KFC logs in to MySpace to find number one fan

If you have the face for TV screen and appetite for Kentucky Fried Chicken, you could be the person to campaign for KFC's sumptuous meals all over the world.

Col Saunders team has embarked on a worldwide search for choosing the "ultimate Kentucky Grilled Chicken fan", KFC said in a communique.

US-based fast food giant has teamed up with social networking site MySpace to search for the right candidate to promote their new range of grilled chicken in their advertisements.

Owners of KFC, Yum! Brands are conveying this as an ultimate advertising opportunity where "the grand prize winner will have a chance to become the face of the brand alongside the iconic colonel, who has represented KFC for more than 65 years".

The world wide hunt is inviting people to submit a video of their own demonstrating why they deserve to be selected at www.myspace.com/unthinkfc, where they will vie for the title of the ultimate grilled chicken fan. MySpace users can browse all of the videos and interact with other KFC fans via an assortment of interactive games and polls.

Organisers of this global hunt will choose three finalists by July 25 and viewers can watch their videos and send their approval in the form of casting their votes on August 1. Following that, the winner will be announced, but a date for that has not been announced.

The winner will receive a lifetime supply of grilled chicken, valued at more than $13,000, in the form of KFC gift checks. They will also have a chance to represent the brand and appear in future advertisements for the 15,000-unit chain. Draftfcb is the agency behind its current "Unthink KFC" ad campaign.

"With the launch of our second secret recipe, we are encouraging all chicken lovers, grilled and fried, to showcase why they are the ultimate Kentucky Grilled Chicken fan and should be the new face of Kentucky Grilled Chicken," said Javier Benito, Executive Vice-President of Marketing and Food Innovation for KFC, in a statement.

The campaign is globally executed by Yum! Brands officials and all aspiring candidates will be shortlisted and eventually the winner will be selected by them for a worldwide campaign for print, electronic and even online.

However, KFC in the UAE is not involved in it in anyway, said a local representative of KFC. "These global promotions are controlled and executed by our head office in the US and we are not to convey anything in official capacity to any media organisation," conveyed the official from the marketing section of KFC in the UAE.

Yum! Brands spent $290 million on media behind the brand in 2008, per Nielsen. It spent $71m in the first quarter of this year, in the US.

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