'You Want Me to Write FCK on a Bucket?' How KFC's PR Crisis Became a Print Ad for the Ages

Inside the U.K. brand's brilliant response to a stressful situation

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CANNES, France—Few things in life feel better than a perfectly timed obscenity.

And luckily for KFC U.K. and Ireland, the brand found exactly that. When the chain faced widespread store closures due to a severe and unexpected chicken shortage, it had all the makings of a PR disaster—the kind some brands never truly recover from.

The marketing team and its agency, Mother London, knew they had to respond. But how? What message would come off as both sincere and on-brand for a chain known for not taking itself too seriously? (This is, after all, the same team that built an entire ad around chickens

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