Chester Cheetah Is the New Colonel Sanders and, Yeah, This Totally Makes Sense
At this point, the white suit once donned by Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Harland Sanders is the fashion equivalent of a revolving door. Multiple celebrities have put on the white wig, goatee, and black bow tie, from Norm MacDonald to Reba McEntire (America’s first female Colonel Sanders). The campaign has allowed the chicken chain to tailor its ad campaigns to various products of moods by simply switching out the actor who portrays the world-famous spokesperson, which might get exhausting but still seems to successfully generate buzz. After all, it’s hard to ignore RoboCop with a mustache. But KFC’s latest re-casting of the Sanders probably makes the most sense yet, as Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah becomes Colonel Chester to mark the launch of the new Cheetos Sandwich.
The commercial debut of Colonel Chester is a bit of ‘90s throwback, taking not he format of a classic Cheetos ad in which Chester saves the day for some hungry kids. Of course, this nostalgia, like most millennial-appealing moments these days, is done with tongue squarely in cheek as the actors pine for, specifically, “co-branded flavor.” Colonel Chester skateboards in (of course), and continues to hammer home the partnership. And while I’m sure more humans will continue to inhabit the role of Colonel Sanders, when it comes to fast food mashups, this might be the most oddball casting choice that also makes the most sense — anyone can be the Colonel now, and Cheetos has a beloved anthropomorphic mascot — and proves that perhaps this whole rotating spokesperson stunt is immune from becoming dangerously cheesy.
Check out the full ad below:
The Cheetos Sandwich, which hits KFC locations nationwide for four weeks beginning on July 1, 2019, is an Extra Crispy chicken filet in a "special Cheetos sauce," mayonnaise, a "'pinch of the thumb, index and middle fingers' layer of crunchy Cheetos," all set inside a toasted bun. How does it taste? Frankly, we loved it which you can read about here. As a bonus, KFC will serve up a Cheetos Lovers Box meal which includes the sandwich, Cheetos sauce-coated Popcorn Nuggets (another hit with our office when we tried it last week), mac and cheese, and potato wedges, and a medium drink.
Speaking of drinks, in other product partnerships, KFC teamed up with Mountain Dew to create an exclusive peach and honey flavor called Sweet Lightning that’s meant to pair perfectly with Original Recipe chicken. Read about that here.
