Crispy Messaging: How KFC Fried the Script on Corporate Comms
The first calls came in fast: too fast for anyone at KFC’s UK headquarters to do more than wince.
Customers were furious. Stores were shuttering across the country, and news outlets leapt at the chance to mock a fast-food giant that had somehow run out of its defining product: chicken. Within hours, #KFCCrisis was trending. Social media was a collage of locked doors, snarky headlines and customers who weren’t just disappointed—they were incensed.
The 2018 chicken shortage had all the hallmarks of a reputational disaster. A botched transition to a new delivery partner caused massive distribution failures. Hundreds of restaurants across the UK were forced to close. And yet, within a matter of days, KFC managed to not only regain control of the narrative, but also earn praise for how they handled it.
A Calculated Risk
Into that chaos came a single, striking image: a full-page ad in The Sun and Metro that featured an empty chicken bucket bearing the familiar red-and-white KFC design. Except this time, the logo read: FCK. Below it sat a simple, unvarnished apology: “We’re sorry. A chicken restaurant without any chicken. It’s not ideal. Huge apologies to our customers.”
Public reaction was swift and surprisingly warm. The tension that had been escalating suddenly diffused. The story stopped being about a failure in logistics and started being about a brand that understood the moment and knew how to speak to its audience.
Most companies in crisis default to neutral, overly sanitized statements. They hide behind passive language and logistical details, afraid to admit fault. KFC did the opposite. They owned the mess. They called it what it was. And they did it with a tone that blended humility and humor, without tipping into arrogance or evasion.
The FCK ad wasn’t just a clever pun, it was a tonal pivot. It let the public know that KFC understood how ridiculous the situation was and that they weren’t too proud to laugh at themselves. That kind of emotional intelligence is rare in corporate communication. It’s even rarer when it lands.
The honesty was disarming. The humor didn’t feel flippant or forced. It felt earned. In a world of scripted apologies, the ad felt like something a real person might say. And that made all the difference.
Of course, this wasn’t a guaranteed win. Humor in a crisis is risky. If the tone had been even slightly off, it could have made things worse. But KFC had a few advantages: a brand voice already grounded in irreverence, a customer base accustomed to a bit of cheek, and the patience to wait until operations were stabilizing before making a statement.
The result was a rare thing: a public apology that didn’t just mitigate damage, it reframed the story entirely.
The Aftermath
News coverage shifted almost immediately. Media outlets began praising the ad. Communications professionals held it up as an example of crisis response done right. Even angry customers softened. Many pointed to the FCK campaign as the moment they felt the brand was being honest with them.
KFC didn’t just survive the incident, they gained ground. What could have been a lasting reputational wound became a testament to the power of tone, timing and trust.
That shift didn’t come from wordplay alone. It came from a broader strategy—one that aligned internal stakeholders, prioritized clarity and understood that a brand’s voice is more than just the words it chooses. It’s the consistency of its message, the authenticity of its tone and the confidence with which it speaks—even when the news isn’t good.
The Infrastructure Behind Bold Responses
The FCK ad worked because the environment around it made it possible. The copy was clever, but it would have meant little without the coordination behind the scenes. For a statement like that to land, the legal team needs to be aligned with the comms team. Regional spokespeople need to echo the same message. Journalist inquiries need to be handled consistently and transparently.
Had there been a leak of contradictory internal emails or an off-message quote from a franchise owner, the ad’s impact would have dissolved. Instead, everything around it reinforced the same idea: KFC had made a mistake, and they were owning it fully.
That kind of alignment doesn’t happen by chance. It takes infrastructure: a clear view of every conversation, every statement and every version of the message. It requires systems that log inquiries, monitor sentiment and help teams act in concert, not in chaos.
What the public saw was a bucket. What made it work was everything underneath it.
The strongest crisis response strategies don’t start with the ad. They start with the groundwork that ensures everyone is speaking from the same page. That means visibility, coordination and historical context. All of which are nearly impossible to manage with scattered notes and Slack threads.
Broadsight wasn’t around during the FCK campaign. But it’s exactly the kind of system that would have supported that level of clarity. It centralizes comms intelligence, helps track media response in real time and ensures the next message you send isn’t undermined by the last one you forgot about.
Because moments like this don’t offer second chances. When the public is watching, the smallest inconsistency can do the biggest damage.
When your crisis starts to sizzle, don’t wing it. Broadsight helps keep your ducks—er, chickens—in a row. Request a demo today.
Receive our newsletter
Sign up below and we’ll be in touch with monthly updates about Broadsight, along with news and insights to keep you on the cutting edge of communications work in an AI era.
