Fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC is temporarily suspending its long-time advertisement slogan “it’s finger lickin’ good”, calling it inappropriate during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a time when experts are discouraging people from touching their mouths with their hands, KFC reportedly said the slogan “doesn’t feel quite right”.
The slogan, used on and off by the chain for 64 years, starting from 1956, will be not be included in advertising around the globe starting this week and supposedly reappear later, the company announced in a press release, according to international news outlets.
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. It now reads “it’s good”.
The ad ends with the tagline: “That thing we always say? Ignore it. For now.”
According to reports, the move comes after the fast food chain retracted one of its ads in the UK featuring the catchphrase, which showed people licking their own fingers as well as others’. At the time, social media users had criticised the company for the campaign.
The announcement has received mixed reactions on social media.
Twitter user @andrewanthony83 thought that if proper hygiene is followed, licking fingers should not make a difference: “@KFC_UKI You’ve already touched your KFC with your fingers to eat it, so you should have washed your hands already, so why can’t you lick your own fingers, if you didn’t wash your hands before you started eating it then not lickin’ you’re finger won't make a difference!”
There were also those who shared why licking one's hands might not be a good idea during the pandemic.
Tweep @nanayaa_xx replied: “It’s about saving others not yourself. You licking your fingers, even if you wash them after, you’ll probably touch a table or chair or door or something. And that someone else can contract corona[virus] from you, even if ydk (you don’t know) that you have it because you could be asymptomatic.”
KFC Arabia posts ad
Going with the theme of maintaining proper hygiene, on August 26, KFC Arabia posted an ad on their Twitter page asking people to wash their hands before and after eating their chicken.
“Your safety is in your hand,” read the caption by @kfcarabia.
