They have completely rebranded to "KFC", leaving "Kentucky" out of it, and then they bring back this creepy dude with his secret recipe.

It's well known that Colonel Sanders was selling secrets to the Chinese, and it allowed General Tso to advance his chicken technology by decades.

I thought it was a fake/joke commercial when I first saw it.

invented it!

some would call it fictional, the state of Ky would call it "honorary." The white suit was his own invention. He failed at a few gigs before he hit a home run with the chicken thing.

He did steal the recipe, he later paid the woman who invented the 11 herbs/spices combo a pittance for it.

In the old days, the REAL colonel--not the fake new one--did his own TV commercials.

...is kind of a mystery to me.

The "11 herbs and spices" thing is right up there with "57 varieties". The "secret recipe" thing is primarily marketing fluff. You put any decent combination of "herbs and spices" on fried chicken, and it will be fine. It's not like there is some magic combination that is going to make it exceptional. It's fried chicken.

So, I suppose next you'll tell me that General Tso was executed by Mao or something.

It's not the same thing at all. In fact, the recipe (that specific mixture of herbs and spices) is still a "trade secret." They keep it a secret by mixing half the ingredients in one place, and then the other half at another, so no one can put the whole process together without some trouble.

He turned the whole chicken thing into "fast food." Before KFC, they weren't using pressure cookers to cook chicken. It sped the process up enormously:

Maggie opened the Duff Beer safe and pulled out the secret recipe. It said "Schlitz and water."

He paid the lady off for her combo--it was a good investment on his part. Probably a better investment from the people who bought the entire business from him and went global with it.

Let me try this from another angle, and yes trade secrets are an area of practice of mine.

I said:

"You put any decent combination of "herbs and spices" on fried chicken, and it will be fine. It's not like there is some magic combination that is going to make it exceptional. It's fried chicken."

Yes, KFC tastes specifically like KFC.

There is no magical blend of herbs and spices that make it somehow taste better than any other pressure cooked fried chicken with any other combination of herbs and spices.

You know what General Tso's chicken tastes like? Yeah. Does it taste a little different from place to place? Yeah. Significantly? No.

Actually, the old lady across the street gave me some chicken the other night (I know her well) ..She used her
own recipe. Excellent!

the brand. Fried chicken is NOT simply fried chicken. People who eat a lot of it can take a bite blindfolded and tell you what they are eating--and they will complain if it isn't their favored brand and to their 'taste.'

Believe me, I have relatives who will beat my ass if I walked in with KFC instead of Church's, because that's their wheelhouse. I also have friends who "Love that chicken from Popeye's" because that's what they came up with as kids.

There are people who will hold their nose and ignore the politics of Chik-fil-a because they just have to have some of that buttermilk and pickle-brine chicken.

I understand what you are saying, in that people who are not aficionados of the meal will say one is as good as the next, but for those who have their loyalties, nothing else will do.

For every person that loves their Popeye's, you can find someone who likes another brand.

But the flavor of each company's chicken is very unique. It's like coke, pepsi, RC cola and the supermarket house brand! People do have their preferences.

Thanks for posting it.

Governor.

Nebraska has the "Nebraska Admirals".

NC has the "Order of the Longleaf Pine"

SC has the "Order of the Palmetto"

Indiana has the "Sagamores of the Wabash"

etc etc

I don't think Harland Sanders ever DID anything for the governor--maybe gave him free chicken?

From Corbin, Ky, my home town. And I'm old enough to remember him walking around town. There's nothing wrong with wearing a costume and calling yourself Colonel, though AFAIK he was not a Kentucky Colonel (a cheap honorary bestowed by the governor), or maybe he was(?).

What's My Line?

He was big around the same time that Burl Ives (Frosty the Snowman) was big--little kids used to get them confused!

Apparently, his "Colonel" was an honorific of some sort--at least according to the few biopages I've read about him!

He WAS a Colonel, a Kentucky Colonel, title bestowed by Governor of the time. That's an honorary title that anybody that's anybody can get. My roommate in college had a certificate!

It's the fried chicken part. People perceive it as unhealthy.

"It's well known that Colonel Sanders was selling secrets to the Chinese, and it allowed General Tso to advance his chicken technology by decades. "

that's actually the funniest thing I've read on this site for a while, thanks

Reminds me of the Uncle Sam gynecologist from the republican ads, and his W laugh just adds to the creepiness. Ew.

In the ads, he looks and sounds like some old pervert. I wonder if the company producing these ads is the same one that resurrected that creepy Burger King costume for the ads they've been running for the past several years.

If anything, those ads make me want to stay away from those places. And it's been years since I've eaten at a BK or a KFC.

That they serve veggie burgers! (At least the one in north Seattle does) and it was good. A pleasant surprise since I'm vegetarian and it wasn't my idea to go there.

Do these ads make anyone want to buy chicken?

West Indies fans--these fans would be mostly black, and they would enjoy steel band style music.

It's not racist. You just have to understand the long, interminable thing that is cricket....

http://www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-australia-2015/content/series/810415.html

I do not believe this commercial is at all racist--he's sitting on the wrong side owing to his team allegiance, and he smooths it over with the stupid chicken. The "Cricket Survival Guide" logo kind of gives it all away.

If it'd been an American ad aimed at an American audience with a white American guy at a baseball game offering fried chicken to African Americans, then that'd be racist. But this wasn't. KFC in Australia sponsor the cricket. Australia and the West Indies were playing a Test series. That's an Australian fan amongst a bunch of West Indies fans spruiking the sponsors product.

