So, I open my Globe and Mail today and what do I see on A3?
The great military mastermind Colonel Sanders staring up at me from the Nevada desert.
The Globe doesn’t have the story online that I can see but a Reuters report on the latest ad gimmick can be found here. In a nutshell, KFC has placed a hectare-sized Sanders in the Nevada desert so it can be seen by aliens and Google Earth users.
The article does have some business section credibility, in that it explores the branding strategy of the fast-food franchise, but the headline and first few graphs deal only with the appeal of the southern gentleman’s visage to aliens everywhere. There’s even quotes from a KFC official saying things like “if there are extraterrestrials in outer space, KFC wants to become their restaurant of choice.”
Hardy har har, Globe and Mail, KFC certainly looks the fool!
Oh wait, except that you just gave away the prime real estate above the fold on A3 to an unpaid advertiser.
“Is the new face of chicken a secret recipe for success?” asks the Globe in its headline.
It would seem the answer is yes.
Part of what a newspaper needs to provide is public interest stories. Like it or not, sometimes ad campaigns and PR stunts fall into this category. From a business perspective, the only story is that it’s getting headlines. From a general interest perspective, there is much more news value… though the stories that have called it the “first ad visible from space” missed about five others that came before it.
I fail to see how a gigantic Colonel Sanders head is a public interest story.
I just don’t see the news value – though I’m open to being convinced it exists.
Wasn’t the departed Col. a Canadian? I know he was a rabbid Toronto Marlies fan.
The chain is now part of PepsiCo. (Try to order a coke at one.)
croghan27