The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
KFC Thailand's 40th-birthday ad turns Bangkok to cake — only the fried chicken stays real
For KFC Thailand's 40th anniversary, a surreal film turns everything — girlfriend, scooter, city — into cake except the fried chicken, which stays the hero.
KFC Thailand (Yum! Brands) · Bananas
What it had to solve
KFC Thailand was turning 40 in a market that loves bold flavors and fast-paced, exaggerated humor. The brief was to celebrate the milestone without the standard nostalgia trip and make the anniversary impossible to ignore.
How it works
For KFC Thailand's 40th anniversary, agency Bananas (with Brains & Brawn and director Bruno Bossi of Carbon Films) made 'Let There Be Cake' — a surreal, blockbuster-style film in which everything around a Bangkok man, his girlfriend, his scooter, even the entire city, slowly transforms into cake. The only thing that stays real is his KFC fried chicken, and keeping it real becomes the comic quest of the story.
The idea came from a simple insight: when people love something they want more, but what if more becomes too much? Taking the viral 'Real or Cake?' trend as a starting point, the team built the 'Cakeverse' with seamless CGI and comedic timing tuned to Thailand's taste for fast-paced, visually wild humor, turning the ultimate celebration symbol — cake — into the antagonist of KFC's own birthday.
Launched in December 2024 as a digital hero film with TV and social cutdowns, the campaign reported 99% reach, over 5.1 million engagements, 2.6% growth in the group-sharing portfolio versus the previous December, and stronger December transactions and average ticket value.
At Cannes Lions 2025 the film won a Gold Lion in Film (Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast-Food Chains) — KFC Thailand's first Cannes Lion ever and Yum! Brands' first Gold in Film, which the company celebrated as proof that human-made, culture-specific ideas still win.
Why it lands
- Subverting the 'let there be cake' birthday trope gives an anniversary an unexpected, shareable narrative instead of nostalgia.
- Making the fried chicken the only real thing in a fake cake world dramatizes the brand's core promise — real taste — inside the entertainment itself.
- The film was built around a documented Thai cultural preference for fast-paced, exaggerated humor, so the absurdity landed locally rather than as imported style.
- Blockbuster-level VFX and a hero's quest structure made a 40th-birthday ad feel like a piece of entertainment worth watching to the end.
What it did
The One Show entry reports 99% reach (above KFC's campaign average), 5.1 million engagements, and 2.6% growth in the group-sharing portfolio versus the previous December, with December transactions and average ticket value up. At Cannes Lions 2025 the film won Gold in Film — KFC Thailand's first Cannes Lion and Yum! Brands' first Gold in Film.
What you can take
A milestone campaign doesn't need nostalgia: take one true consumer obsession, exaggerate it until it becomes a world, and the celebration itself becomes entertainment people share.
Since then
The campaign traveled through the 2025 awards circuit, adding a One Show mention, a Bronze at LIA in Online Film Retail, and the Cannes Gold. KFC Thailand's leadership credited the cross-cultural collaboration (South African agency, Bangkok-based partners, Cape Town director) and continued the relationship with Bananas. The film became a reference point for anniversary campaigns that skip nostalgia in favor of exaggerated brand truth.
Sources
- KFC Thailand Wins Historic Gold in Film at Cannes Lions 2025 for 'Let There Be Cake'
- KFC (YUM BRANDS) | Let There Be Cake — 2025 One Show case
- KFC Thailand - Let There be Cake
- Cannes Lions Film Winners & Shortlists 2025
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