Facebook post lands KFC in hot water

Wow. Giant fast food chains just can’t seem to get social media right. First McDonald’s had its nightmare badtag run and now KFC is in hot water over post it put up on its Thai Facebook page.

As tsunami warnings were issued to countries around the Indian Ocean yesterday the fried chicken giant told Thai citizens to evacuate to their homes, but to order a bucket of chicken on the way. Classy.

According to the Associated Press, the post said:

Let’s hurry home and follow the earthquake news. And don’t forget to order your favourite KFC menu.

Thousands of Thais reacted angrily to the post, venting on messaging boards and social media, branding the company insensitive and selfish.

KFC later wrote a post apologising for the gaffe and asking for forgiveness.

The tsunami warnings were triggered by an earthquake which struck off the coast of Indonesia yesterday.

Twitter went into overdrive as news of the earthquake spread. At one stage, seven out of ten globally trending topics were related to the event. Fortunately the threat of a tsunami dissipated as the day wore on.