You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …
The Product:
Crocs that look like buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken
…
Yes, seriously.
The Promotion:
The Pitch:
Fulfill the dream of sticking your foot into a bucket full of chicken fresh out of the fryer, without any of the unsightly blisters.
Not since we covered the Poo Pouri commercial has there been such a need to clarify that, yes, this a real ad for a real product.
Granted, it’s not surprising that shoes shaped like buckets of fried chicken exist. Online shopping has taught us all that there’s a lot of niche products out there that we might never have thought there’d be a market for. But I’d expect them to be a bespoke item, or something made by a cheap novelty company.
Instead, this is major shoe brand Crocs partnering with major restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken to create something that looks like you’re wearing two buckets of KFC on your feet. And not even just look like it – according to some research, these shoes were also designed to smell like the Colonel’s chicken.
And they don’t just make a few to hand out as a kitschy promotional item – they put serious cash into advertising these using popular Korean rapper MLMA, and put these shoes on the open market … and sold out in record time.
(Though the YouTube comments indicate the version of the shoes you could order didn’t come with platforms like in the ad, which kind of ruins the whole bucket iconography.)
It just seems so strange – but maybe it shouldn’t be, coming from Kentucky Fried Chicken. This is the same company that commissioned a Colonel Sanders romance movie from Lifetime and released a Colonel Sanders dating sim. I shouldn’t put any sort of bizarre advertising past them.
If one of America’s Presidential candidates this Fall turns out to be a Colonel Sanders impersonator advocating a World Peace Thru KFC platform, I’ll only be a little surprised.