KFC’s new Norm MacDonald ad campaign: vast improvement or desperate new direction?

KFC just introduced a major plot twist in its resurrection of Colonel Sanders.

No word on why- or even if – Hammond was replaced, but the first couple ads have had Norm clarifying that he is the real Colonel Sanders and Hammond was an impostor.

It’s a confusing switch-up and KFC treats it with a fitting mix of tongue-in-cheek knowingness and enigmatic ambiguity.

Kevin Hochamn, KFC US chief marketing officer, says that Norm was “the flawless choice to play the Real Colonel”.

It’s hard to tell what people actually thought of the new take on the famously friendly southern gentleman.

Initial responses to Macdonald through social media were mostly negative, as many who offered feedback referred to the campaign as disrespectful or a slap in the face, noting that the real Harland Sanders died in 1980. The CEO of KFC parent company Yum Brands, Greg Creed, said one out of five people hated the Hammond ad campaign. Brands, said at a conference in New York shortly after the original debut that he is glad that the new Colonel is polarizing.

The restaurant is apparently in on the joke that there seems to be a SNL-to-KFC pipeline, and has formed their new ad campaign entirely around the situation.

Now I don’t know if this is KFC switching horses mid-stream, or some sort of weird meta-verse they’re building, but Norm Macdonald is not only playing the Colonel in a new spot, but he’s specifically calling out Hammond’s performance. But he added that it was great news “because at least now they have an opinion”.