Why did the chicken cross the road? Apparently to be in an advert. If you have watched any chicken commercials over the past few years you will have noticed that nothing sells these well-seasoned snacks like a good joke. Chicken Licken's new television ad campaign is a perfect example. The ad tells the story of "The Great Dlamini" a Houdini-esque character who spends his life harnessing his craving for Chicken Licken into a stellar career as an escape artist. In the ad you see him find his way out of everything from an elaborately sealed kist at the bottom of the ocean to escaping the jaws of a crocodile."The craving exerts a force of formidable attraction; a force so strong it can inspire incredible feats of human achievement in pursuit of its satisfaction," said Brad Reilly of Net#work BBDO, the agency that helped conceptualise the ad.Added colleague Coenie Grebe: "The ad has a strong African inspiration but is meshed with non-African influence. A good example of this is the soundtrack - a reorchestration of Louis Prima's Sing, Sing, Sing big-band classic. The pace and energy it brings to the piece is fantastic."Giving the ads a genuinely African flavour is something that Nando's has utilised for years.One of its most memorable ads begins with a disembodied voice saying "You know what's wrong with South Africa? It's all you foreigners" - only for every creed of citizen to disappear, except for a Khoisan man who says: "I'm not going anywhere. You @&*$# found us here."The SABC banned that ad.The Achilles heel of a funny ad is that no one likes to hear the same joke too often, so brands have to regularly revamp their campaigns.And a joke that is funny at the pitch meeting could fall flat with the public - and confront social media's stony face...