CANBERRA, Australia, April 15 (UPI) — The Australian wing of fast food giant KFC apologized for promoting its new spicy chicken with an “NSFW” photo many derided as a bit too spicy.
The Friday morning tweet from the official KFC Australia account featured a photo of a woman and a man sitting on the couch, with the woman reaching into the man’s pixelated groin area.
“WARNING: #NSFW. Something hot and spicy is coming soon…” the tweet read.
“NSFW” is Internet slang for “Not Safe For Work,” a label usually denoting sexual content.
The Twitter post was deleted after a flurry of complaints accusing the company of using misogynistic advertising tactics.
The company said the tweet was meant to be playful.
“This was a genuine tweet to launch KFC’s new Hot & Spicy chicken products next week,” the company said in a statement provided to website Mumbrella. “It was not intended to offend and we’ve removed the image.”
A KFC representative elaborated on the statement to Mashable Australia.
“We are very sorry this occurred — we didn’t mean to offend and removed the post as soon as we realized we’d made an error in judgment,” the representative said. “The post was meant to be a roll-out of our new Hot & Spicy products but we overstepped the mark and are sorry for any offense caused.”
The company later tweeted an apology.
“We are very sorry for our earlier tweet on H&S — we didn’t mean to offend and removed it when we realized we’d made an error in judgment,” the company tweeted.
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