With an Intentional Communications Strategy, Cultural Sensitivity Is Built In

Brands need to examine whether they should participate before showing up

Illustration of a woman at her computer with icons coming out — The never-ending need for content has led to an increase in "celebratory" days.Getty Images

With KFC’s recent social media firestorm surrounding an automated promotional message, it’s important for brands and agencies to reflect on how to prevent communication missteps.

All across the advertising world, teams are under pressure to always be creating content, whether it’s to satisfy ever-changing and often capricious algorithms on platforms or to juice more engagement out of their audience to help prove their jobs are valid to the powers that be.

This never-ending need for content and to consistently be present has led to an increase in “celebratory” days and users’ phones and feeds being flooded with content created so brands can participate—but that often isn’t adding value or encouraging meaningful engagement (and, in turn, affinity) for the brand.