KFC Gets Facebook Fans Talking With Clean Eating Campaign

KFC’s Facebook fans had to double-check their calendars yesterday as the fried chicken chain posted an update worthy of April Fool’s Day.

The post read: “Coming Monday: the KFC Clean Eating Burger – made in collaboration with Figgy Poppleton-Rice” and featured an image of the burger in question, which includes a cauliflower bun instead of bread, a filling of spiralised chicken and kale, unsweetened almond yoghurt, and an ice cube relish. Yum.

Although the ‘burger’ looks completely unappetising (mouthful of raw cauliflower, anyone?), and is a bizarre offering from a fast food chain, some people were still confused about whether or not the advert was real. To make the advert seem more authentic, KFC posted a link to Figgy Poppleton-Rice’s website, which is a blog featuring recipes for equally unappealing meals such as rice cake and egg whites; a ‘hot dog’ made from a carrot placed in the middle of an aubergine; and a milkshake made from almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk, and flax milk (“For those times you just want to be alone with dairy alternatives”). 

Eagle-eyed investigators quickly clocked onto the fact that the website was less than a week old, and of course, the Figgy Poppleton-Rice person is a made-up character. She does have Instagram and Twitter accounts, which have already gained over 4,000 and 10,000 followers respectively – though how many of those realise she isn’t a real person is debatable.

The point appears to be that clean eating is boring, unappetising, and maybe even a little bit strange – and everyone should go to KFC instead to avoid this madness. The message is something like, “You don’t want vegetables, you want delicious 100% chicken breast fried in a golden, crispy breaded coating”. And they’re right – I don’t really want vegetables and I definitely always want chicken. It’s a campaign that may strike a chord with many but potentially offend others as it pokes a little fun at those who favour clean eating. Hopefully it is being taken in the good-natured spirit that was likely intended.

The amount of effort KFC have put into this advertising campaign is impressive – creating the original advert and posting it on Facebook is one thing, but creating a website, social media accounts and an entire persona takes the campaign to a new level. The made-up social media accounts provide the campaign with more traction and helps the company to reach consumers through several different channels, so that it isn’t just KFC’s Facebook fans who see the campaign. They also seem to have thought carefully about which social media channels they should use to make the fake profiles seem more authentic – after all, Instagram is the home of fancy food pics.

By creating something funny, a bit silly, and slightly confusing, KFC have put the social back into their social media and given people something to talk about. We’ll be watching with interest to see how the campaign develops, but for now the ‘takeaways’ from this are:

• Create an ad that says something funny and unexpected to grab people’s attention
• Use it to send a message that fits in with your brand and resonates with your customers
• Share it where both new and existing customers can see and enjoy it
• Go the extra mile to increase campaign authenticity

If you can combine social media and images or video to your advantage like this, you may cause a stir or even go viral. Good luck!