commercial was about new homes and unwanted neighbors...any way; in the background is a cow and some chickens; during the commercial, a cow steps on the chicken and kills it...does anyone remember the commerical?  does anyone have a copy of it?

Back in the 80's there was a commercial of a guy cooking in his back yard.  I think the commercial was about new homes and unwanted neighbors...any way; in the background is a cow and some chickens; during the commercial, a cow steps on the chicken and kills it...does anyone remember the commerical?  does anyone have a copy of it?


A cow steps on a chicken and kills it?
I wonder if PETA does anything about that kind of senseless violence ?
:\'(

I don't know who would find the image profitable, but obvious somebody did, unless you're conflating a bunch of things?

Who knows, could have been for beer, could have been for life insurance, it was the '80s....

I know this is an ancient thread, but I was actually searching to see if there might be a copy of this commercial on the Web, and found this post.  Just gotta say the OP has it almost exactly right.

The ad was for a home builder.  Opening scene was a normal joe grilling some burgers in his back yard, but not looking too happy.  The narration explains that the guy bought a house from a cheap builder and didn't get a backyard fence.  While this is being explained, neighbor kids are running through the yard, and a cheesy neighbor shows up looking to horn in on some free food.

The ad goes on to show the nice home from the good builder, and all the extras you get with it, blah blah blah.

Cut back to joe in the backyard, and now there's livestock wandering through his yard, and he looks even less pleased.  Front and center, there's a small flock of chickens, and a cow wandering by.  Just before the ad ends, the cow steps right on one of the chickens; a few pitiful wing flaps, and then it's still--there's no doubt it's dead.  The event was completely inadvertent, but it's also completely obvious to even the most casual viewer.  There's no mistaking what just happened.

How this ad got aired regionally for as long as it did (it was on for weeks) is beyond me.  (I saw it in the Houston market.)

no big deal , just throw the bird on the grill! ;D

After reading Mystic Cobra's summary of the commercial it all comes back to me. Funny though, it seems more recent than the 80's to me. Who knows? Maybe the commercial was run again years later.

Yep, it was Houston and it was the early 80's (1982-83) as I recall. I couldn't believe that the ad agency let it get pass them and on the air!Good catch. :-)

as i remember it was a cow walking along and the chicken ran about 2 steps ,under the cow. the cow steps on the chicken and its wing is pointed straight up in the air

I'm throwing my two bits into the mix here.  I know it exists, because I remember seeing it too.  I think I saw it broadcast on TV as a segment on one of those "bloopers" shows.  I don't know if I could tell you what decade I saw it, though, let alone what year.  Could have been a blooper segment in one of the "best commercials of the year" shows, could have been a commercials-based segment in one of the similar "best TV bloopers" shows.

The problem here is that "the two most obvious words to search for" here appear in a title of something completely unrelated, which was also broadcast on TV, so searching is extremely difficult.

I remember it in Houston and all descriptions here are correct. I think it was a U S Homes commercial, a new home builder. I saw it many times and search on web every 5 or so years when I think about it. Nice to find out I was not imagining it. Thanks ps I guess too expensive to do another take. They probably took it off when someone complained. Also, back then we were eating fajitas and drinking margaritas when the rest of the nation got them ~15 years later

HA! I just thought of this commercial and did a google search on it, and lo and behold this site came up! I was living in Houston when I saw this commercial as well. Once word got out about it, we'd all sit around waiting for the commercial to come on and watch that chicken get squashed! Ah, the memories! (It's a chicken, lighten up PETA... what am I going to do, reshoot the whole scene?)

HA! I just thought of this commercial and did a google search on it, and lo and behold this site came up! I was living in Houston when I saw this commercial as well. Once word got out about it, we'd all sit around waiting for the commercial to come on and watch that chicken get squashed! Ah, the memories! (It's a chicken, lighten up PETA... what am I going to do, reshoot the whole scene?)


Do you or your friends remember anything more about the commercial than we do?  (How old were you/them, and from that do you remember what year it was?  That might help us figure out which commercial bloopers show it aired on, especially if it was far enough back that there were only two or three bloopers "specials" per year...)

After reading Mystic Cobra's summary of the commercial it all comes back to me. Funny though, it seems more recent than the 80's to me. Who knows? Maybe the commercial was run again years later.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TlEXgQNvQY

General Homes commercial: Cow steps on chicken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TlEXgQNvQY

It exists!  Long after pretty much all of the people originally asking had either left the site or replaced your accounts, I am pleased to announce IT EXISTS!  There is indeed a barbecue.  They were a new homebuilder at the time.  And the commercial aired for so long because nobody had any idea what was wrong with it, and those who noticed had no way of actually providing feedback to the company.  And most importantly, there is a cow.  And a very unlucky chicken.

General Homes, the Texas-based company that made the cow stepping on a chicken commercial, filed for bankruptcy in 1998, and the assets went to a Californian homebuilder.

It took us more than nine years, but let the record show that inthe00s -- and all of you long-gone members who contributed hints in the general direction of texas and descriptions to jog the memories of those who only remembered bits and pieces of it -- our website never forgets. 

Now home prices are usually measured in hundreds of thousands rather than tens of thousands in a similar environment.  :\'(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TlEXgQNvQY

General Homes commercial: Cow steps on chicken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TlEXgQNvQY

It exists!  Long after pretty much all of the people originally asking had either left the site or replaced your accounts, I am pleased to announce IT EXISTS!  There is indeed a barbecue.  They were a new homebuilder at the time.  And the commercial aired for so long because nobody had any idea what was wrong with it, and those who noticed had no way of actually providing feedback to the company.  And most importantly, there is a cow.  And a very unlucky chicken.

General Homes, the Texas-based company that made the cow stepping on a chicken commercial, filed for bankruptcy in 1998, and the assets went to a Californian homebuilder.

It took us more than nine years, but let the record show that inthe00s -- and all of you long-gone members who contributed hints in the general direction of texas and descriptions to jog the memories of those who only remembered bits and pieces of it -- our website never forgets.


It's pretty awesome that you found it.  Hopefully the OP will see this someday.  Poor chicken.