by Theda Braddock
Even before France won the World Cup, KFC already won big. Football fan or not, you have to appreciate the dramatic stylings of players who so expertly fake injuries during matches. Picture it – someone brushes up lightly against a player and down he goes, wailing and screaming, grasping his head, a knee or ankle (no matter), twisting and writhing in feigned pain, all in the hope of drawing a foul. Perfect fodder for comedy.
That vision of the World Cup is what Ogilvy Cape Town so expertly captures in its new spot “Keep Rolling” for KFC Africa. Fictional player “Herbz” takes a dive and starts rolling… past the stretcher, through the tunnel, out the stadium and along the streets of Cape Town (though he does manage to stop at a crosswalk. Safety first, after all).
Naturally, his comical journey winds up at a KFC of course, where, much like players on the pitch, he jumps to his feet, unharmed. The tagline? “Make a meal of it”, a sweet little double entendre that’s both an incitement to customers and an allusion to Herbz’s farcical performance. Even the player’s jersey number, 11, has its own hidden meaning. That’s the number of herbs and spices in the Colonel’s famous secret recipe.
The agency’s creative group head, Safaraaz Sindhi, describes the ad as “a sweet spot of being a very funny take on something everyone’s talking about, which somehow gets funnier the longer the video goes on.” Indeed, the spot’s timing is perfect – it gives us a decent glimpse of the city, a clever way to promote the “Streetwise” meal, and enough time for the absurd odyssey to grow in exaggeration as it plays out.
The only thing I wonder, in watching some of the World Cup games, is “Keep Rolling” really that much of an exaggeration?
