KFC drops Colonel from TV campaign

<p>SINGAPORE: KFC has dropped the famous Colonel Sanders character </p><p>from its television advertising in Singapore with the tagline of its </p><p>latest commercial, 'Have you got the craving?', representing a major </p><p>shift in the brand's strategic direction. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Previous commercials used the line "Nobody does chicken like KFC" and </p><p>featured the animated Colonel Sanders character discussing the </p><p>product. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But the new campaign, which its Singapore agency Ogilvy & Mather hopes </p><p>will go regional, uses humorous slice-of-life advertising to endear the </p><p>brand and make it relevant to consumers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>One commercial shows people who appear to be on a crowded bus before the </p><p>camera pans out to reveal they are just crowding around one man because </p><p>he has a bucket of KFC chicken. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But the commercial almost didn't make it - when the agency presented the </p><p>storyboards, the client knocked back the idea and chose another </p><p>commercial entitled 'Tai Chi'. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"But we felt this ad was better so we took the initiative and paid to </p><p>have the spot produced," said Craig Smith, O&M head of art. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Sometimes it's difficult to get clients to believe in what you're </p><p>saying so you need to go further to help them out." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Smith is pleased with the new positioning because it gives the agency </p><p>greater scope to explore ideas for forthcoming campaigns. "More ideas </p><p>will come to light and the advertising will be a lot more fun. The ideas </p><p>are going to get better. We've won creative awards for small clients, </p><p>but now we're going to do it properly by winning more awards for big </p><p>clients," he said. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>According to David Mayo, O&M regional business director, the new </p><p>advertising reflects the role KFC plays in everyday life. He said the </p><p>tagline 'Have you got the craving?' was appropriate for KFC because it </p><p>represented a powerful positioning that arch rival McDonald's could </p><p>never claim for itself. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Mayo added that dropping Colonel Sanders from television spots, but </p><p>retaining the character for point-of-sale materials, made sense because </p><p>"the Colonel is an icon of the brand but it isn't a creative idea". </p><p><BR><BR> </p>