RoboCop Colonel Sanders Has Arrived to Threaten People With Kentucky Fried Chicken | Eater
"A new ad campaign reimagines the brand’s white-haired mascot as a chrome-plated RoboCop, voiced by the original 1980s actor Peter Weller, placing the cyborg-Colonel in surreal, tongue-in-cheek scenarios — including defending the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices from a nuclear bunker in Stockholm. One spot has the mechanical figure offering a family a $20 Fill Up and demanding compliance; another shows him at a dinner party deflecting questions about the recipe with “If I told you, then I’d have to kill you,” followed by a mechanical laugh; a third has him scanning city streets for all-white-meat $5 Full Ups instead of criminals. The campaign leans into weird, nostalgic remix culture and self-aware manipulation of references, a striking contrast given RoboCop’s original film was a bloody, Christ-allegory satire of Reagan-era consumerism and corporate power. This effort continues a pattern of celebrities adopting the Colonel persona (including Reba McEntire, Jim Gaffigan, Rob Lowe, Billy Zane, Ray Liotta and Norm Macdonald) and reflects the brand’s corporate context as part of Yum! Brands, with historical ties to PepsiCo." - Brenna Houck
