KFC America to advertise burgers on sweatpants
KFC has added a new medium to the advertising for its controversial Double Down burger, with an announcement that the company will recruit female university students to wear sweatpants with advertising printed on the rump.
The KFC Double Down burger, not available in Australia, is a burger without the bun, featuring bacon, cheese and special sauce between two chicken fillets. The creation, introduced in April this year, has triggered something of a love-hate sensation in the US, with health advocates slamming the sandwich, but sales hitting 10 million before the end of its original month-long trial.
The fried Double Down clocks in at 540 calories, 290 of those from fat. A grilled version is slightly lower, at 480 calories, but makes up with 1760mg of salt – the second saltiest item on the entire menu. A second sodium figure for the grilled Double Down – 1430mg – is also published on the KFC website.
The burgers contain respectively 10g and 9g of saturated fat – more than an entire ‘value box’ of KFC’s extra-crispy chicken thighs. The only thing on KFC’s American menu that beats out the Double Down consistently on calories, salt and saturated fat is – oddly – the mashed potato with gravy.
The new plan takes ‘ladvertising’ strategies to a new extreme, with KFC paying each ‘human billboard’ $500 to hand out KFC vouchers at ‘select colleges’. It is not clear on what basis KFC will select its new brand ambassadors.
“It’s hard to imagine anyone escaped the buzz of the Double Down earlier this year,” said John Cywinski, Chief Marketing and Food Innovation Officer for KFC. “But in an effort to reach consumers coast-to-coast, and especially our key target of young men, we’ve established yet another advertising first – one that’s fitting of the Double Down’s head-turning history.”
Obviously, and Heaven forbid it ever happens, if the Colonel decides to intro this product to Australia it would have to be marketed as “The Double Down-Under”!
May present a few problems for them but shapely girls in red “Hot Pants” at the
Melbourne Cup could cause quite a stir with the white print on their butts.