You gotta have faith – in chicken. Mother wants us to believe in KFC

KFC’s new campaign shares a simple message. When AI, the cost of living, extreme weather, online trolls, shrinkflation and politics make the world an uncertain place, KFC wants us to know that there’s one thing we can rely on: chicken.

It’s all brought to us in Mother’s inimitable style. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” meets T-Mobile’s “flashmob”, with the agency’s off-beat humour and a great soundtrack thrown in.

The ad debuts on ITV during the opening match at the Euros, Germany v Scotland, with media by Mindshare.

Kate Wall, marketing director at KFC said: “We believe wholeheartedly in chicken at KFC. It’s our core obsession, always has been and always will be. This campaign is pushing the importance of this as our number one belief and celebrating this in an irreverently witty way.”

Director Vedran Rupic, said: “It’s bold, clear and simple. The viewer should feel like they wanna move after seeing this. And if not, they should be: literally just vibing. To me, this was one of those inside-out ideas, where I’m never solving narrative problems, or patching ideas together. The core idea coupled with a big musical component meant I had everything I needed to make it interesting.”

Martin Rose, ECD at Mother commented: “Believe in Chicken isn’t just a tagline; it embodies the sentiment shared by everyone who touches KFC. Having one simple truth at the core of what you do makes you really powerful. You get to stand up and stand out. While our competitors may dabble in chicken (we have no beef with that), we’re simply restoring chicken to its rightful place, the top.”

Mother has gone out on a limb brand-wise, but is playing it safe in another way by using an animatronic chicken rather than a live animal. The agency’s debut work for KFC, “The Whole Chicken”, was 2017’s most complained-about ad thanks to the “distress” a strutting bird caused to vegetarians and vegans. Although that same year, the public was deeply upset by seeing ads that showed breast feeding and a lesbian kiss – so let’s hope we’ve all moved on since then.

MAA creative scale: 8.5