Pamela Anderson and KT Tunstall Send KFC Back to the Drawing Board

Let me cut through the confusing acronyms (KFC, ASA, CSR, KT, UK – and of course my favourite – PETA) and boil it down for you: PETA’s campaign is hitting the company so hard they’re now seeking specialist PR support. The story here is far from a story full of random placement of capital letters. It seems KFC cannot contend with PETA’s high-profile campaign on its own anymore and is COFFCOFFRUNNING-TO-MUMMYCOFFCOFF seeking help from a PR firm to try and raise its ailing reputation.

Now, call me a stirrer, but after reading the article I wanted to pull a couple of KFC quotes from it, and then rip them apart (because it’s Monday and I just like to do things like that – you’ll get used to it)

Quote 1: ‘It’s not about health and wellbeing. KFC just wants to do good things.’
Now hang on a second, can anyone tell me just what there is that’s good about KFC? Especially considering that many of the poor chickens endure live scalding - and painful de-beaking – before they’re killed? I mean, I know it’s Monday but have I woken up on the wrong side of bed today or what?
Matt’s interpretation: “We don’t really care about the masses, we just want to line our pockets” or perhaps “QUICK!! What can we say, I know, let’s err away from the obesity issue”

Which would lead me onto their second quote:

Quote 2: ‘KFC is not at the forefront of obesity-related issues,’
Ahem.. anyone doing a Google image search for “KFC Fat” may like to disagree with that one matey! (the second image in particular!)
Matt’s interpretation: “OMG! We’re at the forefront of obesity-related issues, lets hire some PR firm sharpish!”

Anyway, I digress – The original point was that this story hit the front page of PR Week, an excellent means to highlight this issue among those who may not have thought twice about cruelty to chickens. That the ASA ruled in PETA’s favour is nothing I didn’t expect to happen anyway, but KFC hiring a PR firm is so fruitless, everyone knows what KFC stands for. (feel free to make suggestions of your own)

Your sarky neighbourhood Matt