How Uncovered built KFC’s Award-Winning gloriously unhinged brainrot brand world

Over the past two years, KFC UK & Ireland and us (Uncovered) have managed a rare feat: building fandom and driving sales by placing KFC at the heart of bizarre online subcultures. In doing so, the brand became one of the UK’s biggest attention winners.

It all began in 2024, when we established a team to drop KFC into the heart of cultural conversation. Our weapon of choice? Brainrot – a surrealist subculture that thrives on hyper-niche references and online celebs you’ve never heard of (shoutout John Pork!!). 

The strategy quickly established an enormous lead, leaving others floundering behind our (unhinged world). But as more brands cottoned on, competition heated up. By April 2025, everyone was playing in the brainrot playground.

To stay ahead, our role shifted from joining the conversation to cultural leader. The mission was simple: go bigger, go bolder and take the creative risks no one else would, so KFC could lead culture rather than chase it.

That meant adopting an 80:20 approach. We continued delivering the brainrot brand world that our loyal audience had come to love, while ensuring that 20% pushed creative boundaries and surprised even our diehard fans.

We also brought campaign work into the brainrot brand world, and expanded onto new platforms where our audience already spent their time with huge success.

The results spoke for themselves. In 2025, Epsilon ranked KFC first on its Digital Attention Index, comfortably outperforming often talked about social giants. By the end of 2025 we had 508 million organic views equating to £25m of earned media value. 

It proved that, in the attention economy, the most effective way to sell is to stop acting like you’re selling at all.