Risks of real-time marketing: KFC trolls crying kid

Any event that gathers a lot of attention is now an opportunity for brands to barge into the conversation. The NCAA men’s basketball championships, aka March Madness, is no different.

For KFC, that’s meant following the games and offering up pithy tweets on the action. Most times these have been rather benign, but this afternoon it saw an opportunity to act fast in the aftermath of Stanford’s upset of Kansas. CBS showed an upset young Kansas fan crying in heartbreak. So naturally KFC saw a chance to sell some chicken to its nearly half million followers.

Screen Shot 2014-03-23 at 2.49.11 PM

This wasn’t the best move. KFC backtracked a few minutes later by removing the tweet. It skipped the apology route in favor of acting like it never happened. The CBS decision to show the upset child provoked plenty of backlash, as noted by USA Today’s For the Win sports blog.

Give KFC credit. It acted quickly to realize making fun of a crying kid isn’t the best look for a big brand and took down the tweet before it elicited much backlash.

https://digiday.com/?p=69148

More in Marketing

Why Georgia-Pacific consolidated most retail media spending with seven networks after testing over 25 options

Figuring out which retail media network is worth spending on given the glut of new retail media networks can be a challenge for marketers.

Why the creator industry is setting its sights on on the small screen

As the creator economy continues to boom, creators are making their way off of mobile screens and onto the small screen.

Inside marketing’s elusive Quixote quest for digital ad transparency

Stuck in a spin cycle, marketers are grappling with the endless challenge of making tangible progress on ad transparency.