KFC TV Spot, 'The Real Colonel Sanders' Featuring Norm Macdonald

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An imposter Colonel Sanders, played by Darrell Hammond, is snickering on TV. Saturday Night Live alumnus Norm Macdonald is replacing him as the new Colonel. The real Colonel Sanders is back and he is here to tell you about the KFC $20 Family Fill Up Meal. It is a treasure chest of home style cooking for the whole family, but don't worry it is served in containers rather than actual treasure chests.

iSpot Review - August 18, 2015

Darrell Hammond, who briefly played Colonel Sanders, has been replaced by another Saturday Night Live alum, Norm MacDonald. Hammond's depiction of Colonel Sanders was met with criticism early, with many complaining that the Colonel appeared a bit creepy and out of touch. After committing to a campaign of ads with Hammond's Sanders, KFC realized that they needed to swap out Hammond with someone else to serve as the face of the franchise.

The ad itself immediately addresses the dismissal of Hammond at the beginning of the advertisement. Viewers watch and listen to the Hammond version of Colonel Sanders on television, complete with awkward, gleeful cackle. Norm MacDonald stands up from his desk after watching his impostor on television and declares for himself, that he is the real Colonel Sanders, complete with playful shrug and wink. This small gesture done by Norm MacDonald is an acknowledgement towards the spokesperson swap. There's even an entirely different ad titled, 'Celebrity Colonel' to address the sudden swap of comedians.

Months of planning went into developing Hammond's character of Colonel Sanders along with his bevy of ads they shot for KFC's 75^th Anniversary. It's interesting to see a company pull the plug on someone they think won't be a proper fit and have them replaced. Even more interesting is to see a company abandon their campaign and go with a different direction in such a short amount of time. It'll be interesting in the next few months to see how viewers respond to the switching of spokespersons and if MacDonald's version of Colonel Sanders will be more liked than Hammond's version.