KFC didn't mean to tell everyone to mark Nazi attack anniversary with cheesy chicken

KFC has apologised after a promotional message was sent to customers in Germany to “treat yourself” on Kristallnacht with cheesy chicken.

Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass refers to a number of Nazi attacks on November 9-10 1938 against Jewish people in Germany and Austria that caused more than 90 deaths, thousands of arrests along with the destruction of Jewish businesses and synagogues.

The anti-Semitic pogrom is seen by many as the beginning of the Holocaust.

In a notification alert to its mobile app users, the message reportedly read: "It's memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!"

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

An hour after the insensitive promotion, another message was sent out to apologise and blamed the original message as "a fault in our system," The Guardianreported.

The company then added: "We are very sorry, we will check our internal processes immediately so that this doesn’t happen again. Please excuse the error.”

Screenshots of the notification began to circulate, people shared their outrage at KFC for this alert being sent to customers.

Daniel Sugarman, Director of Public Affairs at the Board of Deputies of British Jews called the first message from the fast food chain "worst marketing blunder" and "absolutely hideous."

Dalia Grinfeld, the associate director of European affairs at the Jewish NGO Anti-Defamation League, tweeted: “How wrong can you get on Kristallnacht KFC Germany. Shame on you!”

KFC Germany has since described how the notification was "obviously unplanned, insensitive and unacceptable message," and told Newsweekthe blunder occurred due to the app's "automated push notification” being “linked to calendars that include national observances."

"We understand and respect the gravity and history of this day, and remain committed to equity, inclusion and belonging for all," it concluded.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.