Dubuque Family and Restaurant Employee Star in National Chick-fil-A Commercial

A national commercial for a wildly popular fast food restaurant will almost surely leave a greater mark on Dubuque and the Tri-States because the commercial features both an employee of the local restaurant chain as well as a local family.

Per Telegraph Herald, a brand new, national Chick-fil-A ad features an employee of the Dubuque restaurant named Bernie Tigges as well as Peosta resident Shannon Hummel and her daughters, Emma and Anna. The ad, titled "Warmest Ride," is part of the company's new "Little Things" commercial series.

Chick-fil-A's "Little Things" commercial series highlights stories and connections shared between the restaurant's customers and their employees. In the case of this humbling and uplifting story from right here in Dubuque, it all began with a brutally chilly day.

On February 3rd, 2023, the Hummel family were running errands in Dubuque when they unfortunately got a flat tire. After dropping their vehicle off at a repair shop, they had an hour of free-time. Despite the chilly weather, Shannon and her two daughters braved the cold and walked to Chick-fil-A to get some food.

Enter Bernie Tigges, an employee at the Dubuque Chick-fil-A, who noticed the family shivering as they entered the eatery. "I was not going to let them walk back," Tigges says in the commercial.

Shannon and her daughters, Emma and Anna, ate their food, and then Bernie gave them a ride back to the repair shop so they didn't have to walk in the cold. Shannon was so touched, she contacted Chick-fil-A's Support Center to sing the praises of Bernie and her selfless gesture.

From there, the family was invited to Chick-fil-A's Support Center in College Park, GA to film the commercial in April 2023:

On a daily basis, Bernie embodies our store’s heartbeat to ‘be a blessing and serve with excellence,’ and the lives of our community and customers are influenced for the better as a result. - a statement from Justine Barnes, owner and operator of the Dubuque Chick-fil-A location, per Telegraph Herald

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The commercial has already been airing on TV as of March 25th, 2024. You can watch it below, and read more about the commercial on the Telegraph Herald's website.