KFC: Evidence That Even The Best Agencies Can Cluck Up Sometimes

Well done Mother. You’ve proved that you’re only human, after all.

Mother, a great London agency, only just won the KFC account from BBH, and they've already sent out their new TV campaign. And it’s extremely convincing.

At least, if you want to convince people not to eat chicken.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a gorgeous wee piece. It’s a film of brassy beats and stylish cinematography. Badass chickens strut their stuff with flair and confidence, full of personality and –

And there’s the problem. You eat a chicken that’s tasty. You eat one that’s deep-fried. You eat one that has eleven herbs and spices and comes with cocaine-laced gravy.

You don’t eat a chicken for its personality. For the most part, we don’t like to eat things that we empathise with.

(Although that does rather raise some questions about Jelly Babies.)

Point is, when I watch that KFC ad I’m on the side of the C. The C is usually balanced with a bit of the KF.

Let’s drill down a bit. The key line used is “The Chicken. The Whole Chicken. And Nothing But The Chicken.” 

So the message is about the quality of KFC’s ingredients.

Although I don’t know if I’d really consider it a selling point in terms of quality if you’re using the “whole chicken”. Brings to mind the old “bits and beaks” worry people have when it comes to McDonald’s.

And in fact, in this spot you only see your badass chicken, with not a hint of the end product in sight. No sandwich, no wrap. Usually in a fast food ad you expect to see some food. Not pre-food.

(Although at least it isn’t post-food. Now that would be something.)

But wait, I hear you cry – isn’t advertising all about being unusual? Getting cut-through by cutting out the obvious and predictable? In that sense, surely there’s nothing wrong with leaving out the trite old packshot. We must think differently.

Well, true. But that requires a bit of thinking. As John Hegarty (ironically enough, the founder of KFC’s previous creative agency) has said, “cool isn’t an idea”. So there needs to be substance. And possibly the realisation that showing a living chicken isn’t very appetising. Feathers don’t make me hungry.

It just screams of thinking that you’re a bit too good to be selling fried chicken. Why sell product when you can be adland edgy and cool? Why sully your funky chicken with a product shot?

Vibrantly alive next to definitely deceased. Perhaps they thought it would be a bit jarring.

Or who knows? Perhaps the CD on the account is a vegetarian.

Take a look here:

Trust and Great Advertising

This is an article I wrote for an agency blog while I was interning with them- for obvious reasons they didn't go with it. It's a bit more of an 'internal' piece.

Trust and Great Advertising


What makes great creative work? People love to talk about this. There’s always a lot of emphasis placed on off-kilter thinking, on radical ideas and deep insights. All of that is important to be sure. But something that’s rarely talked about in earnest is how crucial confidence and trust is, between the client and the agency.


Why? Because without a strong relationship, no truly ground breaking, great ideas will be approved by the client and make it out into the world.


As an example, take a look at the Volvo Test Drive series, one of the most awarded campaigns of recent years. Volvo had so much confidence in Forsman & Bodenfors that they put their president in an ad. He was standing on top of a truck hanging from a crane in the middle of Gothenburg harbour.

Or think of the famous Levi’s ads by BBH. Levi’s were certainly nervous about the unusual approach taken by their new agency. But they took a chance, and put their faith in BBH. It paid off.


Good ideas aren’t enough if the client doesn’t trust you enough to use them. Great advertising which no one gets to see isn’t advertising. But you need to give the client reasons to trust you.

Think about it like a vase of flowers. The flowers look good, but they aren’t going to last.


So what does that mean for us? We need to lay down roots. It means we need to be more engaged with the client, with the aim of building their confidence in us- and a belief that when we give them a risky idea, there is good, sound reason behind it.


Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we need to be crazy and take wild risks. But we need to be brave enough to back great creative, even in the face of opposition.


And I say this with all the authority of a high powered intern.