COLONEL WHO?

Our cultural connection to Colonel Sanders seems
to have been lost in the deep-fryer of time.
Colonel Harland Sanders, the goateed founder of  
KFC known for his white suits, string ties and
"finger-lickin' good" punch line, would have turned
120 years old this past Thursday. (More after the break)


But young adults don't know him from beans. More
than six in 10 Americans ages 18 to 25 — the
chain's key demographic — couldn't identify him in
the KFC logo, according to a survey last week by the
chain.
Worse, five in 10 believe he's a made-up icon and
three in 10 haven't a clue who he was.
That's why KFC is taking action. The world's
largest chicken chain, with 15,000 outlets in 109
countries, has unleashed an online PR blitz aimed at
bringing the Facebook generation eye-to-eye with
the venerable colonel.
"As time has gone by, the younger generation didn't
get to see and experience him like other generations
did" in ads and personal appearances, says
spokeswoman Laurie Schalow. "We plan to celebrate
the fact that our founder was a real person."
KFC will be using its Facebook presence, Twitter,  
MySpace, the KFC website and other digital outreach
to introduce them to Sanders and prod them to
create and upload a piece of art that could become a
painting to hang (temporarily) next to the famous  
Norman Rockwell painting of Sanders at the
company's headquarters in Louisville.The image confusion is in part KFC's own doing.
In the past few decades, it ping-ponged back-and-
forth from fried-chicken-maker to grilled chicken
specialist. In the logo, it put the colonel in a red
apron instead of his iconic white suit. And it turned
its Kentucky Fried Chicken name into KFC.
"I wonder if most kids know what the initials KFC
stand for?" poses brand guru Steven Addis. "It's just
an alphabet soup now."
But Addis likes it that KFC is now essentially fessing
up.
"It's a desperate but smart act to re-educate a
generation," he says. "It's a clever way to embrace
the problem rather than hide from it."
On a vaguely similar but much larger scale,
Domino's late last year tossed out its pizza formula
and mocked itself in ads that conceded the old pizza
tasted like cardboard. Sales zoomed.
For KFC, it's been a rough year domestically. KFC's
same-store sales fell 7% in the U.S. in the second
quarter, facing a difficult comparison with the same
quarter in 2009 when a new grilled chicken product
was launched.
KFC has basically stopped growing in the U.S., and
almost all growth is pegged to come internationally
in 2010.
Now, KFC's trying to paint a new picture — actually
asking its core consumers to paint it for them.
Through Sept. 30, artists can upload their sketches
of the colonel at kfc.com/portrait.
The winning artist will receive $1,100 ($100 for
each of the 11 herbs and spices used for the
Colonel's Original Recipe chicken) and get to paint a
new portrait of the colonel.
One last twist: The artist will be using paint into
which KFC has blended the secret 11 ingredients.