As Media Insider analysed earlier this month,<\/a> the campaign was one which tends to lead to a lot of mutual backslapping and awards in the advertising world, but might miss the mark with much of its intended audience. The very fact that it is controversial would please some agencies.<\/p>\nThe ad is ubiquitous, with the character even popping up on the TVNZ+ app\u2019s opening screen recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat on earth is that creepy KFC ad in the TVNZ App, the Colonel in a hoody acting like some V for Vendetta doppelganger,\u201d wrote one Reddit user. \u201cEnough already.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so bad,\u201d said another user. \u201cAnd scared my kids when I opened the app on the TV (admittedly, they are young and very sheltered lol).<\/p>\n
\u201cI also don\u2019t get why TVNZ is littering their clean opening page with shitty branded stuff. I get they want every ad dollar, but it makes it feel like a tacky\/compromised product instead of premium (which I think TVNZ app actually is).\u201d<\/p>\n
The concerns extended further, based on the scourge of hacking and cybercrime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is deeply irresponsible to see a global brand like KFC using hacking as a sales hook and trivialising an issue that causes so much online harm, and at a time when the need to educate and warn of cyber crimes has never been higher,\u201d said one Media Insider source.<\/p>\n
\u201cBanks and governments are driving campaigns to warn against this very behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Colonel Hacker campaign featured on billboards, television and websites.<\/p>\n
One of the agencies behind the campaign, Special, has previously described the campaign as \u201cdisruptive and distinctive\u201d.<\/p>\n
KFC, which is owned by Restaurant Brands, said earlier this month that the campaign was intended to be lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not our intention to make light of cybercrime,\u201d a KFC spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery advertisement was clearly identifiable as coming from KFC itself. As is the case with all our campaigns, we do not target children in our advertising.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognise that cyber harm is a serious and growing problem globally and understand that the campaign\u2019s theme may have been interpreted differently by some viewers. We regret if any part of the campaign has caused offence or concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the company was reviewing all feedback \u201ccarefully\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have already made adjustments to the campaign as part of our commitment to being a responsible advertiser. We are also continuing to monitor and assess future campaign activations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked for more specifics, she said KFC had ensured its content was classified as GXC (general except children\u2019s programming). It had also \u201creviewed and pressure tested\u201d its programmatic advertising campaign and, where possible, adjusted the \u201ccreative to be more product-focused and removed use of the Colonel\u201d.<\/p>\n
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the ASA said those complaints had now been \u201csettled\u201d. \u201cAs part of the self-regulatory process, advertisers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[52249,1740,1032,1124,6743,1558,138,1738,52498,30701,68592,52351,1351,2936,10169,1073,103023,111,139,69,19764,5196,11422,1361,1961,1530],"class_list":["post-155276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-52249","tag-ad","tag-advertising","tag-authority","tag-became","tag-been","tag-business","tag-campaign","tag-commercials","tag-complaints","tag-fried","tag-hacker","tag-had","tag-insider","tag-kfc","tag-media","tag-mostcomplainedabout","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-received","tag-removed","tag-standards","tag-that","tag-this","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}