Giving away cake, KFC takes the cake, too.
“My whole life, I’ve paid for chocolate cake!”
So says a senior no-nonsense football coach, refusing to accept a free cake being offered him, to a confused Col. Sanders’ consternation. The commercial says it’s free with a 10-piece meal.
Why I love it: Saw the commercial once, just now. In one showing, it caught my attention, within the first 10 seconds or so, clearly showed me what they were selling, and who the advertiser is, and made me feel good.
Granted, if I weren’t professionally curious to see who is playing the role of Col. Sanders this week (they seem to have used more actors than Law and Order), maybe I wouldn’t have paid attention so quickly. And, although I’m a sucker for any moist, gooey chocolate cake, I’m unlikely to visit KFC for more than my yearly treatbucket. I’m not even sure chocolate cake is a perfect desert match for fried chicken.
But as a commercial, it worked.
Most advertising relies on — and benefits from — repetition, but if you can do it quicker, so much the better. It leaves more in the budget to do even more.
I’ve always advocated storytelling. But now that everyone is a “storyteller,” are all these stories all that interesting? Are they even stories?
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About The Author
Randy Rensch
Randall (Randy) Rensch is a senior-level advertising copywriter who worked on-staff for several advertising agencies prior to becoming a full-time freelancer. Nowadays, freelance copywriters abound, but back when Randy turned to freelancing, he had to explain to many prospective clients that he was not between jobs, that he had really hung his shingle as an independent copywriter. Over the years, he has expanded the range of his experience to match the times, particularly in business-to-business marketplaces. He brings his imagination, analysis and results-oriented viewpoint to a wide variety of products and services. Based in New York City, he serves ad agencies, web developers and companies primarily in North America and Europe. Randy has maintained a balance between b-to-b and the consumer advertising where his career began. As important as specialization is to successful freelancing (he's heaviest in financial, technical, retail, online, collateral, direct and radio), the synergy resulting from a broad mix is very helpful to him and his clients. Randy's work on the "15-Minute Breakfast" campaign for International House of Pancakes won the American Marketing Association's Effie Award, given for effectiveness. Randy doesn't pursue awards, but has also earned other acknowledgements, and has been quoted in various books and publications on copywriting and the business of freelancing, including Complete Guide to Creating Successful Brochures (Gedney) and Marketing Essentials (Bickers). Randy has written for written for agencies and directly for marketers including IBM, Sony, T. Rowe Price, United Technologies, Citibank, International House of Pancakes, E.G. Smith, Legg Mason, Wunderman, SiteSell, and hundreds of smaller companies and ad agencies — even very small marketers, helping them become as big as they want to be. With this eclectic background, Randy continues to apply his skills to many kinds of business and consumer products and services, but he specializes in business-to-business, consumer and business financial, technological products and services, and retail (including online stores). He has also had some experience with medical products and services. Randy began his career as a staff copywriter at a radio station in the New York City market (a position he also held for awhile in local television.) Lately, in association with Edge Studio, a commercial recording studio and training facility, he has added narration and non-marketing articles to his repertoire. For samples and insights into Randy's work and the nature of advertising, visit www.rensch.com.
