Have you heard that KFC is suspending their slogan, “Finger Lickin’ Good” because of Covid-19 concerns? If you’ve watched the news, tuned into a late night monologue, listened to the radio or been online at all you probably have.

Here are a few of the headlines:

And that’s just the tippity-tip of the very tip of the iceberg. KFC’s decision made it on to virtually every local and national newscast. If you didn’t see it on television maybe you saw anti-maskers posting about how this is surely one of the signs of the Apocalypse.

In actuality, KFC has done one of the greatest marketing coups of all time. Think about all of those headline, all of those eye-rolling talking heads on TV, all of the wacky morning shows (yeah, we talked about it!) and ALL of those apoplectic posts on social media. Now, think about how much it would have cost to BUY all those mentions. We’re talking about total saturation over every media platform for multiple days.

That would have cost billions of dollars to buy. KFC got it all for essentially nothing…whatever the cost is of sending out a press release on company letterhead.

Really, it’s even MORE valuable because we didn’t recognize it as an ad. I didn’t. Odds are you didn’t either until just now. And guess what every one of these stories, crosstalks and posts all had in common. They ALL included KFC’s slogan…”Finger Lickin’ Good”. Their actual marketing slogan is PART OF THE STORY!

The true brilliance is that KFC used a global health crisis to get their message out…again, for free…without any of the backlash about “exploiting a crisis”. When you heard about this story were you angry? Amused? Did you have to share with others just so you point out how “P.C.” everything has become? The point is, it doesn’t matter what you thought of the story. Just that you thought about it. And talked about it. And posted about it.

This is the best marketing stunt I’ve seen since the time they convinced everyone they should PAY for water, which you can get free anywhere in the U.S.

I’m impressed!