One UF student got a taste of commercial success after creating a new advertisement for a nationwide Hardee's contest.
The commercial, which was conceived by UF telecommunications senior David Cohen, is one of 16 chosen to promote Hardee's' latest creation, the Little Thickburger.
Cohen was watching the Victoria's Secret fashion show in December when he saw a commercial for Hardee's requesting user-submitted advertisements.
"I thought to myself, 'I bet you I could make one of those,'" Cohen said.
He logged onto the company's Web site and decided to play around with the site's ad generator.
Cohen created several joke commercials and sent them to his friends just for fun before finally submitting one to the company with the words "Just Fasted" over the Thickburger and "Just Hungry" over the Little Thickburger.
Though Cohen was worried his commercial might have too much of a religious connotation, he decided to sleep on it.
The next day, when he was walking back from class, Cohen had a flash of inspiration.
"I don't know what it was - maybe it was somebody talking on a cell phone nearby or something, but my mind finally put together what it had been working on for the past day," he said.
He rushed home and typed the words "No room for dessert" over the Thickburger and "Vanilla or Chocolate?" over the Little Thickburger and submitted his idea.
At the time, more than 30,000 commercials had been submitted to Hardee's.
More than two months later, Cohen got an e-mail requesting his permission to use his concept as a commercial.
"Apparently one of the Hardee's representatives said I hit the marketing concept dead-on," he said. "It's cool, beating out all those people with something I did overnight."
As there are no Hardee's restaurants in Gainesville, Cohen said he has not yet had an opportunity to try the Little Thickburger.
Meanwhile, his commercial has aired several times.
Though Cohen has yet to see it, he said some of his friends saw it aired during "American Idol."
He has remained humble about his accomplishment, citing it as "one of those things that you would write in a '10 things you don't know about me' fact list.
Cohen said he writes regularly for bleacherreport.com and co-hosted a sports talk show in St. Augustine last summer, but he has no plans to switch over to advertising.
Instead, Cohen said he is interested in a career in sportscasting. He hopes his commercial will be a stand-out piece in his portfolio.
"If it gets me through a door somewhere, then great," Cohen said. "Maybe it will open up a new door for me."
