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Cosplay, Colonels, Comics and Chickens – KFC Brings It All to San Diego
Heading to Comic-Con? Con-goers and Gaslamp Quarter visitors will experience a “little bit of Colonel-ing” in San Diego this week via three unique activations from Kentucky Fried Chicken. After all, Colonel Sanders, with his iconic superhero-esque all-white suit, black ribbon tie, and signature bling would have been the quintessential cosplayer.
The colorful life of KFC’s founder was first immortalised this past May with a new, robust brand campaign featuring the interactive archive site Hall of Colonels. The Hall chronicles the legendary chicken salesman’s life from sixth grade dropout and gun fighting gas station owner to fried chicken magnate. Now, KFC is bringing the site to life in the graphic novel “KFC Presents: The Colonel’s Adventure Comics,” a limited edition comic being distributed around the Gaslamp Quarter by costumed Colonels and Colonettes on Friday, July 10. Each limited edition Colonel’s Adventure comic will be poly-bagged with the Colonel’s iconic black ribbon tie and select packages will also include highly coveted collector’s edition comics.
“Harland Sanders wasn’t born ‘The Colonel.’ Like most comic book heroes, he started out as an underdog and overcame obstacles that gave him superhuman cooking skills and an amazing superhero costume. Both catapulted him to iconic status,” says Kevin Hochman, chief marketing officer, KFC US. “We thought a comic about the Colonel’s true-life origins story would be interesting to fans, as well as anyone who loves an amazing superhero story – only this one is one hundred percent true.”
The comic depicts early events in Colonel Sanders’ life that eventually led to the discovery of his real super power: the combination of a pressure cooker and secret blend of 11 herbs and spices, better known as his world-famous Original Recipe Chicken.
The Colonels
Through a partnership with Adult Swim, the brand will honour its founder – while satiating the internet access hungry – with seven life-sized Wi-Fi-enabled Colonel Sanders statues positioned around various intersections of the Gaslamp Quarter. Each feature Sanders’ iconic smile and traditional white suit, with six dressed in eclectic cosplay attire: a vampire, a unicorn, a Martian, a werewolf, an anime character, and a furry. When con-goers locate the Colonel statues and connect to the Wi-Fi, they’ll be directed to a co-branded KFC and Robot Chicken digital hub at www.adultswim.com/KFC to check out KFC and Robot Chicken custom content. Each day, Adult Swim and KFC will surprise a limited number of fans who post photos of themselves with the statues and the hashtag #colonelsanders to social media with a free Robot Chicken t-shirt.
The Chickens
In addition, Adult Swim and KFC will bring together two iconic characters for the very first time in a multi-platform program spanning on-air, online and on-site activations that put Colonel Sanders and the Robot Chicken front and center at this year’s convention. Through the partnership, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the studio behind the Emmy Award-winning series Robot Chicken, have created three 60-second custom stop-motion spots starring the Colonel and robot chicken in an epic space adventure that will play out over the next four months. The first episode, which was created by series co-creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, will premiere on Thursday, July 9 at the Adult Swim on the Green screening event in San Diego, just before it debuts on Adult Swim later that evening. Free custom-created Robot Chicken t-shirts and KFC $5 Fill Ups will be provided for attendees of that event.
If you can’t attend, you can still read the limited edition “KFC Presents: The Colonel’s Adventure Comics” here.
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