Another way Applebee's will make you sick.

McCann-Erickson is breaking a new campaign for Applebee's featuring a spokes-apple. Hold on a sec, I'm about to roll on the floor laughing. Whew, that hurt. OK, back to the business at hand.

A spokes-apple. Stop. Stop. Stop. You're killing me.

You can watch a little of the riotous comedy here http://www.applebees.com/auditions/ but hold onto your sides, because they're sure to be a-splitting.

Without even having seen this campaign, I'm predicting the worst, as evidenced by the still from the Adweek article on its launch. http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003663663
Cliched acting in cliched situations, the joke almost invariably underscored by the arching of a single eyebrow. The spokes-apple as "deus ex-macintosh." And then the food shots, steaming, cheese, red tomato-ey and smiling people (never obese) laughing and gushing over the swill. And wait...a button at the end.

Perhaps I shouldn't pre-judge. But as they used to say in some frat houses, "Go ugly early. Avoid the rush."

PS: I'll be the first to admit, I am somewhat punctilious. But you don't have to be obsessive-compulsive to be infuriated by online typos. The Applebee's site has one that I noticed--and I wasn't looking. I know that copy, craft and carefulness are undervalued in the online era. However, to me they say, "we don't care about our product, whether it's a website or a side of fries."