Chicken Licken’s latest campaign, developed by Joe Public, has struck a humorous chord with South African audiences by spotlighting an unusual but real fear — the fear of bones — and offering a comically satisfying solution in the form of its boneless SoulBites®.
Titled “Boneless Bites of Soul, for the few who fear bones… and everyone else,” the campaign reimagines the humble chicken nugget through a unique lens, turning the spotlight on the rare phobia of bones — known as cartilogenophobia. While affecting only a small portion of the population, Chicken Licken used this insight to differentiate its SoulBites from competitors in a saturated nugget market.
The campaign’s central film features a series of humorous vignettes of bone-phobic individuals — from a mother spooked by Halloween skeletons to a student traumatised by whale fossils — all eventually rescued by the hero of the hour: SoulBites, Chicken Licken’s 100% boneless chicken nuggets.
In typical Chicken Licken style, the campaign extended into unexpected spaces. It included pre-movie warnings about bone imagery in films like Jurassic World, a quirky web series showcasing the boneless nature of SoulBites using a mini-guillotine, katana, and x-ray, and rewards for viewers who bravely watched ‘bony’ blockbusters to the end.
Joe Public’s integrated executive creative director Adam Weber says the campaign intentionally leaned into unconventional humour. “We took a chance by pushing Chicken Licken in a new direction, finding comedy in unlikely spaces and reframing our nuggets as Boneless Bites of Soul,” he said.
The gamble paid off — within two weeks, the campaign generated millions of views and shares, reinforcing Chicken Licken’s reputation for bold, culturally resonant storytelling.