This campaign showcases how KFC was able to play on an insight that’s ingrained within the culture of the region and turned a negative situation upside down, going directly to the root of their problem.

Instead of going after its image thieves, KFC targeted them with a campaign using a mix of OOH, newsprint ads, door-to-door flyers and other media.

Each piece of media included an invitation to steal from us.

From the largest cities to the smallest villages across the MENA region, restaurants, corner shops and cafeterias share a very familiar set of photos: KFC’s fried chicken, Zingers, Twisters, etc. And the reality was that there was very little KFC could do about it.

That’s not the worst part. KFC is very proud of their photos. They’re intentionally crafted to be mouthwatering, craveable. Anyone gets tempted by them.

However, these photos were being murdered: copied in low resolution, stretched, inverted, distorted, even pixelated beyond recognition.

A crime against KFC’s reputation.

Our images are being stolen for the fact they’re the best representation of what delicious fried chicken should look like.

Even though counterfeiting is known by most people, our consumers are not aware of our chicken images being stolen.

Introducing KFC Chicken Stock: an image database filled with delicious drool-worthy chicken for anyone to use by downloading high-resolution KFC photos in all their glory, absolutely free.

In most cases, when brand assets are stolen and used by others, most brands would go through lawsuits, legal action and cease-and-desist letters.

But KFC prides itself on being a welcoming and inclusive brand, so we were not going to fight it tooth and nail, especially given that it mostly concerned mom-and-pop restaurants.

Instead, we wanted to inject our everyday lightheartedness into the situation and turn it to our advantage. After all, people were imitating us, and that was flattering.

We did not want to do what you’d expect from a corporation.??Which is why we did the exact opposite.

By taking a uniquely KFC take on counterfeiting :

We do not sue you, instead we enable you to steal, as long as you do it the right way.

We launched the campaign using a mix of OOH, newsprint ads, door-to-door flyers and other media. Each piece of media included an invitation to steal from us.

To start a conversation, we told people the truth in newspapers: “Others are stealing our pictures, but we can’t blame them, they look mouthwatering. That’s why we’re letting them do it, as long as they do it right.”

Our image bank made over 500+ images available for download.

And it worked! We received over 349,000 unique website visits, proving we don’t just have the most craveable chicken, but also a great sense of humor – even to counterfeiters. In fact, they even broke our website.

We got over 18,000 downloads from the MENA region and beyond (more than 40 countries to be exact). That includes Japan, China, the US, Brazil, France, and even Ukraine.

And people were talking: The campaign’s Twitter mentions reached 11,000 in one day.

Meanwhile the impact on KFC’s perception was huge as per the results of our online community survey: the brand’s “Likeability” increased 24% - a vital metric for a heritage brand.