apt blog

Is it really the ‘Whole Chicken’? KFC’s new ad sparks controversy online

The McDonalds’ ‘Good to Know Campaign’ was a strategic move in order to retaliate against the lash back of the quality of their products. This was relatively successful; however, the response to KFC’s release of ‘The Whole Chicken’ for the same matter has been somewhat different and has seen outrage by some online.

The video was initially designed to convey to consumers of where their chickens are sourced from and to emphasise the quality of their fast food, a strategy similarly approached by competitors such as McDonalds. However, the video portrays a rebellious hen strutting around to music without any indicators of this. As a result, the video attracted a huge amount of positive and negative media attention.

There have been some positive views of this video, where the energetic chicken has attracted much amusement to online users. A Facebook user commented that he found the video ‘hilarious’ but then questioned ‘does that make me sick?’. It could be argued whether this type of video content make us inhumane, because we are giving chickens human characteristics whilst we are also portraying them as our food. We can question ourselves this: is this really appropriate as marketing in the form of entertainment on social media platforms, or are people overreacting to a light-hearted video?

The video of the strutting chicken has sparked comments that ‘This advert makes us consider the animal we are eating’ (YouTube) and in fact draws away from the fact KFC is attempting to advertise their high-quality meat. The video is actually associating the food we eat with the animal itself, inducing guilt and distaste toward consumption of the products. Furthermore, the advert could be seen as ‘distasteful and disrespectful to the animal’ because it is directly associating chickens as food, which some viewers find disturbing because the video visually highlights that the products used are from chickens. This backlash can also be emphasised by the fact that consumers don’t want to be thinking of what they are eating, after a user even commented that he wants ‘to be a vegetarian’ after watching the video which was a completely unintended response through the creation of the advert.

Based on the evidence, here at APT Marketing we can conclude that this campaign is a failed attempt to convey a straightforward message, and instead it shows a darker message that has sparked outrage on social media, leading to a lot of backlash that may be difficult to recover from. The approach to create a fun advert appealed to some, but overall it just created complicated problems for KFC. We can learn from this to not convey messages that speak indirectly of an offensive matter, and only advertise the product we are selling.

My Work Experience - Emma

Choosing the right work experience for you is a very difficult process, as mostly you do not know what to expect when you get there. APT Marketing & pr was certainly the right choice for me, as it has really opened my eyes to see how businesses coordinate daily as not only is it a successful business, but the team I worked with are fantastic.

Admittedly, I was fairly nervous on the first day as I was walking into the unknown and I hadn’t looked much into marketing operates in the business world; but I soon discovered that I was extremely welcome. My first tasks involved drafting some tweets for the Compass Holidays and Bicycle Hub Twitter accounts. I managed to think up some eye-catching puns, including ‘there’s Norway you’re missing out!’ which I think I found far too amusing. This was then following by a campaign write-up, of which I chose the KFC ‘The Whole Chicken’ advert (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KykM1kwdaOA ) where I wrote about the controversy of the advert relating to the McDonald’s ‘Good to Know’ campaign.

I then went on to write blogs for The Cheltenham Cycling Festival, of which APT were helping to promote. This involved a post about Chris Froome’s success following his win of the Tour De France on Sunday 23^rd July, which was then posted on the Cheltenham Festival of Cycling website. Throughout the following day, I wrote blogs on a countdown to the Green Bike Trail, a promotion for businesses to download a poster supporting the event and a cycling through the ages post. This was then posted on the Festival blogging webpage. Considering I have never written a blog before I found this somewhat challenging, but fortunately Jessica was on hand and showed me some examples and websites to get me started (and I don’t think they turned out too bad).

I also was able to help with other marketing techniques, as I was given the opportunity to compile some newsletters. This involved using a design software called Canva, which I had never heard of before, where you can create logos and signs to accompany text. It is an extremely versatile website, where I also used it to create photos for my social media tweets and blogs. I was then shown how to put this in the emailing system, where it will be sent to real customers!

My penultimate blog was to be written for one of APT’s clients. It was on a topic that I took great interest to, concerning cyber attacks. This was really valuable as I was able to apply a great deal of economic knowledge from my studies at school; therefore I hope it makes a great read. Following this, I was also shown how to upload and edit their new Bicycle Hub website and how to upload new products, which was actually quite exciting and different as I have not done much website management.

Throughout my time at APT Marketing & pr I have gained many new skills, including manipulation of tweets in a schedule, learnt how blogging acts as a marketing technique and how to use and edit websites through new software to sell products. My experience has been second to none and I absolutely enjoyed every moment! I recommend the business to anyone who seeks experience in a marketing environment with an amazing team! Thank you for a lovely time☺

Membership Body Lobbying

We have been working with a number of membership organisations for many years now.  As one of the ways to cement our commitment to membership marketing we became a Memberwise Recognised Supplier a few years ago, alongside regularly attending the annual conferences.

We recently gave a Membership Body Lobbying Masterclass at the MEMX Conference in April, alongside our client BABTAC (British Association of Beauty Therapy & Cosmetology).  We lobbied on behalf of BABTAC as part of the Cosmetic Interventions review carried out by the Department for Health following the PPI scandal, which began back in 2012 although the final report was only released late in 2016.

We thought it would be a useful to tool to share our thoughts on things to consider before you start the lobbying process and the key challenges you may face...

Before you start, there are three questions that you need to ask yourself, your group or your wider membership. These are:

1. Does it directly impact your industry? If the answer is yes, then lobbying can or should be a part of your toolkit to combat any adverse effects. If it doesn’t then you need to assess how it might affect your industry or whether there is another organisation you can join forces with.
2. Is it in the best interest of your members? This is a key question to ask yourself - Will it benefit your members if you do lobby, or hurt them if you don’t?
3. Is it or should it be a priority? Some issues don’t seem to be a big deal, so once the situation has been assessed, you then need to identify and understand the potential short-term and long-term impact.

Once you have made the decision that you want to lobby, then there are an endless amount of tools at your disposal such as petitions & surveys, government consultations, self-regulation, PR & Media and even digital! The list really does go on...

There are however, many challenges organisations face when lobbying and although there are too many to list here in this blog there are three core issues which crop up time and time again:

• OPPOSITION: If the issue is weighty enough and affects industries and organisations other than your own, then you will most certainly come up against opposition and you will likely contradict what they are saying. The key tactics here are to be sure of your argument and to understand your opposition’s point of view.
• BUDGET: It is difficult to define a fixed budget for lobbying, there are too many factors involved! The best approach is to set out an end-goal, alongside smaller milestones which you can target as a business. This means you can focus on the initial milestone, attributing budget to achieving the first aspect.
• SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE: To you, your argument may seem the only one that is relevant, but in many cases you will be the only organisation to hold that view. Many membership organisations shy away from swimming against the tide of opinion, but you shouldn’t be afraid to do so.

There are many external factors which can impact your business and sometimes you do have to sit back and watch them happen. So if you have the chance to change what’s happening and the outcome to benefit your industry, why not get in touch with us about lobbying?

We have experience in successfully contributing to public policy and public consultations and if the future of your business or your members’ businesses are being challenged we’d love to support you.  If you’d like to chat to find out more, give us a call on 01242 250642.  We’d be only too happy to discuss.

www.membershipmarketinghelp.co.uk