Ad of the Day: KFC Makes the Holidays a Little Less Horrible With a Musical Extravaganza

For all the earnest and sappy Christmas ads out there, there's a countervailing trend toward presenting a more realistic view of the holiday season—i.e., that it's actually a very stressful time of year. This can make for good comedy, of course, and over in Britain, KFC has produced this year's grandest seasonal piss-take—a two-and-a-half-minute musical extravaganza that recommends uniting with yuletide enemies over a bucket of chicken and eating your holiday cares away. The spot, from BBH London and Biscuit Filmworks director Tim Godsall, opens with a showdown in a store between angry moms. "I almost tore your hair out for the last doll in the store," one sings. "But the things that once divided us don't matter anymore," the other one sings in reply. And we're off on a grandiose musical journey, as traditional holiday foes (carolers and carolees, snowballers and snowballees, Santa Claus and incontinent children) put aside their differences and bond over the soothing comfort of 11 herbs and spices. It's all amusingly goofy and completely over the top—even the lip-syncing at times seems intentionally bad. (And to an American audience, the British pronunciation of "herbs" only adds to the comedy.) Yet the song is catchy enough to tie it all together—it's parody, yes, but also genuinely infectious. And the spot has quite the impressive finale, as the KFC Choir appears (no, really, you can follow them on Twitter) to belt out the chorus one last time. "We wanted to make something that stood out from a lot of ads you come to expect this time of year," says David Kolbusz, deputy executive creative director at BBH (which, showing its range, also did the stately and elaborately choreographed Baileys Christmas ad). "The trick was to address the reality of unavoidable yuletide stress and conflict without depressing people. We decided the best way to do this was through the medium of song. A schmaltzy, sugar-coated song." There's a nice social tie-in, too. All this week, people are encouraged to tweet about someone they'd like to make peace with this Christmas—using the hashtag #UniteThisXmas. The winning tweeter will have his or her conflict resolved by starring in a new commercial that will air Dec. 14 on the finale of Britain's version of The X Factor. The song is also available for purchase on iTunes, although that's really superfluous, since it will be in your head for the rest of the day regardless. CREDITS Client: KFC Jennelle Tilling, Vice President, Marketing Meghan Farren, Marketing Director Agency: BBH London Deputy Executive Creative Director: David Kolbusz Copywriters: David Kolbusz, Matt Moreland Art Directors: David Kolbusz, Chris Clarke Creative Director: Marc Hatfield Producer: Rachel Hough Assistant Producer: Vaia Ikonomou Strategic Business Lead: Sian Cook Team Director: Phil Baker Team Manager: Leo Sloley Strategy Director: Ross Berthinussen Strategist: John Jones Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks Director: Tim Godsall Managing Director: Shawn Lacy Executive Producer: Orlando Wood Producer: Amy Appleton Production Manager: Nicola Dempsey Director of Photography: David Procter Postproduction: Electric Theatre Collective Visual Effects Supervisor: Giles Cheetham Telecine: Aubrey Woodiwiss Post Producer: Matt Williams Editing House: Final Cut Editor: Rick Russell Music Supervision: The Most Radicalist Black Sheep Music Artist: The Hot Sauce Posse Sound: String and Tins Sound Designer: Will Cohen

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Ad of the Day: KFC Makes the Holidays a Little Less Horrible With a Musical Extravaganza

BBH's Christmas spot

Tim Nudd

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Tim Nudd