KFC goes over the top with new ‘ mini- movie’ featuring the Colonel

There’s nothing sexier than a man with a secret recipe for fried chicken.

That’s the marketing bet KFC is making in a 15- minute “minimovie” that’s airing on Lifetime this Sunday. In “A Recipe for Seduction,” Mario Lopez stars as Harland Sanders, a private chef working for a family whose adult daughter has ditched her fiance for Sanders and his plentiful, tender drumsticks.

KFC has tried several strategies to make the stodgy Colonel more relevant over the years. Last year, KFC debuted a video game called “I Love You, Colonel Sanders!” where players could woo the mascot with certain dialogue choices. A reviewer on the gamer website Kotaku wrote that she “lost” the game“after being too forward with Colonel Sanders” by trying on one of his white jackets.

“The only thing that Colonel Sanders really cares about is chicken,” she concluded,“and most chicken- related dialogue choices will take you pretty far.”

While the plot of“A Recipe for Seduction” doesn’t appear to resemble the Colonel’s life story, the essence is spot- on: The real Harland Sanders had a reputation for being a womanizer. He left his fifirst wife for his mistress, Claudia Price, and together they created the recipe that became his famous fried chicken.

Allen Adamson, co- founder of brand consulting fifirm Metaforce, said a typical ad that is merely “having the colonel be a little younger and a little cooler — isn’t going to work anymore.” He believes over- the- top content is the most likely to catch on, that “the bar is constantly rising because there’s so much crazy stuffff out there.”