KFC’s animated Christmas ads tell horror stories of “the lesser poultry”

Following last year’s Turkey vs Chicken Western-style ad, agency Mother has returned to hail the chicken during turkey’s time of year for KFC’s Christmas campaign. Instead of one ad, the campaign features a series of five animated shorts directed by animation studio Golden Wolf and produced by Stink, bringing to life the trials and tribulations of turkey cooking in overly dramatic, comic-book style – complete with sticks of dynamite and waterfall-like floods of tears.

Each deals with a relatable turkey-cooking moment, from the defrost to the squeeze into an oven that’s waaaay too small, and the tear-jerking moment you realise your Christmas dinner centrepiece is burned to dust. In action-packed ten-second clips, the animations succinctly sum up the chaos with razor-sharp comedic timing.

Christmas “is the only time of year where everyone has the lesser poultry front of mind,” says Mother in a statement. “However, KFC, the chicken aficionados, know that nobody really likes any of the turkey preparation or eating rituals.”

“Burnt, overdone, chewy, dry… we’ve all got a turkey horror story,” says KFC’s Kate Wall. “And they’re usually enough to keep any family’s designated chef up all Christmas Eve. This year we wanted our Christmas campaign to take an irreverent, cheeky look at the ritual that has become ‘Christmas Turkey’. Wishing everyone good luck with the turkey on 25th December. ‘Cos until then we’ve got you.”

Mother is also the agency behind one of this year’s Christmas crackers for Ikea, which stars D Double E as the voice of disparaging decorations. Off the back of the ad’s success, the rapper has released the track, Fresh N Clean (Silence the Critics) as a single, making a bid for Christmas number one.