Kentucky Fried Chicken and Colonel Sanders

[The Burgomaster]

I have noticed that several cheapo movies from the late 1960s/early 1970s have "product placement" scenes for Kentucky Fried Chicken.  A few Herschell Gordon Lewis movies come to mind.  For instance, in one H.G. Lewis movie (I think it is THE GRUESOME TWOSOME) there is a scene in a women's dormitory or sorority house where everyone is eating Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Very recently, I bought Al Adamson's HELL'S BLOODY DEVIL'S, and there is a scene with two people eating in a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.  There is a big bucket of chicken sitting on the table.  While they are eating, Colonel Sanders himself comes over and talks to them.  At first, they don't seem to recognize him, but then they see a lifesize cardboard cut-out of him in the background and they realize who he is and start laughing (this is a REALLY embarrassing scene).  So, does anyone have any idea why The Colonel would choose to use grade-z exploitation movies as marketing tools?  Is it because Kentucky Fried Chicken is such a GREAT choice to take to the drive-in?  (We used to bring it to the drive-in sometimes when I was a kid . . . I guess the ads worked!)



Post Edited (06-04-05 15:04)

[Menard]

Are you sure it was Harlan Sanders or perhaps someone made up to look like him? Maybe he financed Adamson's film?

[The Burgomaster]

Menard:  It is definitely the REAL Colonel Sanders!

[Menard]

He was good at marketing. Perhaps that was his ploy to get KFC recognized; by getting it seen wherever he could. He certainly became one of the most recognizable figures.

[Ozzymandias]

Remember Goldfinger when FBI guys have their car parked in front of a KFC.

[peter johnson]

Oh . . . my . . . God . . .
This has got to be a real thing.  My wife and I just watched a very VERY bad biker chick film:  "She Devils on Wheels"(1967), and there's a long scene in there wherein the biker babes and their boy-toys are eating . . . KFC!!  
Both my wife and I laughed about it & made comments on it at the time, as it seemed really out of place and inappropriate given the story so far on film.
The director of "She Devils on Wheels"?:
Herschell Gordon Lewis!!
peter johnson/denny crane

[Scott]

SHE DEVILS ON WHEELS is rough viewing.

[Flangepart]

Espchualy if you get a bone stuck in your throat along with the movie!
Sanders was a notorious huckster. He must have lived by the addage "Any publicity is good publicity."

[Bargle5]

I remember seeing the Colonel in a Jerry Lewis movie back in the 60s. He was trying to check in to a hotel IIRC.

Found it, it was "The Big Mouth".