By Malay Desai
From: Ogilvy & Mather India, Delhi; Nomad Films
The animated film, produced to resemble a silent classic, tells the tale of a non-vegetarian burger falling in love with a vegetarian one. As he makes his move to win her over, he is hit by a partition and realises they can never meet. The subsequent animations explain how the brand ensures veg and non-veg don’t mix by having separate kitchens, chefs, utensils and ingredients. The film comes at a time when the brand has launched a ‘Paneer Zinger’ burger and has tweaked its tagline to say ‘So Veg So Good!’
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How to stop this paneerfication?’ asked a prominent tweeter on a day KFC India was promoting the launch of its Paneer Zinger burger. Amidst jokes and the massive irony that Kentucky Fried ‘Chicken’ was hardselling a paneer burger, the brand’s social efforts, boosted by ambassador Vir Das’s efforts, managed a buzz. The larger goal, however, is something this web film is out to achieve.
In a culture where QSR outlets that serve both vegetarian and nonvegetarian food get regular complaints (sometimes, legal notices) from strict vegetarians, it is imperative to keep kitchens separate. Sure, McDonald’s has served both sorts of diners well but here’s a newer brand, associated with the iconic Chicken Zinger burger and meaty wings. To drill home the ‘we’re careful’ message will directly lead to building trust among pure vegetarians and subsequently get sizeable business.
A web film, animated at that, is a value-for-money choice, for it offers the canvas to flesh out the message without costing dearly. O&M and the film company have pulled out much creativity here; we like the usage of the red and green dots (denoting non-veg and veg according to law) as eyes on the impersonated burgers.
The 115-seconder has been given no dialogue and has been treated with the silent film method, one-line plot turns appearing in-between the action. With emotive music and relevant animations, the message rolls out just right – and the paneer-lover knows this brand promises to keep its chefs, utensils and even ingredients separate. It’s almost a public service message, but carries the musthave comic dose for it to spread virally.
Having made a rough debut in 1995 (when a police van was stationed outside the Bangalore outlet for a whole year to handle protests!) and faced repeated inconveniences by anti-consumerist and vegetarian groups, KFC seems to now have forced its way to our cities with over 300 outlets.
It is however a long way from winning over all vegetarians a la McDonald’s and will need more than web films to further build the trust... this while continuing to advertise its chicken products! Hope they are treating their agency with unlimited Zingers of both kinds.
(To watch this film, feed this link into your browser ~ bit.ly/ViewTubeMay26and to browse through KFC’s Twitter campaign, look up #KFCpaneerzinger)
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