KFC beats Spotify Premium’s ad-free platform to sneak in ads

The advertising campaign, the first of its kind, worked with three artists to replace their profile headers, album covers and profile avatars

A Dubai-based ad agency Memac Ogilvy and KFC Arabia managed to circumvent the ad-free platform and created the first ever campaign on Spotify Premium. (REUTERS)

Spotify Premium is popular mostly on the grounds that it has no ads, like most other paid music services. But Dubai-based ad agency Memac Ogilvy and KFC Arabia managed to circumvent the ad-free platform and created the first ever campaign on Spotify Premium.

The ad agency took over the profiles of three artists from the region - Flipperachi, Moh Flow and Shébani - to replace their profile pictures, headers and album covers with photos of KFC's new burger.

The press video shared on Design Taxi boasts that this was the "first campaign ever on Spotify Premium" and goes on to say, "By hacking a platform where ads are not allowed, we gave the Kentucky burger the campaign that it truly deserved."

While many are calling the campaign a gross misuse of the platform, others are pointing out funny features that have been used for it like creating playlists with song titles that spelled out "Discover, New, Kentucky, Burger, Come and Visit, KFC, Get It, Before It's Too Late."

Artist bios were also altered to read like menu ingredients and upcoming events directed users to visit nearest KFC locations and it just looked like the artist had multiple concert dates at one very lucky KFC outlet.

You will no longer be able to spot the ads anymore but Memac Ogilvy account director Ishana Tolani tweeted a video of what the campaign looked like when it was live: 

Haha now that's clever advertising! @Spotify claims no ads on Spotify Premium, but looks like @kfcarabia still managed to make their way in! @SpotifyArabia least it's uninterrupted and finger lickin' good at the same time! #advertisingthatworks #spotify #kfc pic.twitter.com/JcV6YRgOdp

— Ishana Tolani (@Ish_tolani) January 30, 2020

According to the report on Verge, KFC Arabia's campaign is just the latest example of brands and ad agencies 'hacking' platforms and exploiting ad-free spaces to sneak in advertising.

Last May, North Face Brazil and Leo Burnett Tailor Made 'hacked' Google Image Search results by replacing Wikipedia photos of popular destinations with photos featuring their products. "That stunt ended in a stern rebuking from the Wikimedia Foundation and an apology from North Face corporate. But North Face Brazil CEO Fabricio Luzzi defended the campaign with an 'all press is good press' philosophy, arguing that it achieved the brand's goals," reports Verge.