Nobody really knows why comedian and actor Will Ferrell dressed as rosy-cheeked Little Debbie, the iconic face of Chattanooga's McKee Foods snack cake line, when he appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" on Wednesday.
But hey - we'll take it, said McKee executives Thursday morning.
"It's fun," said Mike Gloekler, public communications manager at McKee. "It's fun to be part of a viral thing."
Gloekler said McKee "didn't pursue this" and was as surprised as anybody when the segment aired on network television, in front of the show's nearly 4 million estimated viewers.
He said the company has never had any indication that Ferrell is interested in the Little Debbie brand.
But for seven minutes Wednesday night, Ferrell - in a red, curly wig and straw hat and blue-and-white-checkered dress - played the part, demanding that he be called Little Debbie, not Will.
And "it's Little Debbie, not Lil' Debbie," he told Fallon, the show's host. "Little. Emphasize on the 'ittle."
Perhaps coincidentally, a northern California rapper named Lil Debbie has reportedly been the subject of some McKee scrutiny under questions of copyright infringement.
The closest thing to an explanation Ferrell offered for the antic was an on-air, tongue-in-cheek reply to Fallon, who asked "why are you doing this?"
"Let's be honest, Jim," Ferrell said. "I'm not the Hollywood hunk I once was. This mug ain't making the moolah like it used to."
Ferrell even looked straight into the camera at times and made self-proclaimed plugs for Collegedale-made Little Debbie snacks.
And best of all, he said, "everyone in the audience has the opportunity to go out and buy some Little Debbie snack cakes, OK?"
Gloekler said McKee took several calls Thursday morning from media asking for a response to the "Tonight Show" segment. NBC's "Today Show" showed the bit on air again Thursday morning, in front of its estimated 4.5 million viewers.
Gloekler told all media the same: McKee did not pay for the segment.
In fact, he said, celebrity endorsements aren't really even Little Debbie's thing. The last celebrity endorsement deal the company struck was for a series of TV ads in the late '80s and early '90s featuring impressionist Rich Little.
Gloekler found out about Ferrell's bit Thursday morning, when a McKee staffer sent him a text heads-up. Then it spread like wild fire, he said.
"By the time I walked in the door, everyone was talking about it," he said.
McKee officials thought it was funny.
So did the icon herself, Debbie McKee, the Chattanooga girl whose face marks every box of the world's number one-selling snack cake line.
"Debbie McKee wanted to make sure that we let all of our employees know about it," said Gloekler.
Jeanine Poggi, a reporter for Ad Age specializing in TV, watched the Ferrell bit Thursday and called it "truly hysterical."
"From a branding perspective, this was great for Little Debbie - seven minutes of free advertising," she said.
Poggi also pointed out the viral tendency of late-night TV segments thanks to Internet platforms like YouTube. Many "Tonight Show" bits have gone viral - like lip sync battles with A-list celebrities, Ferrell included - since Fallon took over the show, "touching viewers who may not even watch the show," she said.
Plus, a new wave of late-night faces like Fallon, Stephen Colbert (who takes over for CBS' David Letterman in September) and John Oliver (who got his own HBO show after success on Comedy Central's "Daily Show") have lent marketing power to brands again, Poggi said.
Unfortunately, because Wednesday's "Tonight Show" segment is owned by NBCUniversal, McKee Foods can't take and use it for marketing.
But "we're enjoying the word of mouth," said Gloekler.
He said the company appreciates Ferrell but is unlikely to seek him out for future in-house marketing tools, because "it's not the sort of thing that we do."
Gloekler said McKee officials do have a little thank-you gift in mind for the "Tonight Show" in the mean time.
"We thought about packing up a bunch of Little Debbie snacks and shipping them out there to Jimmy Fallon to feed the crew," he said.
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.