KFC has come under fire from an animal rights group over its new TV advert, which features a strutting chicken moving in time to a booming soundtrack and the strapline ‘the whole chicken’.
World Animal Protection said it objected to the ad on the grounds that it misrepresented how the majority of chickens raised for meat actually live.
The organisation has written an open letter to the fast food giant claiming chickens are “sensitive, intelligent animals” that “often endure significant suffering as a result of the extreme genetic selection that pushes them to reach slaughter weight in just six weeks. To compound this problem, industrially farmed chickens are often raised in cramped, crowded sheds, with little to keep them active and healthy.”
“Your current advertising campaign – The Whole Chicken – featuring a healthy, strutting chicken, seems to imply that KFC chickens enjoy a high quality life with lots of space and freedom. But we believe that consumers have the right to know the whole truth when it comes to the welfare of the chickens in their bargain buckets.”
World Animal Protection said other fast food brands such as Burger King had committed to higher welfare standards for its chicken, and asked KFC to do the same.
A KFC spokesperson said: “Our fans know that when they eat with us it’s all about the chicken, the whole chicken and nothing but the chicken, so seeing one in our ad shouldn’t come as a surprise!
“We’re proud of our chicken, freshly prepared in our restaurants and sourced from Red Tractor Assured farms, and we’re not afraid to show it.”
