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 In an era when face masks and hand-washing have become the norm and
health officials are recommending people to stop touching their
faces, KFC said the slogan "doesn't feel quite right."
The slogan, used on and off by the Yum Brands Inc <YUM.N> owned
chain for 64 years, will be paused in advertising around the globe
from Monday and re-appear when the time is right, the company said
in a press release.
The restaurant chain unveiled a short video clip on its KFC UK and
Ireland YouTube channel on Monday, showing various KFC chicken
buckets with the "Finger Lickin'" words blurred out from its
captions.
The ad then ends with the tagline "That thing we always say? Ignore
it. For now".
The move comes after the chain pulled down one of its advertisements
in the UK featuring the catchphrase, which showed people licking
their own fingers as well as those of their companions after eating
its chicken.
The ad, broadcast in March, was widely criticized on social media as
promoting behavior that could increase the chance of COVID-19 and
the UK's Advertising Standards Authority received at least 150
complaints, according to the Drum.
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It is also another example of a major company being forced to rethink names of
brands and taglines, following social media backlash for being insensitive or
out of touch with the times.
Consumer goods giant Unilever <ULVR.L> recently changed the name of its 40-year
old "Fair & Lovely" skin cream brand, while soda maker PepsiCo <PEP.O> plans to
change the name of its Aunt Jemima cake mixes after coming under social media
pressure.
"We find ourselves in a unique situation - having an iconic slogan that doesn't
quite fit in the current environment," KFC's global chief marketing officer,
Catherine Tan-Gillespie, said in a statement.
(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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