Dancing Colonel Sanders is coming to KFC’s advertising.
The fast-food chicken chain this week debuted “Finger Lickin’ Machine,” a full-fledged single rolling across social feeds and streaming platforms like Spotify.
The track on the surface is selling the company’s Value Feast menu, which includes boxes priced at $7, $9 and $11 and including combinations of KFC Snackers or sandwiches, nuggets or tenders, fries and a drink.
In a 90-second cut that plays like a music video, Sanders sits at the head of a boardroom as dark-suited board members question his pricing decisions. “Who do you think you are?” one asks.
Sanders takes his feet off the table, declares, “I’m a Finger Lickin’ Machine,” jumps on the table as the track begins to play. He dances across the table and then out into the street, at one point shoving a chicken sandwich into the mouth of a skeptical board member.
The creative agency behind the ad is Highdive and the music was done by Ryan Grieve for Hole in the Sky Music, with Rich Fiset and produced by Zachary Pollakoff at the music house Heavy Duty. The choreography for the dancing Sanders was done by the creative team Rich + Tone Talauega.
For KFC, the ad taps into the chain’s longtime success of using Sanders as the focal point of its advertising.
The chain has been working to overcome a string of sales declines in its U.S. market. System sales last year declined 4.6%, largely on a 4% decline in unit count, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic.
KFC, which recently moved its headquarters from Louisville, Kentucky, to Plano, Texas, last year launched a “Kentucky Fried Comeback" under U.S. brand president Catherine Tan-Gillespie.
The chain last week launched its Box Feasts lineup as its latest foray into the discount wars, believing that bundled meals can lure customers that have been cutting back on dining.
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