The Colonel’s on the Comeback Trail – and Audiences Love It

KFC’s new ad with Highdive is high-stakes, and feels it. The ad’s been touted in the marketing and national press as phase one of a “Comeback” for the iconic QSR brand, with a fresh focus on the Colonel, one of the most recognizable and well-loved mascots in any industry. Brand spokespeople have been upfront that they see this as part of a fightback on flavor against competitor brands who have been nibbling at KFC’s share in recent years.

As KFC US’ VP of Brand Management Anna Faktorovich says, “We’re making KFC impossible to ignore and focusing on what made KFC iconic in the first place – our chicken and our founder’s obsessive pursuit of flavor.  This work marks the start of our Comeback Plan—a bold signal that KFC is back and more committed than ever to serving up the world’s best fried chicken.”

True to that promise, “Obsession” puts the focus wholly on two things. The Colonel, and his pursuit of the perfect fried chicken flavor. “You can’t copyright a flavor!” sneers a rival lawyer at one point in the 75-second spot. The Colonel answers him with a punch. It’s just one incident in a film that’s full of action, jokes and drama, which masterfully walks a high wire between being tongue-in-cheek and over the top and putting across the idea that KFC is truly, passionately serious about what it does.

The ad co-stars Matt Matheson, of streaming hit The Bear, as a chef doing his best to keep up with the Colonel’s obsession, and it’s a smart, up-to-date cultural reference for an ad which works as a more upbeat take on The Bear’s themes of passion and perfectionism. Cultural references are one of the best ways to capture audience attention and get your ad talked about and shared by viewers, and “Obsession” has plenty of them. But they’re in service to work which is as single minded about brand and message as the Colonel is about chicken.

That intensity carries a risk – it’s unusual to see a brand mascot punching lawyers and throwing gravy pots out of the kitchen. If Highdive didn’t get the tone exactly right they could risk negative emotions like anger or even fear from viewers who didn’t see the funny side. Fortunately, the direction is perfectly calibrated for the audience to be surprised and entertained, not just shocked. The comments on our Test Your Ad report show that people saw the ad as a humorous, larger-than-life retelling of the Colonel’s history – a superb use of the brand’s biggest asset.

The result is an ad that gets some excellent scores in a very competitive category. “Obsession”’s 4.7-Star Rating is beak and shoulders above the 3.4-Star average for QSR brands, and a strong Brand Fluency (rapid recognition) score also easily beats the norm. Most impressive, though, in a sector in which deals and sales play such a big part, is the exceptional performance in short-term Spike Rating. It’s a metric which suggests KFC’s comeback can start right away.

The last word goes to Casey Stern, Group Creative Director at Highdive US: “We couldn’t be happier with how the campaign is turning out. We found a fresh, authentic way to talk about one of the most recognizable brand mascots in the world. And working with the incredibly talented director duo, Dorien and Daniel, we were able to tell the story of a man who really was obsessed with flavor.” From the Test Your Ad results, it seems audiences agree.