KFC’s teddy bear ad filleted by watchdog

A TV ad for fried chicken that showed a teddy bear at the end of a rope being pulled into a tree-house has been given the chop by the advertising standards authority.

The complaint about Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was lodged by a professor of child psychiatry who expressed serious concerns that children could try to imitate the scene with other children, with potentially disastrous consequences.

The advertiser said it was not guilty of encouraging or condoning dangerous behaviour, but the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) said the promo could have given rise to potentially dangerous copycat activities among children and it upheld the complaint.