Genius is the word for how KFC has handled the public apology over it’s lack of chicken fiasco.
We all know that humour can be the best way to dissipate anger and dissent. But misjudge it and you simply look flippant or uncaring.
With it’s ‘FCK’ anagram of it’s own (no doubt carefully guarded) brand, KFC has beautifully judged the tone.
It’s now. It feels real. It’s a mea culpa, not an excuse.
Of course in this era of social media you know very quickly how something like this has been received, and this has been received very well.
After all, no-one died (as far as we know). Lots of people were deprived of their poultry-based fast food for a few days and huge amounts of income were lost by a major brand. The biggest losers were members of staff who may have missed out on some shifts. That’s not funny, but the company has separately been explaining how it’s handling that and the fallout has been limited.
This is a great lesson in how to turn a negative into a win in at least one sense. It takes clever people to come up with it and pull it off. When they do though, you have to give them a round of applause.
