Is the New KFC Ad, Believe in Chicken, Advertising or Entertainment? EP27

Episode 27 Transcript

Welcome to the Marketing Combat Podcast. My name is Jason Donnelly. And if you see, if you're lucky enough to be watching this on YouTube, you will see one of the most wonderful people that I have ever known in one of the most beautiful hats I've ever seen. And his name is Chris Kubbernus. What's every... Yeah, no, you did it right. Chris Kubbernus. What's up, everybody? It's perfect. It's Chris Kubbernus. Most people like our kubber noose or cover... Kubber... Nuss. Kubber nuss. Put a kubber noose around that neck. It's getting real dark.

So anyways, thank you very much Jason for the nice intro. I really appreciate that. Yes, it is a nice hat, I agree. So thank you so much. And today we're talking about KFC's new ad, Believe in Chicken. It is from the UK. It's from an agency called Mother. Shout out to Mother, good job guys. And the debate is, is this good advertising or is it?

Bad advertising. And I'm gonna take the position that it is bad advertising. And Jason is gonna argue why it's good. This is how the marketing combat podcasts work. We know the topics, but somebody has to take a position and the other person has to argue against it. So to play the devil's advocate. So I'm gonna take that the KFC one is bad advertising. And I'll tell you why it's bad advertising. For one thing, it's highly based on thriller. If you haven't seen the ad, it's basically like people.

battling against technology, against things in life, and things don't work, AI is taking over. So it's like imagining a future, or imagining now, I guess, it's kind of hits so close to home, where things are chaotic. And it's based on the insight that we're all a little bit lost in the world now and where things going. And these people are drawn to the chicken.

Right, so they're like, they're kind of like in a trance and they're dancing and they're sort of like getting caught up in this infectious sort of like thing, this vibe that's going on. They're becoming zombies, essentially like if you want to attach it to the original thriller idea and they're dancing through the streets and they make their way to idolize this chicken. And I think it's like, for one thing, it's a bit sacrilegious. think anybody who's into religious things and religious ideas would say that, holy crap, that is definitely breaking one of the commandments.

of that it's a ripoff of Thriller and the thing that's maybe good about it is that it really touches home and like things are chaotic now and we don't know what to do and KFC is like well believe in chicken then which I don't think is that helpful I think it's a very short -sighted thing I don't think it really

positions their brand as good food that you want to consume, you want to desire because it tastes good. I think they're trying to hit on a base, you should believe in chicken because you're a mindless zombie like the rest of us, and you should just be eating our food because you are a zombie. So I think it's actually a little bit shitting on the population. It's a little bit patronizing that you can make your own choices. You should be zombified and you should just eat our chicken. Like the mindless idiot dancing through the street that you are. So it's it.

If you really break down to the visuals and what they're actually saying, the subtext of it, I think it's really bad. And I think it positions its consumers as morons, as mindless zombies. And I don't like that. Jason, tell me why it's great advertised. I'll tell you why. Number one, we're talking about it right now on the Marketing Combat Podcast. So it's gotta be something. The first time I saw it, I dove in and I watched the two minute advertisement.

from beginning to end. And my first response, I actually wrote this, sorry mother, I wrote this to them and said, is this the worst best ad I've ever seen? Let's focus on the best part. It is so, it's almost like you turn into a zombie watching it. You can't turn away from this ad. It's almost a minute and 45 seconds without ever saying that it's a KFC ad.

It's just an incredible piece of art. And if it didn't say believe in chicken KFC at the end, you would watch this as a form of entertainment. And I think that's where advertising across the board has to go anyway, more along the lines of this is entertainment instead of this is advertising something. Because, I mean, just think about Liquid Death. The stuff that they were doing, let's just say a few months ago or over the past few years, not as much recently, has been entertainment.

It's been so over the top, crazy weird that you couldn't turn away. And I think this ad does that and they do it in such an amazing way. The production value is insane. The video is great. The music is awesome. Every single piece of this video is perfect for me as a form of entertainment. I have watched this multiple, multiple times because I enjoy it. As a form of advertising?

I don't know if that's where we want to argue, but as a form of entertainment, I think it's incredible. And the fact that we're talking about it, the fact that a lot of people are talking about it because of the high production value, because you can't look away, and because it's so insane, believe in chicken.

Who says that unless you're like believe in Jesus, like believe in chicken. Why would you ever believe in chicken? And it makes you question your entire life. So it's a philosophical question over the top behind everything. The reason that it's so good is because you can't look away. You can't not show it to your friends, which I did. You can't hear believe in chicken and say KFC, believe in chicken. What? What are they doing over there? What's in the water that these chickens are eating, drinking?

Just every piece of it, it's just highly entertaining. like I said, I think the most important part, and I think where we'll see advertising move faster than ever is advertising needs to be entertainment. And this almost two minute ad is insanely entertaining. And I am probably going to go watch it right after this again, just because it's enjoyable. And it touches on, like Chris said, it touches on AI. It touches on a lot of things, just cultural references that when you watch it.

you laugh. And I think it's incredible that they could do that and they could go so long without ever mentioning KFC. I think that if I could rebuttal a little bit, think that Ooh. I think that you're right. It is entertaining. is a spectacle. But spectacle is not necessarily good strategy. And that's where I think we've lost the plot sometimes in advertising and advertising becomes just about entertainment. And I do think we've talked a lot about this. We've had -

certain people on the other podcasts that we run and I mean we debate this all the time. Like is attention for attention's sake the goal for things? Is that the goal? Some would say yes and some would say no. I do think like, you know, when we want to move people to make decisions or be persuasive, I think like this could go on another way, which is for example, like Apple's 1984 ad, which is like empowering people to make choice, to not be ...

a zombie, to not be a part of the riffraff, to not be just like everybody else. And that touches a core thing about their consumers, right? And says something very deep and connects with us emotionally that, I don't want to be a mindless person. I want to make good choices and I'm going to choose Apple because I'm that. This goes the other way. And I think that's...

where I have contention with it or the way I have issues with it is like, it really paints a bad picture on their consumers. And I'm surprised actually that a KFC allowed that. And I'm surprised that Mother was able to sell it. And I'm surprised the brilliant marketing executives over at KFC said, yeah, this is good. We should paint our consumers as mindless zombies, walking, dancing through the street to worship a chicken. God, I have to say this. I'm also surprised that they allowed a live.

Like live chicken, even it's whatever, it's probably not a real chicken, it's probably AI. But I'm surprised that they let a live chicken, like an animal in the ad instead of like a bucket of chicken. Because then you're thinking - Yeah, that's true. That's also thinking about the murder of the chicken. I think most people understand like the chicken that is at KFC is probably not like

farm raised like out in the word like I'm living right now like in the middle of the field full of I have I have a sterile so like you know what I mean so yeah exactly like so I don't know man I really if they win awards for this I'll just shit I'll shit in my hat I'll be like they will you heard it here first or this is gonna shit in a hat shit in a hat at can

which we'll talk about next week. I'm headed to Cannes this week. my take on it, worst ad this year. Jason loves it. It's good entertainment. Heaps of watching. Tension is the best. Let us know what are your thoughts? Is it a good ad? Is it a bad ad? We'd love to hear from you. And if you're listening on the podcast, please subscribe and please leave us a review. The reviews help us reach more people with the podcast and we love that. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you guys in the next one.