The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
KFC Brazil prints 'you won an ice cream' on fried chicken bones
Brazilians did not know KFC sold ice cream, so the chain revived the country's loved ice-cream giveaway with winning messages printed on fried chicken bones.
KFC
What it had to solve
KFC was launching an ice cream in Brazil, where people had no idea the chain sold it. The task was to make Brazilians aware of the product and drive trial.
How it works
KFC was launching an ice cream in Brazil, and Brazilians had no idea the chain sold one. Awareness and trial both had to be built from zero, so KFC turned to a promotion.
Rather than inventing a new mechanic, KFC copied the most culturally relevant promotion Brazil has ever had: an ice-cream brand that for years gave a free ice cream to anyone whose popsicle stick said 'You won an ice cream'. KFC ran the same idea but printed the message on the bones of its fried chicken drumsticks.
The familiar rules did the explaining and the fried chicken carried the prize, so every drumstick became a chance to win the new product. The campaign is preserved in the D&AD awards archive as an example of the idea.
Why it lands
- Every Brazilian already knows how the classic giveaway works, so the promotion needs no rules explained to anyone.
- Printing the message on chicken bones ties the prize to KFC's hero food instead of leaving the new ice cream to sell itself.
- A hidden winning bone turns an ordinary drumstick into a moment of discovery that customers want to talk about.
- Borrowing the promotion described as the most culturally relevant in Brazil's history gives the unfamiliar product instant recognition.
What it did
The giveaway token moved from the ice cream's stick to the chicken's bone, so the launch of the unfamiliar product rode on the most familiar piece of KFC's menu. The campaign is preserved in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
To launch an unfamiliar product, borrow a promotion everyone already knows: recognition does the explaining, and putting the prize on the hero product makes the newcomer feel familiar.
Since then
The D&AD archive entry records the campaign but no audience or sales figures. What transfers is the device itself: take a promotion whose rules a market already loves and reprint its winning message onto your own product's most recognizable surface.
Sources
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