Inside the making of Chicken Licken’s new Easy Bucks campaign

Chicken Licken’s genius new Easy Bucks campaign, titled Everyone Talking About It, revisits some of the most iconic scenes in South African television history.

Stills from the new Chicken Licken Easy Bucks campaign

For the campaign, Joe Public United, in collaboration with Giant Films, remade popular film and TV moments, and launched an interactive website.

Giant Films producer and director Karien Cherry expands: “The campaign idea was to launch Chicken Licken’s new Easy Bucks meal and get Everyone Talking About It. Our TVC would kick off the campaign… In addition, the agency wanted to create an interactive website where viewers could flick through the TV channels themselves. I was really excited by the entertainment potential of the concept, and getting total creative freedom in how to bring that to life meant I was hooked.”

10 | SCREENAFRICA | APRIL 2020 Cherry says that as much as she was captain of the ship on the project, “filmmaking is a team sport.” The production team for the campaign included DoP Adam Bentel, production designer Keenen McAdams and Bridget Baker, who worked on costume design. “We went all in! To truthfully recreate so many different genres we had to treat every scene individually. We considered all the aspects of each genre – the camera, lensing, lighting style, shot design, sound treatment, costume design etc.,” says Cherry. Casting director extraordinaire Bonnie Bouman spent hours with Cherry reviewing actors for the different roles and scenes. “Each channel needed to deliver an entirely different type of energy and performance, and I had so much fun building the scenes with the actors in rehearsals. I am incredibly proud of the performance work on this campaign,” she shares.

The campaign kicked off with a full-length television commercial featuring a man who falls asleep in front of the TV and wakes up to numerous channels all advertising the same thing – Chicken Licken’s Easy Bucks meal. No matter what channel he switches to, ‘everyone is talking about’ Chicken Licken’s Easy Bucks.

The clever TVC references popular film and television moments, including a scene from talk show Katch It With Khanyi featuring host Khanyi Mbau; a Clientele funeral policy ad; an iconic scene from popular soapie Generations with actor Tau Mogale; and Star Trek, to name a few. The TVC also references popular film genres, from zombie movies to Nollywood flicks.

Nine of the scenes from the initial TVC were extended to create individual 60-second ads and all scenes used the same Chicken Licken promotional script. “The chance to delve into so many different genres is any film lover’s dream, and we had so much fun creating the worlds and playing with the tropes of each genre. We ended up creating 12 channels, [and] even got to experiment with genres

BTS with director Karien Cherry

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EQUIPMENT • Camera: Arri Alexa Mini

that we would otherwise never have gone near!”

The production team had five weeks to prepare and shoot a combination of studio and location shots over four days. “The fact that we pulled this off is a testament not only to the dedication and talent of our team but also to the agency. I have rarely experienced the level of trust that I received from Joe Public on this job,” comments Cherry.

The scenes were shot on a variety of different cameras to best represent each genre reflected in the spot. Cameras included the Arri Alexa Mini, a VHS camera and a 16mm film camera.

“The shoot itself was something special. It was a really rewarding experience to see crew members having fun on set. And it was such a creative shoot that everyone on set had the feeling of doing what they loved. Hopefully, it shows,” she says. In terms of post-production, editor Kobus Loots’s “wry sense of humour was great on this job,” says Cherry. Strangelove handled the visual effects work and the grade, with their artists Charmaine Greyling, Darian Simon, and Nic Apostoli. “And I had the privilege of working with sound designer Lourens Sterling (from Sterling Sound) and composer Adam Howard (from Howard Audio),” adds Cherry. Since its launch, the campaign has been extremely well-received, with viewers praising Chicken Licken’s approach to creativity.

“Creating work that would land with Chicken Licken’s devoted fan base was a huge driving force behind the creative decisions we made. So it’s been great to witness their response to the ad, and specifically to the local references,” Cherry concludes.

– Gezzy S Sibisi

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CREW The Chicken Licken Easy Bucks campaign was shot on the Arri Alexa Mini, VHS and 16mm film cameras.

Producer/Director: Karien Cherry Director of Photography: Adam Bentel Editor: Kobus Loots Sound: Lourens Sterling and Adam Howard