KFC games the system

KFC has turned fans of its Believe in Chicken commercials into its latest campaign, with a 30-minute gameshow which was broadcast on YouTube yesterday evening.

Over the last three years KFC has built a mythology around its obsession for chicken and now, created by Mother London, Don’t Crack features 30 real fans and four escalating tests of devotion, with the prize being that the winner is named the Ultimate Believer, while also receiving the tidy sum of £50,000; and amount that gets you a lot of Bargain Buckets. 

Sort of like Squid Game [minus the death, and with added poultry] Don’t Crack is directed by Pablo Rochat through Iconoclast and features 30 'Believers', cast from across the UK, who face four escalating tests of devotion. Rochat partnered with Jessie Swanson, a challenge producer, who has worked on TV shows such as Celebrity Juice and Destination X, to develop and conceptualise the challenges. 

Watch the full programme here.

The full programme as hosted exclusively on YouTube, and premiered alongside a live watchalong. In March, KFC asked the nation, 'How Much Do You Believe In Chicken?', via a campaign spanning TVC, OOH and social. Nearly 10 m illion million people answered the call, scanning a campaign QR code that took them to a casting page. Over 50,000 people then applied to be on the show, with 30 making the final cut. They range in age from 22 to 65, and include a self-proclaimed witch, a police sergeant, a martial arts trainer, a London Tube driver and an NHS GP. What they share is a devotion to KFC they were willing to be filmed proving.

“Three years ago we asked Britain to believe in chicken," said Monica Silic, Chief Marketing Officer at KFC UK & Ireland. "Almost ten million people took us up on it this spring, and at that point a gameshow stopped being a nice idea and became the thing we actually did. We haven’t rented someone else’s audience for this. We’ve put our chicken-obsessive fans on screen, and we’ve given it over 30 minutes rather than ninety seconds, because long-form is what it takes before you genuinely care who wins.”

“For three years, we’ve been building the absurd universe of Believe in Chicken, establishing its own rituals and mythology," added Tomas Coleman and Derek Man Lui, Executive Creative Directors at Mother. Don’t Crack felt like the natural next step, giving our Believers the opportunity to showcase this obsession in a real, high-stakes gameshow. It’s a quintessentially KFC way to celebrate this fandom and what it stands for.”