Kentucky fried relaunch

No it's not just greasy scoff for after the pub, it's 'real food' for the discerning consumer. Yes, KFC is 're-branding'. Stop giggling at the back, says Stephen Armstrong

Kentucky Fried Chicken. Three words that mean "late night scoffing" to millions of inebriated Britons. It was the first fast-food chain in the UK, it spent the early Eighties fending off accusations of frying dead rats and it spawned a thousand imitators. Now, however, it's been caught up in the rebranding craze that is sweeping the Nineties - it wants to move away from the traditional pub-bloke image and nearer to Esquire man.

"We want to portray KFC as the company that bundles and packages real food," says Martin Shuker, UK marketing director. "It's about being seen as more than just a snack. We are improving the restaurants with pictures on the wall and offering parking." Restrain your mirth. Pepsico Restaurants International (yup, Pepsi owns KFC and Pizza Hut) are spending millions on this, er, repositioning. The company has hauled in top glamour names, rumoured to include the likes of Ulrika Jonsson and Dani Behr, to head up its global advertising push. The adverts are classy, smooth, mainstream and break on your TV screens in a month's time, when the new face of KFC is presented to the world.

The question is, do Kentucky Fried Chicken know they would be crazy to throw out the Pissed Pound baby with the rats-for-food bath water? When it comes to fast-food late-night joints, forget about the ladies who lunch, what about the lads who lager?