THE GREATEST LOCAL COMMERCIAL: Steak 'Em Up

Any Monday night Monday Night Football viewer this year will recognize our first nomination for Greatest Local Commercial: Steak 'Em Up.

A breakdown of why this commercial is so great:

:00: You may not notice the first time you watch this commercial that the mobster character sings the words "steak 'em up!" in time with the music. It's one of the reasons that this commercial is so great: it's re-watchable. Like any great film, you see more everytime you watch it. The mobster singing is just a small wrinkle that promises that there is still greatness to come.
:02: The bullet holes = really classy. "Breakfast, lunch and dinner!"
:07: It's around this point that you realize that all of the food is revolving in this commercial. We've been told that this makes it look more delicious.
:10: Gunshot! Ice cream! At this point the commercial is only 1/3 over and there's so much promise of good stuff to come.
:16: Screen split four ways by revolving foods. No freakin' way! We didn't know that as even possible!
:23: And finally, the big closer. At first we didn't know what the bed music was, but now here it becomes apparent that it is a parody of The Cars' seminal 1981 hit "Shake It Up":

Dance all night
And work all day
I know what I want to eat today
Steak 'Em up!

It's interesting that they replaced the original words in the second line with "work all day". If you're dancing all night, when do you get some shuteye? Perhaps the cheesesteaks contain caffeine that keeps you awake?

The jingle's creator explains its genesis here.

:29: Of course, the gangster sings the restaurant's title again as the four split screen returns. That's Commercials 101, folks: put all of the best elements of the commercial back in for the "tag". By now it's just a victory lap, over the last 30 seconds, the commercial proved that it was the best. Amazing!

By the way, we didn't post this commercial to Youtube, it was already uploaded by someone else. So let us all now go out into the world and spread the cult of "Steak 'Em Up!"

Have a local commercial that you'd like to nominate as Philadelphia's best? E-mail us at comicvsaudience AT gmail DOT com.