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KFC cautions licking your fingers not safe in pandemic

Posted On: Aug. 24, 2020 1:58 PM CST

KFC

Kentucky Friday Chicken says it is dropping its famous “Finger Lickin’ Good” catchphrase in several of its markets worldwide, as the practice of licking one’s fingers is too risky due to COVID-19.

The move to pull the slogan, which KFC began featuring in 1956, comes after the restaurant chain faced 163 complaints with the United Kingdom’s Advertising and Standards Authority and after KFC pulled advertisements in March 2020, over fears it could encourage the spread of coronavirus, the Sun newspaper reported Monday.

“That thing we always say? Ignore it. For now,” KFC said in a video it posted to YouTube.

“We find ourselves in a unique situation, having an iconic slogan that doesn’t quite fit in the current environment,” Catherine Tan-Gillespie, global chief marketing officer at KFC, told the Sun.

The slogan change will affect KFC’s marketing in the U.K., Netherlands, South Africa and Canada, as well as parts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, according to the newspaper.

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