BBH’s KFC spot not “fresh” enough for Ad Standards Authority

It’s not often that real life takes its cues from satire, but it seems like the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority was reading The Onion before passing judgement on this KFC ad by BHH London. 

According to Campaign UK, the ASA received complaints that the ad was misleading in describing the “freshness” of KFC’s chicken. The argument is that the ad implies that KFC products are hand prepared in-store using chicken that is delivered fresh every day. While KFC argues that the ad only refers to their bone-in chicken, which indeed prepared by hand, they concede that the chicken is delivered three times a week, and not daily.

The ASA has ordered the ad pulled from TV, and cannot air again in its present form.

So what does this have to do with The Onion? By coincidence, the satirical news source’s recent lead story featured the FCC coming down on KFC’s ads, ruling that “KFC No Longer Permitted To Use Word ‘Eat’ In Advertisements”