Kentucky Fascist Chicken – It’s window breakin’ good
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has apologised for inviting German customers to celebrate the anniversary of Kristallnacht by ordering fried chicken and cheese.
According to the Guardian, the fast-food giant sent the message to its customers on Wednesday, the 84th anniversary of the night when Nazis gangs attacked Jewish shops, businesses and synagogues across Germany, and the beginning of the Nazis’ attempt to annihilate Europe’s Jews.
KFC sent its customers the message:
“Commemorate Kristallnacht – treat yourself to more soft cheese and crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!”
About an hour later it sent out another message apologising for the previous one and blaming it on “a fault in our system,” which is clearly true.
It has been assumed that the message was computer generated, with the cheesy text to promote cheesy chicken automatically connected to current anniversaries and events to stimulate consumption.
Germans were astonished that the company had no checking mechanism to pick up on such a blunder, apparently not even noticing until after it was reported to them.
The company has not explained how the message came to be sent out but said…
“We are very sorry, we will check our internal processes immediately so that this doesn’t happen again. Please excuse the error.”
The German tabloid Bild called the mistake “tasteless” and said it was “fast-food advertising at the cost of the remembrance of the victims of the Nazi regime.”
In pogroms across Germany on the night between 9 and 10 November 1938, Nazi mobs took to the streets of Germany with acts of violence against Jews.
The incident recalled McDonald’s attempt in Portugal to use the slogan “Sundae Bloody Sundae” in a Halloween campaign for its ice cream. On Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972, British troops killed 14 unarmed civilians at a civil rights march in Northern Ireland.
