Kentucky Fried Fightback
How Kentucky Fried Chicken fought back against the anti-fried, wok health movement and won. There are larger applications if lessons can be learned.
You don’t have to like Kentucky Fried Chicken to get a smile on your face when you see its ads. But if you’re interested in combating authoritarian woke politics, you’ll get an even bigger smile when you think about KFC as a highly successful case study in what works.
The ads are so effective that, frankly, I think many, if considered within a political context, could arguably come close to requiring political authorisation. However, the ads are not overtly ‘political’. Nonetheless, KFC has directly taken on, and it would seem soundly ‘smashed’, the health dictatorships across the globe—at least in relation to ‘dictates’ which impact on KFC.
There are important lessons to be learned for those of us concerned about the rising success of Left/Marxist/Woke politics, and our seeming inability to find successful counter-strategies.
Let me take you through the KFC ‘stuff’ step by step.
KFC has explained its campaigns in this 3 min39 sec video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=575189097052471. Watch this first before reading further.
The KFC campaign is conducted in marketing parlance. I, however, am going to give my take on its campaign and the political lessons that arise from it. The explanation and the ads are Australian-referenced, but I assume it’s part of a global campaign with localised, culturally relevant adjustments to suit each distinct market. Note, I’ve had no communication with KFC. My interpretation is exclusively mine!
First, a quick history of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Founded in 1930 by one Colonel Harland Sanders, it’s the second largest, global fast-food franchise after McDonalds. Bannered for a long time as ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ it progressively started to run into trouble sometime after the Second World War. The health ‘dictatorships’ had turned against the idea of ‘fried’, demonising it as a social evil, responsible for obesity, heart disease and so on.
I’m not in the business of debating the health issues of ‘fried.’ Whether fried food is good or bad for you is not the point of this Substack article. What is of interest is that the very core of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s global business was (presumably) under assault because the word/idea of ‘fried’ was itself under assault. It’s Kentucky Fried Chicken’s response as a marketing exercise that’s of interest!
At some point the corporation then made a move, rebranding from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC. What it did was to remove the ‘fried’ branding, hoping (I assume) to skirt around the anti-fried health messaging. I’m assuming it didn’t work. Sales probably continued to slide.
KFC admitted defeat. It explained it this way in the opening segment of its explanatory video. “For years KFC had been faking it, pretending to be all good and wholesome and nice but nobody was buying it, literally nobody!”
In (my) political parlance the dictates of government-funded health campaigns against the idea of ‘fried’ were winning. The ‘evil’ capitalist empire of KFC was losing. That is, a Marxist perspective would be that the KFC capitalists were making dirty profits by exploiting helpless consumers through appeal to consumers’ taste buds. KFC loses! Victory to the health dictatorship!
But KFC decided to do something else. In 2017 it started a new campaign. It said “Bucket”, that’s with a ‘B’ (see 0:22 sec). It said “goodbye to the boring and hello to the brave”.
Bucket with a ‘B’
Watch the ‘Bucket’ ad (as above). A young boy having an unappetising (?) meal with a disapproving-looking aunt. A bucket of KFC chicken is placed on the table by someone. The young boy declares “Bucket!” and starts eating the chicken.
Note the features. It’s irreverent, cheeky and puts a smile on your face. There’s an authoritarian figure (health bureaucracy?) passing judgement on a vulnerable individual (you/me?). The Orwellian dictatorship determines what the individual should eat. The individual rebels and exercises individual choice (consumer freedom). The authoritarian figure becomes irrelevant, even pathetic, because of that rebellion. The individual finds freedom in bravery and is joined by the ‘masses’ in a fun/yum revolution. The KFC Bucket becomes a protective helmet!
And all this occurs without once seeking to defend or debate ‘fried’ or to take head-on the health dictatorship/bureaucracy. Its effectiveness lies in the irrelevance it makes of the authoritarian, anti-fried health movement and the extent to which individual choice prevails.
KFC extended the campaign.
Naked Wrestling: I don’t care!
Now watch ‘naked wrestling’. Professional looking parents at a parent-teacher interview. The primary teacher disapprovingly holds up their child’s drawing titled ‘mum and dad naked wrestling’’ The mother turns to look off-camera asking, ‘did someone say KFC?’ then upbeat singers sing ‘I don’t care, I love it!’
Goodbye son: I don’t care!
Now watch ‘goodbye son’. Older parents this time seeing-off their son as he leaves home in his car. The parents close the front door yelling and jumping for joy as they finally have freedom. The son reappears at the door reproachfully catching them in their joy. The mother asks, ‘did someone say KFC?’ followed by the upbeat singers “I don’t care, I love it!”
Features again: Both Naked Wrestling and Goodbye Son repeat the same themes as Bucket with a B. Humour. There are disapproving authoritarian figures, the teacher, and the son. The subservient parties, the parents, having been caught out, reject the authority figures, and exercise their choice, not ashamed of their choice. In fact, they revel in their choice.
Party clean-up. Shut up and take my money
Watch party clean-up. Older teenagers/men (twins?) rapidly cleaning up after a heavy party in their parent’s home. Presumably the parents are due back soon. The family dog extends the mess by tearing into feathered cushions. The guys give up and declare “Shut up and take my money!”
