KFC Draws Backlash After Disturbing Promotion
(ConservativeHub.com) – Restaurants use different marketing tactics to boost sales. Some even have phone apps to make ordering easier. Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) uses an app to streamline sales and send out push notifications. However, the chicken chain recently made a serious faux pas and came under fire when it asked its app users to buy chicken in remembrance of a horrific Nazi attack.
On Wednesday, November 9, KFC sent a message to its German app users telling them, “Commemorate Kristallnacht” by purchasing “more soft cheese and crispy chicken,” as translated by The Guardian. About an hour after broadcasting the notification, the company sent a follow-up, apologizing for the original and blaming the faux pas on an automated system that creates ad blasts based on national days of observance.
KFC’s German branch has apologized for seeming to encourage customers to mark the anniversary of a pogrom against Jews in Nazi Germany with “crispy chicken.” It said an automated push notification had been sent by accident. https://t.co/bbs79BgN6U
— NYT Business (@nytimesbusiness) November 13, 2022
The app sent the push notification on the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Known as the Night of Broken Glass, Nazis killed dozens of Jews and destroyed Jewish homes, businesses and places of worship in Germany. According to the History website, the campaign against Jew in Germany started several years before this fateful night. However, the situation is reported to have rapidly deteriorated after Kristallnacht.
Many people criticized KFC for this significant marketing error and questioned why the company didn’t have a process to ensure offensive messages weren’t transmitted. Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky wrote on Twitter that he was “speechless” and “repulsed” by the incident. The New York Times also reported on a Twitter post from Anti-Defamation League associate director for European affairs Dalia Grinfeld, who wrote, “Shame on you!” in response to KFC’s error.
Copyright 2022, ConservativeHub.com
