PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Teri Stoddard
Telephone: 301-801-0608
Email: tstoddard@saveservices.org
Domestic Violence Still Affects Millions, But KFC Insists Gender Violence in Ads is Harmless ‘Humor’
WASHINGTON / August 15, 2013 – Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is currently running advertisements that feature a woman violently slapping a man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRH9NBcd33k . Following numerous complaints, KFC continues to show the ads, and now claims the spots represent “tongue-in-cheek humor.”
The KFC announcement follows release of a major research compilation that shows that female-perpetrated violence is more widespread than male-perpetrated violence (28.3% vs. 21.6%). The compilation also reveals that police often fail to arrest female perpetrators of domestic violence.
The research was conducted by the Partner Abuse State of Knowledge (PASK) project, a summary of over 1,700 research studies on domestic violence and partner abuse: http://domesticviolenceresearch.org/
The KFC slap-ads have triggered widespread commentary and controversy.
Award-winning columnist Barbara Kay tweeted on August 10, “KFC finds humor in women slapping men. Sorry, humor in either sex slapping the other is so ‘over.’”
One petition charges the KFC ads perpetuate “dangerous stereotypes” that violence against men can be considered a “joke:” http://www.change.org/petitions/kentucky-fried-chicken-stop-making-light-of-domestic-violence
The National Coalition for Men wonders whether the violence-filled ads are making chickens “blush with shame:” http://ncfm.org/2013/08/news/uncategorized/kfc-uses-violence-against-men-to-sell-chicken-pathetic/
“Kentucky Fried Chicken is trying to sell chicken by pushing the sick idea that violence against men is not only acceptable, it’s even funny,” notes SAVE spokesperson Sheryle Hutter. “That’s shameful, and it’s wrong.”
SAVE has launched a national public awareness campaign based on the PASK research to assure no victim of gender violence is ever ignored, ridiculed, or turned away: http://www.saveservices.org/camp/kfc/
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is a victim-advocacy organization working for evidence-based solutions to domestic violence and sexual assault: www.saveservices.org