KFC and IShowSpeed head to the Hot Ranch

KFC and IShowSpeed enter a world of ranches, miscommunication and straight-faced absurdity in “Hot Ranch,” a new campaign film produced by ISS Productions, directed by Sovereign Bloc founding director Daps and completed in post by No Sushi

Starring IShowSpeed, the film turns a simple misunderstanding into a cinematic ranch-world misdirect, as Speed hears “Hot Ranch” on a bad phone line and commits completely to the idea before discovering the real brief: KFC’s Hot Ranch dipping sauce.

The film brings together the creator-led energy of IShowSpeed, Daps’ cinematic approach to comedy and No Sushi’s entertainment-focused post-production craft. Across edit, colour and sound, No Sushi helped shape the film’s rhythm, visual world and appetite-driven product payoff, bringing together editor Eric Kissack, colourist Chadwick B. Williams and sound designer Thomas Jøren Nielsen.

While ISS Productions produced the film, the spot carries the creative fingerprints of Daps and Sovereign Bloc: cinematic world building, straight-faced absurdity, and a belief that comedy lands harder when the craft is taken seriously.

The film opens with Speed driving at night, framed in the enclosed glow of his car, before a call from a KFC Executive sends him toward what he believes is a very different kind of Hot Ranch. From there, the spot jumps into a sun-baked Western world, with Speed arriving on a ranch in full orange-and-white cowboy mode, surrounded by horses, denim, models, crew, dust, heat and commercial-set chaos.

The misunderstanding is the engine of the film. Speed has taken the brief literally, throwing himself into the version of Hot Ranch he thinks he has been asked to create. The ranch is treated with cinematic seriousness rather than broad parody, giving the comedy a grounded world to play against. The joke is not that Speed looks foolish. It is that everyone around him allows the misunderstanding to become a fully realised commercial shoot.

When the real product is revealed, the film pivots from ranch fantasy into appetite. KFC buckets, tenders, wings and Hot Ranch sauce take over the frame, with close-up dipping moments bringing the product into the same visual language as the wider ranch world. The sauce is not treated as a separate cutaway or afterthought. It becomes the final destination of the story.

“The projects I get most excited about always live somewhere between sincerity and absurdity,” says Daps. “With this spot, the key was taking the world completely seriously. Speed is not the punchline. The misunderstanding is. If the ranch feels beautiful, cinematic and real, then the comedy has somewhere to fall from.”

That tonal balance sits at the centre of the film. The ranch has the visual care of a fashion film, the confidence of a creator-led comedy and the structure of a classic commercial reveal. Every detail, from Speed’s performance to the ranch styling to the food moments, is played straight, allowing the final product payoff to feel earned rather than simply inserted.

The result is a spot that moves between different modes without losing its internal logic: night-drive setup, creator comedy, Western misdirect, production-set reveal, appetite-led product film and oversized end gag. Each shift has to feel quick enough for Speed’s energy, but clear enough for the audience to track the joke.

No Sushi’s post team carried that tonal balance through the finishing process. Emmy-winning editor Kissack, whose credits include The Studio, Spider-Noir, Veep and The Dictator, brought a deep comedy background to the cut, shaping the spot’s rhythm while allowing Speed’s performance to stay loose, instinctive and unmistakably his own. The edit moves from the contained night-drive opening into the wider energy of the ranch, then tightens around the product, the taste reaction and the final “Hot Ranch Big Dip” payoff.

“Comedy works when the setup is clear and the characters are well drawn, which is not always easy to do in a short piece,” says Kissack. “Luckily, Speed is bursting with such sincerity and enthusiasm that my job was just to get out of the way and let him shine. His character is so eager to perform and so eager to deliver something great that you can’t help but root for him. All I had to do was find the moments where I felt myself rooting for him the most.”