Features are the same: This time the authoritarian figure/s (parents) are unseen, but their influence is clear. Again the individuals exercise free choice and damn the consequences. KFC is too good and prevails over the supposed coming wrath of the authority/parents.
KFC invites rejection of authority
If this isn’t a form of disguised anti-woke political-style advertising, I’ll eat KFC! Look at the authoritarian rejection ‘call to arms!’: Bucket. I don’t care! Shut up!
Without mentioning the issue of fried, KFC has invited the individual (each of us) to exercise our choice, to tell the anti-fried health authorities to go jump.
Bucket, I’m going to take the plunge and make my own choice! I don’t care what the health authorities say, I’m going to decide for myself what I eat.
Shut up health authorities, I’ll put into my body what I want to put into my body!
If campaigns of a similar nature had been waged against the Covid vaccination mandates, such campaigns would likely have been cancelled by government dictate. Campaigners conducting the campaigns could also have run the risk of being accused of sedition!
But KFC has done its fightback with such brilliance that it has clearly worked. Not only has it claimed success in its explanatory video, but the success must have been so triumphant that they’ve now reintroduced the word ‘fried’.
Wrecked: The fried side of life
Watch ‘Wrecked’: A dishevelled, ‘wrecked’ young women opens the door of a terrace house to receive a ‘bucket’ delivery of KFC chicken. She hugs the bucket, grabs a chicken and dances down the hall to be joined by other ‘wrecked’ all-night partygoers. There’s clearly been a heavy, all night, early morning smashing party of alcohol, likely drug taking, dazed dancing and sex. They have, by their choice, abused their bodies. And the message? Fried chicken is the saviour!
Features: Here the messaging has moved beyond just rejecting authority. KFC now says that when you choose to do to your body what some would say is bad for you, that’s fine and KFC validates your choice! And eating fried food (chicken) is part of your life, good or bad. It’s your choice!
This is a most extraordinary counterattack against the anti-fried health authorities. It reflects what must be a surge in confidence from KFC that its push-back campaign has worked and worked stunningly. Then KFC got cheeky.
People are sophisticated
Too often in political campaigning the assumption is that voters are dumb, that they need trite, simple messaging. That’s a mistake KFC has not made since it accepted the failure of their trite, ‘feel good’ campaigns up to 2017.
KFC’s campaigns (as described above) work on multiple, highly sophisticated levels of messaging, while remaining clear and to the point. KFC assumes that its target consumers ‘get’ subtly, nuance and humour. One of its advertising agencies gives a run down on its messaging during Covid. The one that stands out for me, that works with cheeky subtly, is “The breast is yet to come!”
KFC has extended such cheekiness with the latest billboard that I’ve seen: ”Fried Chicken with benefits.”
Takeouts
In the Substack series I’ve been running on Modern Marxism I’ve sought to get a solid understanding of just what modern day Marxists are up to because they are clearly having a significant impact. The impact is across a wide range of issues—sexism, immigration, Gaza, racial divide, education, trans and on and on. They are in a rising political ascendancy across many western societies at least, and taking on several identities, including traditional ‘Left’ but now ‘woke.’
My most recent Substack article Unmasking Marxist Marketing was the result of the ‘penny dropping’ about the considerable difference between old-style Marxists and modern Marxists. The modernists have embraced and applied very sophisticated, modern marketing techniques and strategies. They are formidable. The response to this from those of us who are of an individual choice, free-market, anti-authoritarian persuasion has been insipid at best. We’re failing. This is where the KFC case study is so enlightening.
Since 2017, KFC has approached the anti-fried attack against them in a startlingly strategic and successful way. And I have no doubt that the authoritarian anti-fried campaign is just as much a Marxist anti-capitalist campaign as any of the other divisive campaigns to which Marxists have attached themselves. In saying this I’m not trivialising the complexity of the many divisive issues.
But KFC gave itself a wake-up call in 2017 and realised it had to do something quite different. And it did and has continued to do so.
What are some of the immediate lessons? Here are my first level reactions.
Believe in your product. Whether it’s fried chicken or capitalist, free-market, individualism, believe in that product with confidence and passion.
Reject authoritarianism. But reject it with intelligence and strategy. Know that authoritarianism is likely to remain in a strong institutional position. There’s no value in attacking it directly in a way that gives ‘them’ the capacity to damage you/us.
Appeal to the individual. KFC has shown that ‘we’ can talk to the instincts of self-worth, self-control, self-confidence and self-direction that reside in every individual.
Treat people as intelligent. Don’t talk down to people. Assume that people are intelligent and appeal to their intelligence, particularly to their emotional intelligence.
Be relatable: Messaging must be aimed at society and at people as we find them, not to some fantasy about what ‘we’ think people should be or once were.
These are just my first-level thoughts. I’ll develop this theme in a future post.
Ha. Love it. Its not ;fried'. Its 'karage'
Nice, Ken. A cheeky hypothesis, and quite plausible on my reading.
I had a great, healthy Japanese lunch today of karage chicken - another way around the dreaded word ‘fried’.