Analysis of KFC's Clean Eating Burger Ad Campaign

This essay analyzes the purpose and success of KFC's Clean Eating Burger ad campaign, which was a marketing ploy to promote the Dirty Louisiana burger. The ad uses contrasting images and colors to motivate customers to go for the more joyful options. The targeted audience for the ad are young and adult groups who are into fast food and like burgers. The ad campaign was a huge success and received thousands of likes and shares on social media.

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Analysis of ad
Advertising is an effective and interesting way businesses communicate with their
customers and educate them about their services and products. The purpose is not just to
influence and motivate the targeted customers to buy their products but also educate them about
the latest products and services that are better and useful to them. The essay makes an analysis of
the “KFC’s "Clean Eating Burger” (Dustin) and the purpose and success of the ad campaign.
Companies often promote a particular aspect of their products by placing two contrasting views
or images in front of their customers and motivate them to buy what looks attractive and better.
The contrasts may be based on color, ideas or position.
Image Source:“KFC's "Clean Eating Burger”, thrillist, Dustin Nelson, , 3 March Sep. 2017, <
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/kfc-clean-eating-burger-publicity-stunt-prank-dirty-
lousiana>.

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KFC's "Clean Eating Burger
The social media campaign launched by KFC showed a chia-seeded cauliflower bun with
unsweetened almond yogurt and 100% British kale along with a spiralized chicken breast. KFC
claimed that the cauliflower bun ad was created in association with "Figgy Poppleton-Rice,” the
clean-eating food bloggers (O'reillyfeb). The Clean Eating Burger shows a healthy-looking
cauliflower sliced in half. The pale chicken breast shredding contrast nicely with the fresh green
kale. Some ice cubes lie splatter across the wooden table. The image looks clean and gives the
idea of a very healthy looking burger.
Advertising is for everybody and everybody and every age group. However, every
advertisement has a certain targeted audience it tries to focus on. The targeted audience includes
a particular group of demographics where people are differentiated based on their age or where
they live or their interests and requirements (Lotame). The advertisement and marketing
campaigns are created based on the targeted audience. The targeted audience for the KFC's
"Clean Eating Burger” are both the young and the adult group who are into fast food and like
burgers. However, the KFC's "Clean Eating Burger ad was a marketing ploy used to launch
another burger, the Dirty Louisiana burger.
At first glance, it might look that KFC has introduced a new burger and is motivating
people towards healthy eating. However, the burger is not real and was just a publicity stunt to
draw the attention of the public towards the other campaign the objective of which was to
promote the Dirty Louisiana burger in the UK (Nelson). The new burger was just the opposite of
the bland cauliflower burger and was as unhealthy or dirty it could get with two layers of cheese,

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chicken fillet, hash brown, three sauces, and cucumbers. Thus, by showing the other extreme of
the fake cauliflower king, KFC motivates its customers to go for the Dirty Louisiana burger.
Color can influence the thoughts and feelings of consumers as the new understanding
based on visual cognition and many disciplines convey (Labrecque, Patrick and Milne 188).
Color perception plays an essential role in the field of marketing. It is evident how the KFC’s
Clean Eating Burger makes use of colors to show the contrast between two products and
influence its customers.
KFC’s Clean Eating Burger ad is apparently made with an intention to ridicule the joyless
food and motivate its customers to enjoy the good things in life, and good food is part of it. The
company sends the message that life is too short and one should enjoy and make the most of it.
By showing the pale colors of the cauliflower and boiled chicken breast, the company motivates
its customers to go for the good things in life like the Dirty Louisiana burger loaded with cheese,
chicken fillet, and a hash brown. This is the sauciest burger ever from KFC.
Marketing strategists make good use of the social media and viral content to grab more
viewership. Apparat from the content and what goes inside the ad, the viral videos and posts turn
out to add a hidden power to any advertisement (Lansdown). The ad campaign was a huge
success and received thousands of likes and shares on social media. The main video was viewed
about 10 million times as KFC also sold out the Dirty Lousiana (Creative Review). Those figures
show that the ad was a highly successful one and drew the attention of the customers who
through that KFC is using boiled meats and raw veggies in place of its famous fried chicken in
buns.

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To conclude on the discussion of the ad, it is evident that KFC’s Clean Eating Burger ad
is an excellent example of the use of contrasting images in ads and motivate the customers to go
for the more joyful options. The ad sends the message that food should look good and juicy and
should be enjoyed not feared.

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Works Cited
Creative Review. “Great Work: BBH’s Clean Eating Burger campaign for KFC.” Centaur
Communications Ltd, 12 May. 2017, Web. 17 Sep. 2018 <
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/great-work-bbh-clean-eating-burger-kfc/>.
Lansdown Sarah. “KFC's 'Clean Eating Burger' Is Making A Lot Of People Confused.” WebMD,
24 Feb. 2017, Web. 17 Sep. 2018
<https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/02/23/kfcs-clean-eating-burger-is-making-a-
lot-of-people-confused_a_21720648/>.
Lotame. “Importance of Target Audiences & How to Find Your Target Audience.” WebMD, 3
May. 2018, Web. 17 Sep. 2018 < https://www.lotame.com/finding-target-audience/ >.
Labrecque, Lauren I., Vanessa M. Patrick, and George R. Milne. "The Marketers’ Prismatic
Palette: A Review of Color Research and Future Directions." Psychology & Marketing,
vol. 30, no. 2, 2013, pp. 187-202.
Nelson, Dustin. “Kfc's "Clean Eating Burger" Tricked a Whole Lot of People.” thrillist, 3 March
Sep. 2017, Web. 17 Sep. 2018 < https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/kfc-clean-eating-
burger-publicity-stunt-prank-dirty-lousiana>.
O'reillyfeb, Lara. “It turns out KFC's 'clean-eating' cauliflower burger was a prank to launch a
much more traditional menu item instead.” WebMD, 28 Feb. 2017, Web. 17 Sep. 2018 <
https://www.businessinsider.in/It-turns-out-KFCs-clean-eating-cauliflower-burger-was-a-
prank-to-launch-a-much-more-traditional-menu-item-instead/articleshow/
57392991.cms>.

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