KFC advertising

Colonel Sanders

Colonel Sanders was a key component of KFC advertising until his death in 1980. He made several appearances in various B movies and television programs of the period, such as What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret. Jack Massey described him as "the greatest PR man I have ever known". KFC franchisee & Wendy's founder Dave Thomas credited Sanders' appeal to the fact that he "stood for values that people understood and liked".

Since his death Sanders has remained as a key symbol of the company; an "international symbol of hospitality".

In 1994, KFC hired actor Henderson Forsythe to portray the Colonel in a television campaign entitled "The Colonel's Way". The $18.4 million campaign from Young & Rubicam used black and white visuals. The campaign was deemed unsuccessful and was ended.

From May 1998, an animated version of the Colonel, "boisterously" voiced by Randy Quaid, was used for television advertisements. KFC chief concept officer Jeff Moody said they "provide a fresh way to communicate our relevance for today's consumers". The animated Colonel was dropped in 2001 in the US, and in 2002 in the UK. In 2012, a UK advertisement entitled "4000 cooks" featured an actor made up to resemble Sanders.

Beginning in May 2015, Darrell Hammond began playing a live-action Colonel Sanders in KFC commercials. Three months later, KFC launched a new campaign with comedian Norm Macdonald portraying Sanders; the first ad of the campaign makes direct reference to the Hammond campaign, with a brief piece of footage of Hammond followed by Macdonald's Colonel declaring his predecessor an impostor. Jim Gaffigan then began playing Sanders in February 2016, with his first ads stating that Macdonald's Colonel was another impostor. George Hamilton began appearing as "The Extra Crispy Colonel" in July 2016, with no transition referencing Gaffigan's Colonel. Later, in September 2016, Rob Riggle began appearing as a new Colonel Sanders, the coach of the fictitious "Kentucky Buckets" football team, again with no transition. In October 2016, Vincent Kartheiser appeared in another campaign as the Nashville Colonel, a younger 'Heartthrob' take on the character. In January 2017, Billy Zane began appearing as a Gold Colonel Sanders to promote a new Georgia Gold flavor chicken.

KFC CMO Kevin Hochman told PRWeek, "The plan was always to rotate colonels. We always thought of it like James Bond. The actor that dons the white suit brings something of his own to the actual character." Although the rotating "Real Colonel Sanders" campaigns have generated mixed reviews, analysts and company executives credit it with helping to boost sales.

The ubiquity of Sanders has not prevented KFC from introducing a mascot aimed at children. "Chicky", a young animated chicken, was first introduced in Thailand in the 1990s, and has since been rolled out across a number of markets worldwide, mostly in Asia and South America.

Slogans

Early official slogans included "North America's Hospitality Dish" (1956–1966) and "We fix Sunday dinner seven nights a week" from 1957 until 1968. The two slogans were phased out in order to concentrate on the "finger lickin' good" slogan.

The "finger lickin' good" slogan was trademarked in 1956. After a local KFC television advertisement had featured Arizona franchisee Dave Harman licking his fingers in the background, a viewer phoned the station to complain. The main actor in the advertisement, a KFC manager named Ken Harbough, upon hearing of this, responded: "Well, it's finger lickin' good." The phrase was adopted nationally by the company by the 1960s, and went on to become one of the best-known slogans of the twentieth century. The trademark expired in the US in 2006, and was replaced in that market with "Follow your taste" until 2010. In 2011, the "finger lickin' good" slogan was dropped in favor of "So good", to be rolled out worldwide. A Yum! executive said that the new slogan was more holistic, applying to staff and service, as well as food. Other slogans included "It's America's Country-Good Meal" (late 1970s) and "We Do Chicken Right" (1980s).

"Nobody does chicken like KFC" was first introduced by KFC Australia in 1998, and has continued to be used by the company in some markets.

In 2015, along with a revamp of their U.S. advertising, KFC returned to using "Finger Lickin' Good". As of April 2016, KFC began using the slogan "Colonel Quality, Guaranteed."

Logos

The first KFC logo was introduced in 1952 and featured a "Kentucky Fried Chicken" typeface and a logo of the Colonel. It was designed by the Lippincott & Margulies corporate identity agency. Lippincott & Margulies were hired to redesign it in 1978, and used a similar typeface and a slightly different Sanders logo. The "KFC" acronym logo was designed by Schechter & Luth of New York and was introduced in 1991, and the Colonel's face logo was switched from brown to blue ink.

