Guest blog post by Nick Harrison

The question lately has been if KFC’s new double decker sandwich will kill you. So will it? Of course not! But Nick, you’re likely saying, with the calories and fat content it is surely a cardiac arrest wrapped in paper…right? Nope!

Let me explain. It won’t kill you because only a small percentage of you will actually eat it. If you look between the lines, the point of launching the new sandwich was not to sell the sandwich itself.

Okay, okay, more explanation.

The point of the ad was to get you thinking about Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), not to sell their new product. This is the true brilliance of affective marketing and advertising. The advertisement was a slight of hand magic trick . The proof is in the buttermilk.

By creating a sandwich compiled with two strips of fried chicken in between bacon and cheese, KFC was able to create enough SPIN and Internet buzz to get everyone talking about KFC without them really having to spend a whole lot of money. They didn’t have to because everyone did the work for them. We talked and talked about it. There are a lot of discussions regarding viral videos, well, this is viral advertising.

KFC simply made a product (The Double Down) that was so outrageous that we had to talk about it. We had no choice. We had to write about it because it was crazy. Effective advertising isn’t just about your ad budget, it is about how effective your results can be within that budget.

Sure, some people will buy the Double Down sandwich, but it made us all talk about KFC and right now I really want some regular fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and a biscuit. There is one about two miles from here. Hmmmmm.

Gini’s note: This goes back to last week’s discussion about the Nike/Tiger Woods ad. I know A LOT of people disagreed with me, but I still believe it was brilliant because it did just what Nick describes here…it got us talking and put Nike top-of-mind with consumers around the world. I’d love to know if Nike and KFC saw an increase in sales or if these are purely examples of great brand awareness.