KFC is licking its wounds instead of its fingers today after it posted a howler of a tweet.
The fast-food chain’s Australia account was called out by several Twitter users for an ad that showed two people indulging in some unsavory behavior. Within an hour of posting the tweet, KFC scrambled to take it down, and issued an apology, also in the form of a tweet. Unfortunately, it forgot that the watchful and ever discerning users of the social network are adept at taking screenshots of Twitter fails, especially in the case of multi-billion dollar corporations.
With that in mind, we present to you, in all its hilarious glory, the tweet that got KFC in to a family bucket full of trouble.
https://twitter.com/matwhi/status/720763103638466560
As you can see, the above Twitter user had the perfect response for the ad, which resembles something you’d expect to find in a porn scene rather than a promo for a family-friendly restaurant chain. “KFC, if you are experiencing “hot and spicy” sensations in your genitals, I recommend you speak to a doctor,” tweeted Mat Whitehead. In fact, the entire fiasco seems to call for a captioning contest, wouldn’t you agree? We’ll get the ball rolling: “Is that a chicken drumstick in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”
After the complaints began rolling in, KFC tweeted out its inevitable apology. “We didn’t mean to offend anyone [and] are sorry for doing so,” read the statement. “We removed the tweet as we realized we made an error in judgment.” Since then, the KFC Australia account has returned to its usual slate of scheduled programming; inoffensive tweets of its menu items.
Alas, we shouldn’t be too harsh on the Colonel, his company isn’t the only brand to spectacularly fail at Twitter. In fact, the entire history of social media is full of corporate branding fails, as illustrated by this hilarious list.