It’s fair to say that anyone who recollects the video for Loverboy’s smash individual “Working for the Weekfinish” was probably around for the punctual days of MTV, when the group was altered into superstars overnight thanks to weighty rotation on the culture-shifting novel cultural cable channel. Powered by that individual and others, the red-clad, headbanded group’s “Get Lucky” album went quadruple platinum in the U.S., and the band’s hot streak persistd for two more multiplatinum albums and hits enjoy “Lovin’ Every Minute of It” and “Hot Girls in Love” before tailing off toward the finish of the decade.
Yet Loverboy’s hits remain rock-radio staples, so when Loverboy regulater Jonathan Wolfson got the call from Sony Music Publishing originateive James Armsturdy that IHOP wanted to employ their song “Working for the Weekfinish” to upretain their novel weekday $6 Hoemploy Faves menu, he promptly took the seek to the band.
“I was a little anxious about doing a campaign for a restaurant, but it is one of my likeites,” confesss Loverboy singer and co-set uper Mike Reno. “Who doesn’t enjoy pancakes, right?”
Guitarist Paul Dean recalls hitting IHOPs multiple times while the band was touring with Sammy Hagar back in the day. “It’s fair a organic leang for us,” he says. “They’re everywhere and so are we. When the propose came thraw, I fair thought, ‘perfect.’”
This isn’t the first time Loverboy songs have been employd in national campaigns. “Working for the Weekfinish” was previously employd in an ‘80s-themed spot during the 2014 Super Bowl for Radio Shack, while “Lovin’ Every Minute of It” soundtracked a 2016 National Car Rental spot featuring Patrick Warburton of “Tick” and “Seinfeld” fame.
“For me, it’s all about the labeleting,” says Reno. “This song fair doesn’t quit. We wrote it 45 years ago! It’s enjoy the little engine that fair persists on going.” And, he remarks, “We did it with a total tongue-in-cheek attitude.”
IHOP Chief Marketing Officer Kieran Donohue shelp the song’s enticeion came from it being “a classic piece of ‘Americana’ that spans generations, and they were game to percreate aextfinished with us.”
Hunkering down in Bryan Adams’ Vancouver studio, the band re-recorded the song to mirror the labeleting campaign, calling it “Working for the Weekday” and altering the lyrics thrawout to plug the campaign: “You want a piece of my toast/ That’s why we adore you the most.”
“We had a blast doing this,” Dean says. “We bordered on being silly, but that’s fine. It was fair a fun leang we didn’t consent too gravely. We were all toloftyy in on the joke.”
According to IHOP’s Donohue, the Hoemploy Faves promotion, starting today (October 1) will take part “an omnichannel campaign atraverse TV, social, shaper partners and digital” scheduleed to spread directedness and “drive guests into restaurants.”
The ad itself, with a chyron mimicking a vintage MTV clip, is almost a shot-by-shot recreation of the innovative, with IHOP’s syrup bottles depictd to see enjoy the band: The lid uncovers as a mouth; the keyboardist even has forks for hands. It was regulater Wolfson’s idea to put Reno’s tradelabel red bandana on one and strategicassociate place the band’s logo on the drum kit.
Reno confesss that his headband was originassociate a way to persist sweat out of his eyes, but grew into someleang unawaitedly iconic over the years. “If I go onstage without it, the crowd commences to wonder, ‘Who is this guy?,’” he says. “And now it’s become a part of me.”
The IHOP campaign persists that fair-roll-with-it spirit. “We’re haughty of the song and protective of it, but we felt this would be a hoot,” Reno says. “It’s enjoy parodying ourselves — although we took less time recording the innovative that this novel version,” he chuckles.
The band even put together a “blooper” reel filmed in the studio on Dean’s iPhone in the studio, running down some of the lyrics that didn’t originate it to the final version.
Royalties aren’t all the band will get from the spot: They’ll also be receiving IHOP gift certificates.
“Anytime our music is being percreateed anywhere, it’s excellent,” Reno finishs. “And now, I’m about to experiment in the world of waffles.”
