The China Consumers Association (CCA) protested KFC’s latest campaign that fueled food waste in China. The campaign is considered to be aggravating concerns over the domestic food supply.
Consumers have taken to the company’s new promotion that allows customers to receive a random selection of free limited-edition toys with their meal. It causes people to rush to buy too much food without intending to eat it.
KFC recently launched a campaign to celebrate the franchise’s 35th year in the country. The promotion features a line of baby figurine toys placed in a “mystery box”, a business strategy currently popular in China and usually involves people buying packages without knowing what’s inside.
According to the advertisement uploaded by KFC China’s official social media account, customers who want to get 6 kinds of complete dolls must buy at least six meal packages.
The game proved to be a hit. According to CCA, some customers even pay others to finish the food they buy just so they can get their hands on the toy. Some consumers choose to throw away food they can’t finish.
Some people even bought more than 100 meals at a time, spending nearly 10,500 yuan (Rp 23.7 million) to collect all kinds of figurines, the CCA watchdog said. This clearly “leads to unnecessary food wastage due to over-purchase,” he added in his statement.
The CCA denounced KFC for what they saw as exploiting “consumer irrationality” to encourage them to buy more food, “contrary to public order, good habits and the spirit of the law.”
Last year, the Chinese government unveiled an “action plan” encouraging people not to order more food than they need, and reporting restaurants wasting supplies.
On Wednesday, China’s state media launched criticism of some food-intensive outlets, notably KFC. In China, the chain is owned by Yum China (YUMC), a Chinese company registered in the US and Hong Kong that also runs Taco Bell and Pizza Hut in mainland China.
