KFC advert song: who is the man singing Linger in Surrender to Tender?

The song in the KFC advert is Linger by The Cranberries, and the man singing it is Frank Watkinson, a YouTube musician with 1.2 million followers who is known for gentle acoustic covers of pop and rock songs. The film, Surrender to Tender, was made by the agency Mother to launch KFC’s Tenders and Dips range.

What happens in the KFC advert

Almost nothing, which is the point. Watkinson sits with his guitar in front of a KFC-red curtain and plays the song through in a single unbroken take. There are no cuts, no product shots until the end and no jokes. Jonathan Alric directed it through Iconoclast, and it was shot on film, as Creative Review reported when it launched on 6 July.

KFC’s own caption puts it simply: in an increasingly hard world, surrender to tender. Mother’s executive creative directors Derek Man Lui and Tomas Coleman said that “tenderness isn’t weakness”, and KFC brand manager Meg Stigant called the film a respite.

About the KFC advert song

Linger was The Cranberries’ breakthrough single, first released in 1993, and one of the most covered songs of its decade. Watkinson’s version strips it back to a voice and a guitar, which is what his channel has always done. He found his audience late in life by posting unpolished covers from his front room, and his appeal is precisely that he is not performing for anyone.

Why it stands out

Fast food advertising is loud by default, and KFC’s recent work has been louder than most. A quiet man singing a sad song is the last thing anyone expects in the break, so it gets watched. It is the same instinct that made KFC’s FCK apology work in 2018: the brand is at its best when it does the opposite of what the category would do.

It also continues a good year for borrowed songs in British ad breaks, from Boots reworking Nancy Sinatra to McVitie’s and Together in Electric Dreams. The difference is that KFC did not license a recording. It licensed a person.