This has to be right up there with the worst marketing blunders ever. Promoting cheesy chicken on November the 9th in Germany of all places. Anywhere else in the world and we probably wouldn't give the date a second glance
I came across a shocking story yesterday which is a warning to all other companies using Bots or AI for similar ideas. This company is a household name around the world which we all know as Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC.
KFC in Germany had a bot/app that took care of their social media highlighting certain dates on the calendar for specials. Things like Christmas or Easter along with dates that are important in the German calendar. In all fairness this sounds like a good idea as the bot would automatically send out tweets or updates to facebook or wherever they had a presence.
A few days ago the Bot did it's job highlighting November the 9th as in important date to celebrate buying some KFC. This date is also known as Kristallnacht which for any of you don't know your history is an important date for all the wrong reasons.
Kristallnacht, the term commonly used to refer to Nov. 9, 1938, was the night that violent anti-Jewish demonstrations broke out in Germany and Austria. Germans call the night “Kristallnacht,” translated to mean, “The Night of Broken Glass,” because of the glass from the thousands of windows that were shattered. The event is largely viewed as a turning point in the history of Nazi Germany away from rhetoric and legislation toward violent anti-Jewish measures, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
There is no comeback from this as the damage is already done as how can you explain this that a bot does your marketing for social media. Someone has to input the dates first and either they are ignorant or have no clue what each date represents on the calendar. Good ideas can turn very sour so quickly into bad ideas and rather pay someone to do the job instead of a bot. When things are personal have a human presence and don't cut corners.
Saying sorry and blaming he bot for this error is never going to change what happened and is just insensitive even though this event happened 84 years ago.
Bots and AI have their place in the world but they cannot replace every human job as certain jobs require personal input that is beyond their capabilities. Mundane jobs with no thought process required by all means, but areas where a human being is required there is risk involved.
Imagine if this had to happen in other parts of the world highlighting a recent tragedy for celebration KFC would be torched and would become a night of broken glass for certain. Not surprisingly the bot/app has been suspended as obviously this was never checked and tested properly before going live. Someone was doing that job before the bot replaced them and all down to cost cutting and saving money which will no doubt have consequences with lost customers.
