KFC’s recent ad in which a man is baptized in a lake of gravy has sparked hundreds of complaints from some viewers who claim it is blasphemous and glorifies cults.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the U.K.’s independent advertising regulator, has received nearly 600 complaints about KFC’s commercial, an ASA spokesperson told ADWEEK.
The complaints include from people saying the ad promotes cannibalism, that it glorifies cults and satanism, and that it mocks Christianity and baptism, the spokesperson said.
However, the ASA has not launched an investigation into KFC’s spot and determined it does not break the regulator’s advertising rules.
KFC launched “All Hail Gravy” on March 14 in the U.K. The ad depicts a man who is lost in the woods but follows a group of mysterious strangers carrying a giant, golden egg. They end up at a lake of gravy, where they baptize the man and induct him into the cult of KFC.
The gravy spot is part two of KFC’s “Believe” campaign that debuted last year and introduced the concept of a chicken worshiping cult. The second installment ups the ante on the cultish imagery and absurdist humor.
KFC declined to comment on the complaints received by the ASA.
Earlier this month, Monica Silic, chief marketing officer of KFC U.K. and Ireland, told ADWEEK that the campaign’s goal is to “bring an entertaining antidote to this dull, chaotic world” and reach Gen Z amid the increasingly competitive fast-food chicken wars.
The brand and its agency, Mother London, were aware that the ad might split opinions.
“We are being polarizing, because we want conversation,” Martin Rose, executive creative director of Mother London, said at the time.
Since “Believe” first aired in June 2024, the campaign has boosted KFC’s brand reputation scores, including increasing its brand modernity score by 10% year over year, and correlated with positive sales momentum, said Silic. KFC’s U.K. sales increased by 5% year-on-year in fourth quarter of 2024.
