Advertising Standards Authority and KFC…

The ASA has recently upheld a complaint about a poster advertisement and a press advertisement for KFC,’ on the basis that the use of the word ‘cluck’ was too close to a commonly used profanity.

The ‘offending’ poster, seen at bus stops and other locations during September 2019, featured the phrase “WHAT THE CLUCK?! £1.99 FILL UP LUNCH” alongside an image of food items on a menu.

In their assessment of the complaints received, the ASA found that the use of the word “cluck” was a reference to the sound a chicken made and that that was relevant to the product being advertised. They also acknowledged that the ad did not contain the rhyming expletive .They recognised that there were several variations of the “what the…” expression, all commonly used to denote surprise or outrage, and not all of which finished with an expletive. The chicken sound effect used to complete the expression in the radio and TV ads in the campaign did not therefore directly substitute for an expletive. However, the written word “cluck” was used in the poster and press ads and they considered people would interpret that as alluding specifically to the expression, “what the f**k”.

They commented that this ending to the saying was so likely to offend that it should not generally be used or alluded to in advertising, regardless of whether the ad was featured in a newspaper which had an adult target audience. The report stated “We also considered it likely that parents may want their children to avoid the word, or obvious allusions to it. The poster was likely to be seen by people of all ages and while we recognised that the press ads would have a primarily adult audience, they could still be seen by children. For those reasons we concluded that the allusion to the word ‘f**k’ in ads with a general adult audience was likely to cause serious and widespread offence, and that it was irresponsible for them to appear where children could see them.”

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