KFC’s 2005 “Singing Soul” advert turned a call-centre lunch break into a full-mouthed singalong.
Created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, it showed the headset-wearing workers singing while eating. Subtitles translated their muffled lyrics, including the line “These tortilla chips are delish”.
The advert received 1,671 complaints, then a record for the Advertising Standards Authority. The complaints were not upheld, and the advert was neither banned nor censured.
History
Created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, it showed the headset-wearing workers singing while eating. Subtitles translated their muffled lyrics, including the line “These tortilla chips are delish”.
History
The advert received 1,671 complaints, then a record for the Advertising Standards Authority. The complaints were not upheld, and the advert was neither banned nor censured.
Significance
The full-mouthed singing drew complaints that it encouraged bad table manners among children. Other objections concerned choking risks, its portrayal of emergency-service workers and alleged mockery of people with speech impediments. Its complaint total remained the ASA’s all-time record in a 2012 retrospective before three campaigns surpassed it in 2014.
Despite the record complaint total, the ASA found no grounds to ban or censure the advert.
Broadcast and Campaign Timeline
- The advert was on British television by late April 2005; a 5 May report said it had been airing for just over a week.
- Marketing Week reported that the execution went off air on 13 May 2005 and that KFC had no plans to repeat it.
- The reason it went off air was not established, and the ASA did not order its removal.
The “Singing Soul” Execution
- Three women at an emergency call centre sang about the Zinger Crunch Salad while wearing telephone headsets.
- The ASA said their bulging cheeks suggested full mouths without explicitly showing food inside them.
- The execution formed part of KFC’s musical “serving up soul” campaign, in which people in its advertising world were imagined as soul singers.
Complaints and Ruling
- The final official total was 1,671 complaints, the highest received by the ASA for an advert at that time.
- The ASA recorded the complaints as not upheld; the advert was neither banned nor censured.
- The total still held the ASA record in its 2012 retrospective, before three campaigns surpassed it in 2014.
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Key facts
**Region:** United Kingdom
**Associated With:** KFC - advertiser; Bartle Bogle Hegarty - advertising agency
**Defining Feature:** Call-centre workers singing with their mouths full as subtitles translated the lyrics
**Status:** Discontinued - went off air on 13 May 2005, with no repeat planned
Images are included for historical and archival reference.
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Displayed for commentary and research. Fair dealing under the UK CDPA 1988 applies only where its conditions are met. No permission for reuse is granted.
Caption
Call-centre workers sing with their mouths full in KFC’s 2005 Zinger Crunch Salad advert, with subtitles translating their muffled lyrics.
Displayed for commentary and research. Fair dealing under the UK CDPA 1988 applies only where its conditions are met. No permission for reuse is granted.
Caption
A worker warns her colleague about getting Zinger Chicken on her blouse in KFC’s 2005 advert.
Displayed for commentary and research. Fair dealing under the UK CDPA 1988 applies only where its conditions are met. No permission for reuse is granted.
Caption
Another worker joins the lunchtime singalong, with subtitles turning her muffled words into a complaint about salsa stains.
Displayed for commentary and research. Fair dealing under the UK CDPA 1988 applies only where its conditions are met. No permission for reuse is granted.
Caption
ASA report entry records 1,671 complaints about KFC’s call-centre advert as not upheld.
