A Recipe for Seduction

December 7, 2020 9:11 AM

KFC & Lifetime team up for a holiday mini-movie. The movie will premiere at noon on December 13, and will be available on streaming on Lifetime and video on demand. Additionally: KFC and Uber Eats are offering a special promotion in conjunction with the film -- six free extra crispy tenders with a purchase of $20 or more -- that will be available between December 13-19 via the mobile food delivery app.

It's not the first time KFC has done unusual advertising. In 2017, they issued a romance novel for Mother's Day on Amazon called Tender Wings of Desire. (No longer available.) They've done promotional items like: chicken-scented sunscreen, chicken "couture" merchandise, and chicken-flavored chocolate truffles.

posted by toastyk (39 comments total)

So I forgot to mention that Mario Lopez is playing Colonel Sanders.
posted by toastyk at 9:13 AM on December 7, 2020 [13 favorites]

I'm just being amused at the thought that ol' Harlan has to be hitting 50k RPM with how he's been portrayed as of late.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:14 AM on December 7, 2020

It makes me very sad on a number of different levels that this exists.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:20 AM on December 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

Look at it this way - it's a vast improvement over the usual Original Lifetime Movie.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:22 AM on December 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

It makes me very happy on a number of different levels that this exists.

Because none of the parties involved seem to be taking themselves too seriously. It looks funny.
posted by jonathanhughes at 9:25 AM on December 7, 2020 [13 favorites]

Hahahaha, omg, I love this. I'll have to find a way to watch/stream it after it's out, since I don't have cable. It looks like the actors involved had a lot of fun with this.

At first my reaction was just surprise that this wasn't tried in Japan first, since the holiday advertising connection with KFC is stronger there, but when I clicked on that CNN link there was a video about a KFC dating sim featuring a chef corgi character, so nevermind, carry on.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 9:29 AM on December 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

Previously in KFC media stunts:

A Dating Sim With 11 Herbs And Spices.
The Colonel Rocks Social Media
Now you're thinking with pullets
Finger Licking Good
“SPACE SANDWICH!! YEAH!?!”
Fingernail Licking Good
Finger-lickin' 8-bit
Game of chicken
Colonel Sanders Wants to Sponsor Your Pot Holes
posted by zamboni at 9:30 AM on December 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

There's even a meta-advertisement in Community - the study group gets locked inside "The Kentucky Fried Chicken Eleven Herbs and Space Experience" which both serves as KFC advertising and pokes fun at their wacky PR stunts.
posted by Behemoth, in no. 302-bis, with the Browning at 9:38 AM on December 7, 2020 [11 favorites]

I hope there is a series of cameos from Reba McEntire, Jim Gaffigan, Billy Zane, Rob Lowe, et al. Everyone who've played the Colonel!
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:55 AM on December 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

Into the Chickenverse
posted by mazola at 10:23 AM on December 7, 2020 [17 favorites]

It makes me very happy on a number of different levels that this exists.

Because none of the parties involved seem to be taking themselves too seriously. It looks funny.

I wish this mini-movie was twice as long as its rumored 15 minutes.
posted by Constance Mirabella at 10:23 AM on December 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

Ooh, eleven herbs and spiciness.
posted by Servo5678 at 10:31 AM on December 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

KFC Japan chicken keyboard/mouse/earrings contest (2014).
posted by user92371 at 10:53 AM on December 7, 2020

Also part of the Kentucky Fried Chickenmatic Universe: 11 Herbs & Spices Firelog.
posted by oulipian at 10:56 AM on December 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

So this is amazing for various reasons but the biggest surprise to me.. Does Lifetime usually do murder plots in their stories? It seems a bit.. edgy.. for them.
posted by Nelson at 11:11 AM on December 7, 2020

Look, there were a ton of unmade Quibi shows, they need to find a home somewhere
posted by Cash4Lead at 11:53 AM on December 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

As much as I enjoy their creative advertising, I just wish their chicken was anything I wanted to eat.

Maybe this is all about overcoming the "sadness bowl" diss from Patton Oswalt.
posted by emjaybee at 12:01 PM on December 7, 2020

Tabatha Southey on Twitter:

Wait. How is this real? How is this not a @ChuckTingle book? How is this not “Pounded in the Butt By Eleven Handsome Herbs and Spices”?
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:15 PM on December 7, 2020 [10 favorites]

> fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit: "I hope there is a series of cameos from Reba McEntire, Jim Gaffigan, Billy Zane, Rob Lowe, et al. Everyone who've played the Colonel!"

Probably not Darrell Hammond, though. Apparently, they never told him about the campaign's concept until he got replaced. He thought he was going to be the Colonel Sanders for the long run, not merely the first in a series of celebrities to put on the white suit.
posted by mhum at 12:22 PM on December 7, 2020

I'm just being amused at the thought that ol' Harlan has to be hitting 50k RPM with how he's been portrayed as of late.

