KFC receives backlash for “hacking” Spotify Premium
By Sara Shaw • February 7, 2020
Sometimes marketers are so eager to get earned media that it means violating terms of service and users’ trust. The latest offender is KFC.
Fast Company’s Jeff Beer reports, “To launch the new Kentucky Burger in the Middle East, the UAE-based agency Memac Ogilvy & Mather partnered with three popular artists in the region…who transformed their profile pages into de facto KFC ads.” Artist profiles displayed KFC cover photos, events, bios and song titles like, “Discover,” “New,” “Kentucky,” “Burger,” “Come & Visit,” “KFC,” “Get It,” and “Before It’s Too Late.”
Beer goes on to say that, “KFC has essentially made null and void Spotify’s brand promise to its own customers that if they pay $10 a month they won’t see ads…This is a hack the same way you’d “hack” the quiet car on the train by busting in to yell about fried chicken at the top of your lungs. No one wants that. In fact, the reason they’re there in the first place is to avoid you.”