If you’ve been wondering if you should be finger lickin’ this year, now you know. KFC and Mother London, have removed its famous slogan – temporarily – in the chain’s first global campaign. The new commercial is a history of the finger lickin’ slogan on billboards and packs – but with the slogan pixelated. The tagline reads, That thing we always say? Ignore it, for now.

“This is our first-ever global campaign and that pretty much sums up how we feel about this. The world is united at the moment and the situation we’re in, quite simply, required a global response,” KFC said in its statement.

“This is a big step for us, but let’s be honest, our slogan is probably the most inappropriate out there right now. It’s not that people’s behaviour is wrong. It’s our bad, not theirs.”

Kate Wall, head of advertising KFC UK&I, added, “We aren’t about skirting around issues at KFC and fortunately, in Mother and freuds, we have agencies that are as into big and bold ideas as we are. I think we all know it has been a tricky year for the hospitality and advertising industries but, like our slogan, we’ll bounce back. Bigger and better than ever.”

KFC also had to pause its Fingerlickin’ good film in mid-March. The 60-second spot film showed people from all walks of life in close-up, eating KFC chicken before licking their fingers appreciatively. This Pavlovian commercial was set to a rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2.

Credits:

Creative Agency: Mother
Production: Mother
Stills Photography: Martin Poole
Digital Production: Wellcom
Music: Fog Lake
PR: Freuds
Media: Mindshare