Social media: Where gigantic corporations go to try out their embarrassingly tone-deaf attempts at “edgy” viral marketing. (Not that sometimes it doesn’t result in near-perfection.) McDonald’s is probably field-testing an R-rated Grimace right now, possibly one who breaks the fourth wall to ask you directly if, “You’re fuckin’ lovin’ it, right? Hell yeah, you are. Eat that shit up.” But even in a world where nobody bats an eye at a woman fellating a Burger King sandwich, these companies can occasionally stumble into a very public backlash.
Consider, if you will, the new case of the KFC Australia Twitter ad. The fried chicken conglomerate decided to get a little saucy with an online marketing tease this week. (Look, this whole story is basically one long opportunity for unfortunate sexual innuendo, so let’s just assume there’s a Michael Scott stand-in reading over your shoulder, jumping in with a “That’s what she said!” at every available opportunity.) The ad, shown at the top of the page, features a blurred-out man’s crotch with a woman reaching for it, and the phrase “Warning: #NSFW something hot and spicy is coming soon…” right below. If you correctly reasoned that Kentucky Fried Chicken was implying that it’s about to give you some full-on hand job action, you’d be right, and you’d also likely think, “Um, a hot and spicy hand job sounds like a legitimate nightmare scenario.” That was the response of most people, anyway.
KFC Australia posted a seriously disturbing tweet
— Olivia Claire (@OClaire1029671) April 15, 2016
Frankly, The A.V. Club is much more disturbed by the picture frames with nothing in them hanging on the wall behind this couple. What kind of psychopathic serial-killer shit is that?
Within an hour, KFC Australia had removed the post and issued an apology statement, which should’ve read “We sincerely apologize for implying KFC has ever gotten anyone laid in the history of the world,” but was much more boring: “This was a genuine tweet to launch KFC’s new Hot & Spicy chicken products next week. It was not intended to offend and we’ve removed the image.” Presumably, the company’s media strategists have returned to their underground bunker, where they’re frantically brainstorming a more appropriate, but still ridiculously sexually overt, ad. In the spirit of neighborliness, we offer the following suggestions:
- KFC—I feel like fuckin’ tonight!
- More like Kentucky Fried Copulation, am I right?
- Breasts, legs, wings, whatever: They’re all just getting in the way of genitals
- Get some KFC, the official food of regrettable one-night stands
- “KFC—we endorse rim jobs, too!”
Please feel free to contribute your own taglines in the comments below.