I don't think it would have bothered him - he wore that goofy white Kentucky Colonel outfit for years.

On the other hand, he was obsessive about quality. He would show up at franchises out of the blue and order a meal, and if it wasn't right he'd shut them down and make everybody go back into the kitchen to see how it should be done. He'd be pissed at how things have changed there.
posted by InfidelZombie at 12:24 PM on December 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Does Lifetime usually do murder plots in their stories? It seems a bit.. edgy.. for them.
Lifetime was at one time the reigning monarch of what was known as the "misery porn" genre, where the protagonist (usually a woman) would get marched through a parade of horribles. This was so bad that the tagine of Original Lifetime Movie became shorthand for "this is a movie where the woman is going to be brutalized over and over as a twisted morality play", a point that would get skewered in pop culture.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:39 PM on December 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

Chicken chicken chicken, chicken chicken.
posted by roue at 12:42 PM on December 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Presumably the sequel will be called Doubledown
posted by Jon_Evil at 1:08 PM on December 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

I just hope it's better than I Married a Clown: The Tiffany McDonald Story.
posted by PlusDistance at 1:18 PM on December 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

At 15 minutes this is barely into infomercial territory much less a "mini-movie". It's hard to imagine how much more we're going to get versus what's in the trailer.
posted by GuyZero at 1:33 PM on December 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

What's that thing called when a corporation does everything imaginable to improve its position, short of making a better product?
posted by theory at 2:11 PM on December 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

What's that thing called when a corporation does everything imaginable to improve its position, short of making a better product?

Capitalism.
posted by NoxAeternum at 2:34 PM on December 7, 2020 [18 favorites]

He'd be pissed at how things have changed there.

So I tried to go to our local KFC/A&W last year, before Covid. I went about 11:30am on a Saturday. Completely closed, dark, no sign on the door. Had they closed? Later I learned via Yelp this is normal; this particular franchise makes no effort to be open when they say they are.

Or to necessarily have chicken available. Or when they do, to cook the chicken. Or to get the chicken order correct. Apparently no one cleans the floors or tables or order counter either. You'd think the problem would just be the teenage minimum wage staff, but apparently it's the manager who's the real terror. I won't even mention the food poisoning stories.

I've never seen a Yelp page so consistently full of 1 star reviews, for years. I thought part of the promise of franchise restaurants was some sort of centralized quality control. You know, functioning capitalism. Apparently not so much with this particular California KFC.

I sure wish we had a Popeye's.
posted by Nelson at 2:38 PM on December 7, 2020

If all ads were like this I would turn off my adblockers in an instant.
posted by mundo at 3:19 PM on December 7, 2020

KFC abuses animals and Mario Lopez is a vocal transphobe. Just sayin’.
posted by Skwirl at 3:54 PM on December 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

* less snarkily, KFC has made some token attempts to reform and Lopez has rolled back his worst comments, but there are so many awesome and wholesome and silly things to celebrate in the world and Pepsi Blue Chicken is way down on the bottom of the list for me
posted by Skwirl at 4:00 PM on December 7, 2020 [4 favorites]

it's a vast improvement over the usual Original Lifetime Movie

We'll call this one the Extra Crispy Lifetime Movie, then.
posted by hanov3r at 4:10 PM on December 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

At 15 minutes this is barely into infomercial territory much less a "mini-movie". It's hard to imagine how much more we're going to get versus what's in the trailer.

Between this, marketing departments' irresistible urges to put all the surprises in the trailers, and the long reign of Quibi, I am sure that soon we will see trailers with longer runtimes than the movies they promote.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:44 PM on December 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

KFC and Uber Eats are offering a special promotion in conjunction with the film -- six free extra crispy tenders with a purchase of $20 or more -- that will be available between December 13-19 via the mobile food delivery app.

Seeing this in an FPP above the fold makes me feel gross.
posted by miguelcervantes at 6:28 PM on December 7, 2020 [8 favorites]

Next Mefi meet up will be in Lake Edna. Russ Beeler will even give us free biscuits.
posted by dr_dank at 7:08 PM on December 7, 2020

I just thought it was a funny thing to come across today. I was not aware of Lopez's transphobia or KFC's animal practices. I'm not a frequent poster, so I apologize if I didn't do the above the fold thing correctly. I did not mean to make any one feel gross or anything and I'm sorry if I made anyone uncomfortable.
posted by toastyk at 10:00 PM on December 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed the post, thanks for sharing it! The trailer made me laugh. I think it reflects the craziness of 2020, Lifetime movies, and modern advertising.
posted by mundo at 11:25 PM on December 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Pounded in the Ass By The Viral Marketing of a Large Multinational Corporation Actually Known As Yum Brands
posted by benzenedream at 1:25 AM on December 8, 2020 [8 favorites]

Mario Lopez has never seen a check he could not cash.
posted by tristeza at 2:19 PM on December 8, 2020