American cultural stereotypes aren't stereotypes elsewhere in the world. Just the same as some of the stereotypes here about our black population aren't stereotypes in the US.

As has been pointed out, we don't have the same stereotypes as people in the US. We have our own...ask us about New Zealand men and sheep. Baaaaahhhh!

Amazingly, there are still 3 or 4 threads going to this day on youtube about this ad. The Windies toured in 2010!!!

A couple of salient facts...

No member of any of the West Indies governments voiced an objection to the ad.

No member of any of the West Indies team voiced an objection to the ad.

To the best of my knowledge, no member of the West Indian public voiced an objection to the ad.

The captain of the West Indian team at the time (Chris Gayle) was most certainly not a shrinking violet. He would not have have tolerated this if he had felt it was racist.

KFC Oz pulled the ad in Australia because KFC US asked them to because it was having negative effects in the US. Not because KFC Oz thought it was racist.

Most Australians (including myself) were unaware of the African-American/chicken stereotype when this ad was aired.

When that commeriall comes on I start checking where my kids are. That creep makes my skin crawl.

You think I'm buying any KFC while they are paying a pedohile to talk about their product you are nuts.

I remember hearing Harland Sanders speak. Watching his old videos makes him seem very human and down-to-earth (in a salty way).

I would have loved the idea if KFC had digitized and cleaned up old Sanders' videos, but Darrell Hammond playing Sanders just seems creepy. Every time I feel like I'm watching some sort of weird parody.

And to make matters worse, Darrell Hammond brought all his little GW Bush mannerisms to the character.

They did need to do something because the brand is old and tired. They were looking for something new and fresh. This ain't it. Sorry to echo the comments of so many others but it's just creepy.

I thought he played Clinton while Will Ferrell (and then Chris Parnell) played Bush.

They are PURPOSELY trying to make Col. Sanders odd.

https://twitter.com/kfc

Their whole Twitter feed is wonderfully surreal.

https://twitter.com/kfc/status/619906566762835969

Those commercials trigger my 'hit the mute button' reflex, every time

and the north and the west.

Because anything you do with those kinds of places looks racist.

KFC has a website with more ads, and games and such.
But then, I do like Darrel Hammond. And I have to admit - it seems a little bit to me like Bill Clinton doing the commercials, and it reminds me of Hammond's great SNL skits. I look at the ads as stand-up comedy.

This has some of the clips, and some explanation of where KFC was going with this:
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/darrell-hammond-colonel-sanders-wks-big-new-campaign-kfc-164871

This is a weird interactive thing:
http://www.colonelsanders.com/#early-years

I also love Eddie Izzard.

edited to add - I did not think about plantations and race when I looked at the commercials.

That creepy chuckle! Not someone I'd want to be around my daughters. And he doesn't have a southern accent, so fake. KFC will kill this ad campaign if they are smart.

They have way more menu items than in USA too.

Oddly enough.

I used to go to a KFC in Iran on occasion. The chicken was halal, but the "secret recipe" was the same! They had some local stuff on the menu, too--like lamb done up with the secret recipe.

You could smell it cooking all over the square--a real temptation during Ramadan. They'd put sheets up in the window so you couldn't see people eating inside during the holy month. Everyone who went in between dawn and dusk would bring a suitcase (travellers are exempt from the daily fast--the idea is that you 'make it up' later--like if you missed a test or something at school). They did a very good job of running the franchise--it was clean, bustling with customers, and they moved a lot of product! I often wonder if that place is still there--the neighborhood has gotten very high-end, so it's probably the site of a luxury high rise, now...

...apparently KFC is hugely popular choice for Christmas Dinner...

Picture a dozen bowing greeters as you slide into the department store, all decked out in Santa costume!

My favorite fast food treat in Japan (of the large well-known world-wide franchises, I mean) was the "corn soup" available at Ma-ku-do-na-do! Mmmm mmmm--I'd take that over a Big Mac anyday!

It's trying to be funny/creepy/ironic on purpose, in an attempt to appeal to the millennial hipster types. It's the exact same thing Burger King did with the creepy King guy. It's making fun of Col.Sanders.

Also they are on my list along with Taco Bell, McD, BK, JackBox etc. as places I never go and don't understand why anyone does with so many other options out there. I haven't been to most of those in 10+years.

An 8 dollar burger at five guys?

A 10 dollar burrito at chipotle?

A 13 dollar sub at capriottis?

I can get two tacos at jack in the box for a fucking dollar.

I realized right away that they were meant to be creepy and weren't targeting my demographic anyway.

somewhere in the background.

At least he can't start stupid wars.

I give you a man dedicated to the good things of life, to the gentle, the heartfelt things, to good living, and to the kindly rites with which it is surrounded. In all the clash of a plangent world he holds firm to his ideal – a gracious existence in that country of content 'where slower clocks strike happier hours.' He stands in spirit on a tall-columned veranda, a hospitable glass in his hand, and he looks over the good and fertile earth, over ripening fields, over meadows of rippling bluegrass. The rounded note of a horn floats through the fragrant stillness. Afar, the sleek and shining flanks of a thoroughbred catch the bright sun. The broad door, open wide with welcome... the slow, soft-spoken word... the familiar step of friendship... all of this is his life and it is good. He brings fair judgment to sterner things. He is proud in the traditions of his country, in ways that are settled and true. In a trying world darkened by hate and misunderstanding, he is a symbol of those virtues in which men find gallant faith and of the good men might distill from life. Here he stands, then. In the finest sense, an epicure... a patriot... a man. Gentlemen, I give you, the Kentucky Colonel.