Evaluation of a Commercial - Free Essay Sample

Introduction

The “KFC FCK Ad” is an advert created by the restaurant chain and franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken, commonly known as KFC. FCK is an urban slang term that refers to a censored swear word. It is considered to be a word that conveys extreme emotions and should be used cautiously. Kentucky Fried Chicken prepared the ad as a way of communicating with their customers over the inadequacies and lack of chicken in their restaurants and franchised ones. The add included a KFC bucket inscribed with mixed initials from the franchise’s abbreviation. The advert had FCK marked onto it and an apologetic message at the bottom of the poster to describe the situation as it was.

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The message for KFC UK read:

WE’RE SORRY

A chicken restaurant without any chicken. It’s not ideal. Huge apologies to our customers, especially those who travelled out of their way to find we were closed. And endless thanks to our KFC team members and our franchise partners for working tirelessly to improve the situation. It’s been a hell of a week, but we’re making progress, and every day more and more fresh chicken is being delivered to our restaurants. Thank you for bearing with us. (Brownsell, 2018)

Flyers and Posters

The ad was made into flyers and posters that were circulated online with the help of peer-to-peer sharing. The internet played an integral role in the process. The aim was to convey a message, but it ended up sparking controversies amongst people. People gave their opinion based on different schools of thought, but, in the end, it was a successful campaign for the franchise and its restaurants.

The KFC franchise is a restaurant chain that specializes in cooking and selling chicken alongside other products and toppings. Following the food shortage in February 2018, the supply of chicken to the restaurant plummeted for KFC. KFC was forced to close some of its restaurants and operations. The closure held until the supply chain for KFC’s chicken went back to normal for a while due to the supply chain shortages. Such a decision had to be communicated to its customers. What better way to do it than use available resources to pass the message? “The FCK Ad” by KFC UK is a marketing and communications masterpiece and an effective restaurant advertisement.

The advert was met the required criteria. It is a message and has all that is necessary for a statement to be a message. The message has a sender, receiver, a message body, and a transfer medium from the sender to the receiver (Mamedova et al., 2019). The advert aimed to inform people of the restaurant chain’s struggles on its supply chain. There was a shortage of food in the United Kingdom, and supply was lower than the demand. For that reason, the company had top close some of its stores to ensure that it could distribute the small supplies it got to its most busy restaurants. The supply chain’s transportation changes also presented a unique challenge to the company that was now required to work on networks. The restaurant’s suppliers are the only ones who had mastered the supply networks.

Growing Concern

The growing concern about the shortage of chicken was not entirely a big issue for other restaurants, which continued operations and offered other available ford options. KFC provides some of the best chicken to its customers as a specialty. There was no logic for the company to continue operations when it was clear that the leading food they serve was out of stock and that customers had to wait for the next delivery. Lack of chicken for KFC spelled doom, which also indicated that the market would have to work with what was available. The customer at other restaurants and understand when they have

Present-day restaurants in the present are tailored to suit the tastes of clients and their customer base. KFC operates on a mass-market model and therefore has different kinds of target consumers. The message that was appended on the poster and the change on the label of the bucket on the advert can be considered applications of advertising principles and tactics. It is subliminal advertising at its best (Hsu & Chen, 2020).

The poster aimed to create talk about KFC during that period to increase market awareness on KFC and its various products. Kentucky Fried Chicken UK successfully managed to create a buzz around the restaurant chain. It also got the extra touch of finesse because it ended up being viral. Marketing communications are complicated, but they layout clear and specific issues concisely and clearly.

Marketing Communications

Marketing communications aim to ensure that the advert reaches as many people as possible. As seen in the message content, the advert’s target groups were the people who came for chicken at the restaurants and their loyal customers. The advert was clear and concise in its message. Conclusion: there is no doubt that the image on the poster effectively got people’s attention so that they can read the message. The letters appended on the regular KFC bucket that is used in their restaurants were rearranged to FCK.

FCK is a swear word and an urban slang that has been censored in many settings. The FCK advert struck controversy among people because some had different and rigid mindsets. There was a group of people who were in agreement with the delivery mechanism. Others called the restaurant chain out for their use of swearing and censored language in an advert. The success of the advertisement that was designed for use by Kentucky Fried Chicken in the United Kingdom.

The use of FCK on the bucket could have been intentional. The aim was to get people talking about KFC UK. Getting the people’s attention was relatively easy, mostly when they had already talked about or were still doing so. Most of the talk was not about communication but rather on the delivery tool used. Well, the center of attention had been the change of initials with the restaurant’s branding.

Conclusion

The advert had a very effective outreach and coverage in the whole of the United Kingdom. Adults talked about how the use of initials as an example of a company deviating from social responsibility and promoting odd practices. For the youth and teenagers, it was just another regular thing they see around. The use of swear words ahs been normalized for them because they commonly use them while texting. This creates a unique mix and effectiveness when reaching out to their customers. The best part is that even the restaurant uses the same initials in the way they are used in urban setups. The use was primarily oriented to portray the extreme emotion and frustration that KFC UK was having.

References

Brownsell, A. (2018). KFC: A very fcking clever campaign. Campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved 3 October 2020, from https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/kfc-fcking-clever-campaign/1498912.

Hsu, L., & Chen, Y. (2020). Neuromarketing, subliminal advertising, and hotel selection: An EEG study. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.04.009

Mamedova, N., Bezveselnaya, Z., Malakhova, E., Kozmin, V., Kornilova, I., & Savinchenko, T. (2019). The Modern Paradigm of Advertising in the Light of Sustainable Business Development. Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 6(4), 2110-2126.
https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2019.6.4(39).