This KFC advert wasn't inspired by Neymar's playacting dive at World Cup

For media outlets across the globe, it was crystal clear: the advert was inspired by the Brazilian player Neymar during the Fifa World Cup. Just watch: the video immediately makes you think of another one, that was filmed during the game between Brazil and Serbia on June 27th.

For several media, it was the proof that KFC mocked directly Neymar diving antics.

Here is what Sport Illustrated wrote:

Yet, you just have to read some articles until the end to realize something is up. Newsweek for instance says the video was posted on June 15th. June 15th is two days before Brazil's first game in this World Cup, and twelve days before Neymar's dive against Serbia. The Sun falsely wrote it took place during the match against Switzerland.

Hence, the advertisement could not be inspired by Neymar during the World Cup. In fact, it was not even inspired by Neymar at all. What is it then? A very well done advertising campaign.

Ogilvy Cape Town (South Africa), produced the advertisement in May for KFC. Safaraaz Sindhi, Ogilvy Cape Town's Creative Head told CheckNews by phone that he thought of a campaign that needed all the ingredients to buzz on social media: «We did not have the rights for the World Cup, we needed to develop a piece of communication that not only football fans but everyone in general could relate to. We've been keeping an eye on football in general over the past year and one common thread that kept popping up was players diving and rolling around to con the referee into penalising the opposition team. We see it all the time! We were thinking at Neymar, but not only: all the players do it!»

The idea then was to think of the playacts coming up to make the video. The agency then staged this player, named «Herbz». The ad was launched in a dozen of African countries and to make it viral, the agency created the hashtag #makeamealofit (the informal phrase meaning «exaggerating»), inviting everyone to record a dive during the World Cup and post it on social media.

On June 15, the director of South Africa KFC tried to viralize the hashtag with a dive of the Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez against Egypt.

In an interview published on June 18th, the group heads at Ogilvy Cape Town told Adweek that they were pleased with their idea. They had seen nothing yet. On June 27th, the miracle finally happened. Neymar, playing against Serbia, is mimicking the advert so well that... it makes people believe he inspired the ad.

Since then, media across the globe have all been saying KFC mocked Neymar. Yet, a few Twitter users were better advised, and made fun of the fact that Herbz inspired Neymar. And not the other way around.