You probably heard about the Kentucky Fried Chicken marketing fiasco in Germany. The company pushed an… unfortunate promotional message with its app.
“It’s memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!”
Oh, yeah. Let’s celebrate Krisallnacht. /sarc
On the on hand, I was sorta-semi willing to consider that this was dreamed up by an historically ignorant American English speaker. Sadly, I can all too easily imagine a recent public school victim thinking, KRIST-allnacht. CHRIST-mas, and deciding they must be related and something to observe happily.
On the other hand, this was sent in German, and what German speaker doesn’t know better?
To add possibly antisemitic insult to injury, look at the special they pushed: cheese, a dairy product, on a meat. My knowledge of Kosher dietary restrictions isn’t what it could be, but I seem to recall that one does not mix dairy and meat in one dish.
My sister also noted that cheese/chicken issue. Because of that, she thinks this really was a deliberate swipe at Jews.
KFC assures us otherwise.
“Because of a system error, we sent an incorrect and inappropriate alert on our app,” the message said. “We are very sorry, we will check our internal processes immediately so that this does not happen again. Please excuse this error.”
System error? As in systemic antisemiticism?
Owned by Yum Brands, KFC told CBS MoneyWatch in an emailed statement that an automated push notification had been accidentally issued, containing an “unplanned, insensitive and unacceptable message.”
The company said it uses a semi-automated content creation process linked to calendars that include national observances, and in this case, its “internal review process was not properly followed.”
Not that the review process wasn’t followed, to catch an automation error; but that it was followed properly. Meaning, I think, that someone let it go deliberately.
Just some random scumbag, employee, or someone with an agenda testing the waters to see how far they could go?
On the bright side, German reaction seems to indicate that it pissed off a lot of people.
Gab Pay link (More Tip Jar Options) |
I read this awhile ago, but didn’t have time to comment. Now that I read it again, my only comment is, Why can’t a company like KFC, here, or any other one, who screws up, just come out and say, “Hey, people, we are really sorry, one of our executives who didn’t know any better screwed up. We are not firing him/her, but we are giving them a week off, to attend a seminar on the holocaust, to hopefully teach them about the suffering of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis in WWII.”
I don’t know if that would be adequate for people in this day and age, when everyone is out for blood, but instead of blaming everything on a technical glitch, or hiding behind some other problem, just own up to your mistakes, ask for forgiveness, maybe make a hefty donation to the Simon Wiesenthal center, as a way of apology, and hope that people are accepting of your apology. If you do it with the right attitude, with actual remorse and humility, not just because it might cost your bottom line, then you might not only come out the other side better off, but you will also be stronger as an organization having learned something about a much worse time in our world. But you better not be faking, people would see through that in a heartbeat.