KFC: “No Tents Just Chicken” Campaign

A post by the American fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) sparked controversy due to its slogan used in one of its advertising campaigns amid the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza. The story behind KFC’s post, which caused a stir with the slogan “No tents, just chicken,” came amidst Arab and international interest in the boycott campaign against companies and entities that have shown direct support for Israel or American and Western entities supporting the economies of countries unconditionally supportive of Israel.

The Kentucky post that caused a stir

KFC’s controversial post came amidst the Israeli war on Gaza, which has been ongoing for its fourth consecutive month, amidst the displacement of over 90% of the population of the strip due to the war, as confirmed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in December 2023. At that time, 60% of the infrastructure had already been damaged or destroyed, while Palestinians were replacing their destroyed homes with tents.

Immediately upon the publication of the official page of the American fast-food chain’s advertisement containing the official slogan with the hashtag “No Tents, Just Chicken,” it sparked anger and debate about the intended meaning of using this slogan. The advertisement described by KFC as “Sorry, no tents here, just good chicken that makes you lick your fingers, exactly the way you want it to flavour your weekend getaway.” It was followed by hashtags for the main slogan and another for one of its branches, #KFCAntigua. Out of approximately 51,000 reactions garnered by the post on KFC’s official Facebook account, 49,000 contained the “anger” reaction, while KFC limited the public’s ability to comment on this post exclusively despite allowing it in its other recent posts.

Thousands of social media users shared KFC’s post, which caused a stir with angry comments about the timing and manner of the advertisement, directly linking it to the ongoing war in Gaza, especially as it came after a similar campaign by the fashion company Zara. They considered the post to mock, in one way or another, the humanitarian crisis faced by more than a million people in Gaza.

The story behind the Kentucky post that stirred controversy

The American restaurant chain referred to its branch on a small island called Antigua in the Caribbean in the post, prompting some social media users to search for the connection and stating that the campaign was directly related to the island. The Public Utilities Authority of the Island, APUA, posted an advertisement preceding KFC’s calling on people to help find a stolen tent used by the authority in its events. In the ad posted through its Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to the authority’s website, it explained to the public that the tent was stolen illegally but played a vital role in its activities serving the community, calling on anyone with information about the theft or the tent to help resolve the issue.

Therefore, some considered the timing of KFC’s post, which caused a stir, as just a humorous advertising gimmick, especially for the island’s residents. However, others insisted that the timing and manner were not proportional to the event occupying the global public opinion, especially as the ad came through KFC’s official page, followed by over 59 million people, and not through a subsidiary account for the mentioned island. The American company has not responded to the angry campaigns against its advertisement and its timing yet, nor has it issued clarification or an apology, despite the uproar it caused on the official page of the fast-food chain and other platforms, to the extent that it was forced to disable comments on the mentioned post.

The American company was included in the boycott campaigns due to its government’s support for Israel, as reported by the same American Yahoo website. The mentioned company was affected by the boycott campaigns, to the extent that its branches in Arab countries such as Kuwait suffered greatly, emptying out in the early weeks of the Israeli war on Gaza, according to a previous report by the English version of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT).

It is not the first company to anger with its advertisements. In a recent incident, the Spanish fashion company Zara published an advertisement featuring a fashion model holding a human-sized doll wrapped in white cloth, and other images showing the destroyed ground covered with white powder, which the audience saw as mocking the martyrs of Gaza-wrapped in burial shrouds while surrounded by destroyed buildings. The public launched an angry campaign against the famous brand until it apologized and emphasized that it did not intend to target the people of Gaza with the campaign and that it designed it before the war.

After days of angry campaigns targeting the fashion company in December 2023, the company was forced to delete its advertisement from its social media accounts and website, then posted an apology expressing regret that “some customers felt insulted by these images,” and that people “saw something far from what was intended,” adding that it “regrets this misunderstanding.” Despite the apology, some of its audience insisted on continuing the boycott campaign against the company’s products and accused it of irresponsibility in publishing a similar advertisement at a time when tens of thousands lost their lives.