Is nothing sacred? After not quite knowing what to do with him for years,KFC has given good ol’ Colonel Sanders another innings in a new American campaign from Highdive, showing him and his monstrous ‘obsession.’
“The colonel lived so we could chicken,” it says.
KFC’s Anna Faktorovich says: “Knowing the Colonel’s personality and how he had an obsessive pursuit, he would not be happy right now based on where KFC is, right? We want the work to reflect that and be true to him, but also show that as a signal of change.”
One of these issues is that everyone in fast food these days does chicken, McDonald’s obviously but also KFC sister brand Taco Bell. Some high streets in the UK have as many chicken shops as Turkish barbers. KFC’s share in the States has slipped a bit.
Faktorovich says: “We’ve lost some ground in the last couple of years as the chicken wars have heated up. We’ve been listening to our customers and non-customers over the last eight months or so and what we’ve heard and we continue to hear is that we have a perception challenge. We took that very seriously and, frankly, we are not going to be chicken about our chicken. We would rather be underestimated than overhyped at this point.”
There’s even a new unsmiling colonel for some shops.
As in the UK with its various campaign through Mother, it’s good to see KFC getting on the front with ads that engage and, agreeably often, entertain No load of old balls about new brand ‘platforms’ needed.
MAA creative scale: 8.
