The rivalry between fast food giants has taken on a strange political
twist: KFC has aped Donald Trump's message to Kim Jong-un, in an
attempt to feud with McDonald's.
It is the latest in a growing history of retailers, particularly fast food
chains, attempting to appeal to people on social media, particularly through
pithy tweets.
On Wednesday KFC's UK and Ireland Twitter account posted a parody tweet
boasting its burger was larger than those at McDonald's.
"McDonald's leader Ronald just stated he has a 'burger on his desk at all
times'," the post read.
"Will someone from his big shoed, red nosed regime inform him that I too
have a burger on my desk, but mine is a box meal which is bigger and more
powerful than his, and mine has gravy!
'Cluckbait'
So far, the battle of the corporate tweets has been one-sided, with no
response from McDonald's. However, KFC's tweet was shared more than 180,000
times and liked more than 475,000 times within 48 hours.
One Twitter user posted : "This is amazing."
"I'm following you guys because of this tweet," said another .
Other responses were critical of the restaurant chain's gag.
"What stage of capitalism is it where brands imitate threats of nuclear war
to sell fried chicken," posted one Twitter user .
Another simply read : "Cluckbait".
Other Twitter users were keen to hear from KFC's competitors: "I hope my
@BurgerKing will chime in to bridge this partisan divide," read a response
to the KFC tweet.
"Has Wendy's responded to this yet?" another commenter asked .
As yet, US burger chain Wendy's has not weighed in on the conversation, but
have gained a reputation on social media for engaging with their
customers and critics, including jibes at McDonald's, and, in 2017, were
part of the most retweeted post of the year .
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It is not the first time KFC have gained notoriety on social media, either. In
October 2017, eagle-eyed Mike Edgett highlighted the 11 people followed by
KFC in a tweet which has since been retweeted more than 300,000 times.
So delighted were KFC by the response it sent Mike Edgett a painting of
him being carried by the Colonel himself .
In recent years, corporate tweets have became more than just posts
advertising products and deals.
In August supermarket giants Aldi and Lidl had a good-humoured twitter spat
which was shared almost 3,000 times when one social media user asked
which was the better supermarket .
The two supermarkets responded using memes and gifs including a dance-off
challenge.
But there have also been countless examples of failed attempts at social
media marketing.
In October, Saudi Arabian Twitter users called for a boycott of Pizza Hut
after the restaurant's Twitter account published an advertisement which
appeared to mock people with a speech impediment.
The advert began with the hashtag #Global_Day_of_Stammering and
introduced an offer for pizza, but punctuated the accompanying message with
repeated letters and syllables to mimic a stammer or stutter.
Pizza Hut deleted the offending tweet and apologised but by then the
hashtag #I_am_boycotting_Pizza_Hut had been used more than 48,000 times.
In December 2017, Poundland posted its Christmas advertising campaign on
Twitter showing images of a toy elf in suggestive poses.
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