I’ve talked about fast food restaurants needlessly reviving dated characters in hopes of making them modern. It seems to be a huge trend in advertising. If they can reboot a movie, why can’t they reboot a commercial?
McDonald’s inexplicably brought back the Hamburglar this month with a series of bad advertisements that put a damper on his revival. Well, it’s KFC’s turn to bring back a former (sort of) mascot, as Colonel Sanders returns. This time, he’s a kooky old man who hates having too many pockets on his cargo pants.
Here’s the first spot, in which the Colonel addresses being back.
Wonderful.
The first thing which flew through my mind when watching this was, “Wow, that guy looks exactly like Darrell Hammond from SNL,” and lo and behold it’s actually him. They actually got renowned impressionist, and current SNL introduction narrator Darrel Hammond to play Colonel Sanders. The whole thing feels like a bad Saturday Night Live sketch that was cut because it wasn’t funny. To get somebody who has made a career out of respectfully mocking people to play someone so iconic to the company strikes me as strange. Plus, while he’s dressed like the Colonel of old, he doesn’t really sound or look like him.
The second ad is a little bit better, as it features a singing Hammond walking around the streets of America with a bucket of chicken in his hands.
The out of key, non-rhyming flow of the song actually works in this one. I can see why they got Hammond, if they’re going to try to go full comedy with his take on the Colonel. Still, it’s weird and a strange take on the character. It’s a parody of sorts, but I can see some people not getting that.
Oh well, I’m happy to see Hammond working again, even if it’s as a character I’m sure he’s probably parodied on SNL before. Hopefully, like Hammond, these commercials get weird.
