Posted on 01/26/2018 6:07:24 AM PST by EdnaMode
In commercials starting next week, the country star dons the Colonel's famous white suit and black tie.
The next Colonel Sanders is giving the character a little bit of "country music flair." KFC has picked singer Reba McEntire to play the founder of the fried chicken chain, the first female celebrity in the role.
In commercials starting next week, McEntire dons the Colonel's famous white suit and black tie, but with a twist.
McEntire's outfit has fringe on the back, and a glittery shine, giving the getup "a little bit of the country music flair," she told the Associated Press in an interview. McEntire sings onstage as the Colonel, with a white wig and white facial hair.
"I thought the transformation was really funny," said the singer, who will appear in the ads until the end of April. "I got a big kick out of it."
A rotating cast of famous names have portrayed the Colonel since 2015, but McEntire is the first famous female to do it, and the first musician. She may also be the first woman in KFC's nearly 90-year-history to depict the Colonel. The company said the "best historical minds at KFC" could not remember a woman having stepped into the role.
McEntire was approached about doing so in December. "I said, 'Holy smokes!,'" she told the Associated Press. "KFC has been a part of my life forever."
KFC said it picked McEntire because of her Southern roots, and to help promote its new Smoky Mountain BBQ, which combines fried chicken with a taste of barbeque. McEntire said she has eaten at KFC all her life, since her days growing up in Oklahoma.
She sings in the ad, in a tongue-in-cheek approach: "I'm Colonel Sanders, the same as always," McEntire croons. "I'm definitely not a woman." McEntire also appears as herself in the commercial, as an audience member.
Col. Harland Sanders, who died in 1980, first started selling fried chicken from a single restaurant in 1930. KFC, now owned by Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum Brands Inc., resurrected the Colonel for its ads in 2015 after a nearly 20-year absence, hiring Rob Lowe, Ray Liotta and other famous men for the role.
The ad was overseen by KFC's new chief marketing officer, Andrea Zahumensky, who is trying to continue a turnaround of the brand. "I think this is going to be our most-loved Colonel yet," she said.
Who’s gonna play the nice black lady who shared her recipe with him?
So KFC is marketing the Colonel as a cross dresser, drag queen or tranny? Is that correct?
This may be good. Looking forward to seeing it.
Yeah that’s what it looks like.
Their food sucks.
Never eat the stuff
Col. Sanders is a consumer product. It is what ever it needs to be to sell chicken.
Proof that some fast food execs are secretly ashamed of their product and customer base and to compensate they green-light moronic, bizarre ‘edgy’ ad campaigns pitched by whacked-out Manhattanites.
It’s widely known in music and TV circles that Reba is a cast iron bitch. They deserve her.
Well, if the suits at KFC are dumb enough to portray the Colonel as a sarcastic smart ass, then they will portray him as a woman.
11 herbs and spices and 9 of them are salt.
Now that Oprah’s told the world she will not seek the presidency in 2020, she would be available for a price. Free fried chicken for the rest of her life, maybe.
Well “new” Colonel Sanders. The current promo is with a different person being the Colonel for every commercial, usually decrying those awful fake Colonels in the other ads. Pretty funny series actually. I’m still not gonna eat their mediocre chicken, but the ads are fun.
KFC would go bankrupt with that deal.
they have to get Christopher Walken as a colonel.
Should have picked Hillary.
Two enormous thighs, two left-wings, and a tiny breast.
Much like an actual KFC meal.
Nahh, with white hair and beard the only guy for the job is Larry the Cable Guy. Down home humor type!
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