Ray Liotta is the latest actor to don the Colonel Sanders suit for KFC campaign
Another Colonel is coming to your screen, and this time he’s a bit two-faced. KFC and Wieden+Kennedy have teamed again to put the white suit and glasses on a new actor in the series, Ray Liotta, to promote the chain’s two chicken flavors as Colonel Harland Sanders.
Ray Liotta as the Colonel for KFC
Liotta, of Goodfellas fame and currently starring on the NBC show ‘Shades of Blue’, is a Colonel torn in two as he promotes two southern flavors: sweet and tangy Georgia Gold honey mustard BBQ chicken, and spicy and smoky Nashville Hot chicken.
In a southern lilt, Liotta sings the praises of the Georgia Gold, but he switches to a darker, deeper, slightly menacing voice when pushing the hot chicken. His duality gets him into an argument with himself, before he screams “What have I become” to the sky.
Liotta is yet another unexpected celebrity playing the Colonel character, whose shoes have also been filled by George Hamilton, Norm Macdonald, Rob Lowe, Rob Riggle, Billy Zane and Jim Gaffigan, among others.
“When they asked me to take on twice the role of any Colonel before me, I thought ‘man, this is really going to be interesting and will be a role I haven’t been able to take on before,’” said Liotta in a release. “But as I got into character and put on that infamous Colonel mustache I really was able to have fun with it and enjoy playing the person that is seen in commercials and billboards across the nation.”
Georgia Gold honey mustard BBQ and Nashville Hot are the first of KFC’s authentic regional flavors the brand is exclusively bringing to restaurants across the country.
“With southern flavors like Nashville Hot and Georgia Gold, we can bring local culinary trends to a mass audience using the same hand-prepared cooking approach our founder, Colonel Harland Sanders, established more than 70 years ago,” said Bob Das, KFC US head chef.