Landor redesigned the logo in 1997, with a new image of the Colonel. The new Colonel image was more thinly lined, less cartoonish and a more realistic representation of Sanders. In 2006, the Colonel logo was updated by Tesser of San Francisco, replacing his white suit with an apron, bolder colors and a better defined visage. According to Gregg Dedrick, president of KFC's US division, the change, "communicates to customers the realness of Colonel Sanders and the fact that he was a chef".

United States

KFC began to advertise nationwide from 1966, with a US television budget of US$4 million. In order to fund nationwide advertising campaigns, the Kentucky Fried Chicken Advertising Co-op was established, giving franchisees 10 votes and the company three when deciding on budgets and campaigns. In 1968, the budget was increased to US$9 million (around US$60 million in 2013).

In 1969, KFC hired its first national advertising agency, Leo Burnett. John Hughes, later to become a filmmaker, worked as a copywriter on the account. A notable Burnett campaign in 1972 was the "Get a bucket of chicken, have a barrel of fun" jingle, performed by Barry Manilow.

By 1976 KFC was one of the largest advertisers in the US. Young & Rubicam (Y&R) was KFC's agency of record in the US from 1976 until December 2000. The tagline from 1976 to 1981 was: "It's nice to feel so good about a meal". It was chosen because KFC had identified consumer guilt as its core marketing obstacle. Meanwhile, KFC hired the Mingo-Jones agency to target African American audiences. Mingo-Jones coined the "We do chicken right" slogan, which was later adopted across the whole chain from 1981 until 1991. From 1991 to 1994, the television campaign focused on the fictional town of Lake Edna. When he took over the CEO role at KFC, David C. Novak ended the campaign, which he derided as "hokey". The campaign was replaced by one with the tagline, "Everybody needs a little KFC", which Novak credited with helping to boost sales at the company.

BBDO took over the KFC US account in December 2000. Its first campaign, featuring Jason Alexander, debuted on television in July 2001. It ran until May 2003 with the tagline, "There's fast food. Then there's KFC." In September 2003, BBDO was replaced by Foote, Cone & Belding. Its first campaign aired in November, but was pulled after less than a month following complaints from the National Advertising Division and the Center for Science in the Public Interest that it advertised the health benefits of eating fried chicken.

International

In 1994, Ogilvy & Mather became KFC's international agency of record. From 1997 to 1999, Ogilvy & Mather used celebrities such as Ivana Trump, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Ulrika Jonsson to endorse KFC products in television advertisements in the UK. After this campaign, the agency simply adapted Y&R's American campaigns, such as the animated Colonel, for a British audience. In late 2002, BBH was appointed KFC's UK agency. In 2003, the "Soul Food" campaign was launched, aiming to capture the young urban market with 1960s and 70s African-American music. By 2005, this was believed to have been a failure, and KFC UK's marketing director left the company amid speculation that the US head office was unhappy with the campaign. In 2012, it was determined that a 2005 advert in the Soul Food campaign, featuring people talking and singing with their mouths full, had been the most complained-about advert in the fifty-year history of the Advertising Standards Authority. The complaints were not upheld at the time. Marketing subsequently moved towards a more family-orientated line.

Promotional tie-ins and corporate sponsorships

In 2013, WPP's BrandZ valued the brand at US$10 billion.

Between November 1998 and January 2000, KFC US teamed with Nintendo, Game Freak and 4 Kids Entertainment in a Pokémon tie-in. Pokémon themed promotional days were held, Pokémon Beanie Babies were sold, and Pokémon toys were given away free with children's meals. In 1999, PepsiCo signed a $2 billion agreement with Lucasfilm in order to market Star Wars themed meals in its KFC and Pizza Hut chains.

Since 2010, KFC has sponsored the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. In Australia, KFC has sponsored the Big Bash League Twenty20 cricket tournament and Twenty20 international matches since 2003.

NASCAR sponsorships

KFC has marketed with NASCAR, sponsoring several cars on a limited basis throughout the years.

KFC's first appearance in NASCAR was in 1997 Cup competition with Darrell Waltrip Motorsports, as part of a one-race attempt for Rich Bickle and the #26 in the 1997 Brickyard 400.

Several years later in 2004, KFC sponsored Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s #8 for some Busch races with Martin Truex, Jr. and a Busch race at Daytona International Speedway with Dale Earnhardt, Jr..

KFC stayed out of NASCAR for several years, returning to sponsor Front Row Motorsports for limited races in 2014 and 2015. KFC was seen on the #34 of David Ragan both years, and on the #35 of Cole Whitt in 2015 only.

In 2016, KFC moved to Roush-Fenway Racing to sponsor the #16 of Greg Biffle, again for a limited number of races.