Title	UNITED BY THE BUCKET
Brand	KFC
Product/Service	UNITED BY THE BUCKET - BRAND CAMPAIGN
Category	A03. Casting
Entrant	KFC NORTHERN EUROPE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	CLOUDFACTORY Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	PINK RABBIT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Sandrine Le Goff	Cloudfactory	ECD
Jessica Kersten	Cloudfactory	ECD
Florian Hollander	Cloudfactory	Copywriter
Vincent Versluis	Cloudfactory	Art Director

Write a short summary of what happens in the film

The film is all about the melting pot of cultures and backgrounds who eat and work at KFC, who don’t always have the stage. We intend to show their “original spice” with an unapologetic attitude. It starts in the restaurant kitchen with the crew, the springboard to the craziness that comes next. In a sequence of fast paced, fun, quirky scenes, we go from influencer to influencer in scenes that show them as their original selves, as they eat or wait for their fried chicken all united by the iconic bucket. The film conveys the lightheartedness of the brand, joyfully at odds with these Covid times. Instead of ending in the classic Colonel logo, we show the face of the people who represent his attitude. Because the real secret to KFC’s original recipe is not just the food, it’s the mix of people who share a bucket.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

In the Netherlands, KFC communication had been inconsistent over the years and was losing relevance. As a challenger brand in NL, previously KFC had wanted to be mainstream like McDonalds but now it was time to recognize the people who work and eat at their restaurants: a multicultural audience. We celebrate that diversity (at the core of the brand since the Colonel “sat truck drivers and millionaires at the same table”), bring people who don’t always have the spotlight, their stories, background and talent, to the forefront of the brand. Because these influencers are the true counterculture of the Netherlands and resonate with a young local audience: Joost Klein, rapper, and his YouTuber friends, StuntKabouter and Japie; Shamiro, Amsterdam night mayor; Saskia, stunt driver; Jimmy Paul, upcoming fashion designer; House of Vineyard, Vogue dancers; Jasmijn, street football legend. The Black Lives Matter movements that arose months later reinforced this choice.

Tell the jury about the casting process.

To showcase true multiculturality and bring authenticity to the brand, we chose to work with micro influencers, not actors, celebrating Dutch counterculture with its true leaders. The process was a rollercoaster creatively and for client approval because: 1) we wanted to build each scene around each influencer and capture what makes them originals. Until we locked the final cast, we had to rewrite each scene and adjust the whole script 18 times; 2) we weren’t working with professionals who knew how to act. We also casted KFC employees for the kitchen and restaurant scenes (except for the reaction shot to the unicorn) both for authenticity and in recognition of their participation in the counterculture, often born in neighborhoods where KFC restaurants are located. When the BLM movement emerged, our choice was validated: by choosing real multicultural people, we avoid stereotyping behaviours (especially in the context of eating chicken).