original videos
This video project emerged from my broader research into audio branding and its cultural implications, particularly within non-Western contexts. My goal was to investigate how corporate sound design—specifically the iconic audio branding of KFC—interacts with and disrupts local sonic and visual cultures, using irony, contrast, and collage as key strategies.
The process began during my time in Arusha, Tanzania, where I observed the real-life presence of KFC as a global brand embedded within a local economy.
As I heard the CISA’s creative project, this idea came out from my brain: I want to make a experimental video of KFC and focusing on the audio branding.
In the editing process, I intentionally crafted a strong contrast between the slick, upbeat sound of KFC’s audio branding and the raw, grounded imagery of Tanzanian food practices. I opened the video with a shot of a monkey, acting as a surreal and ironic metaphor—possibly representing outsider observation, mimicry, or primal consumption—and layered it with KFC’s cheerful jingle to immediately create tension and disorientation.
A key visual decision was to desaturate the color palette, giving the footage a muted green, almost toxic tone, which evoked a post-industrial, artificial aesthetic. This made the KFC food appear lifeless or even “poisoned,” in contrast to the vibrancy and care found in local cooking. The aim was to visually undermine the appetizing intent of corporate branding and reflect on how branding distorts reality, especially when detached from local context.
Sonically, I created a layered mix of KFC audio branding and traditional African music, allowing them to clash and bleed into each other. This hybridized soundscape questioned the dominance of global brand identity over indigenous sound worlds. I also edited in local food clips into KFC cooking scenes, deliberately disrupting the coherence of the branded narrative and suggesting a cultural contamination or resistance—a visual way to expose the tensions between global corporate identity and local cultural practice.
The project became both a critique and a provocation—questioning the role of audio branding as a form of soft power, and exploring how sound and image can be used to expose invisible systems of influence embedded within global commerce.