A cricket anthem about buckets? Ok then, KFC

Context is key in so much advertising, and never more so, it seems, than in a new KFC campaign, created by Ogilvy to kick-off cricket season in Australia.

A kids’ choir sings ‘hole in my bucket’ in stirring, anthemic manner. Cue camera panning to other children, cricketers and people putting green and yellow—Australia sporting colours for the uninitiated—KFC buckets on their heads. Then someone yells ‘dinner’ and they promptly take them off and go home to eat KFC.

Oh, and there’s some jolly garden cricket in the middle, so you get that it’s about, well, cricket.

Context, I hear you cry over your fervent head-scratching. Well quite.

This is the newest instalment of KFC’s ‘Home Cricket Ground’ (HCG) theme, which first launched at the start of the 2014-2015 cricket season. It has been extremely popular, and somewhat organically the bizarre antic of putting on KFC buckets as helmets grew from cricket fans themselves.

“We couldn’t believe how this organic movement took off, and we wanted to come back this year bigger and better and make it an official movement,” said Angela Richards, KFC Australia CMO.

Ah, we breathe a sigh of relief. In context then, this makes a lot of sense. Or more sense, at any rate.

The campaign doesn’t stop at the ad either: fans are encouraged to upload buckethead pictures on social media and win prizes. There’s also a chatbot to interact with.

It certainly looks nice, and by KFCs own very self-aware admission, it’s a “silly Buckethead uniform”. Quite what it has to do with cricket I’m still at a loss to really explain, but I guess it’s one of those things that’s better in person.

CREDITS

KFC
Angela Richards, CMO
Sally Spriggs, marketing director, group meals and brand
Nora-Kate O’Connell, marketing manager, group meals and sponsorships
Belinda Thompson, brand manage,r group meals

Ogilvy Sydney
Shaun Branagan, group creative director
Lewis Aramayo, copywriter
Simon Dalla Pozza, art director
Alison Chambers, senior agency producer
Ryan O'Connell, head of strategy
Cassie Poiner, group account director
Kate Smith, account director
Ellen Corr, account manager
Jennifer Ngai, social strategist

Ogilvy X
Rey Carlson, director
Rob Spencer, executive producer
Nat McNamara, producer
Geoffrey Hall, DOP
Tom Churchill-Brown, art director
Michael Houlahan, editor
Andrew Clarkson, grader
Hugh Seville, online

Ogilvy Sydney
Michelle Holland, managing partner
Jason Smith, creative technology lead
Sonny Nguyen, senior digital designer
Gina Hughes, CX lead
Paola Pellagra, digital designer
Oriane Veron, digital producer

Ogilvy PR
Stephen Maher, account director
Madeleine Hanley, senior account manager

Media agency
MediaCom Australia