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KFC Blames Semi-Automated Bot for Insensitive App Alert on Kristallnacht (bbc.com) 129

Posted by EditorDavid from the bad-bots dept.
"KFC has apologised after sending a promotional message to customers in Germany, urging them to commemorate Kristallnacht with cheesy chicken," reports the BBC. The Nazi-led series of attacks in the country in 1938 left more than 90 people dead, and destroyed Jewish-owned businesses and places of worship. It is widely seen as the beginning of the Holocaust....

The fast-food chain sent an app alert on Wednesday, saying: "It's memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!"

Around an hour later another message was sent with an apology, according to the Bild newspaper. "We are very sorry, we will check our internal processes immediately so that this does not happen again. Please excuse this error," the message is reported to have said.
The fast food chain "apologized for the error," reports the Jerusalem Post, "explaining that they 'use a semi-automated content creation process linked to calendars that include national observances.'" "In this instance, our internal review process was not properly followed, resulting in a non-approved notification being shared." Calling the mistake "obviously wrong, insensitive and unacceptable," KFC Germany added that they "have suspended app communications while we examine our current process to ensure such an issue does not occur again.
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KFC Blames Semi-Automated Bot for Insensitive App Alert on Kristallnacht More

KFC Blames Semi-Automated Bot for Insensitive App Alert on Kristallnacht

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  • AI (Score:5, Funny)

    by n.sider ( 10210149 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @12:37PM (#63045703)
    It's the new "rogue intern".

    • It's bs though. This was a script. Not an AI, not a "bot". The upper management, and the news, doesn't want to report "low paid employee's script needs more manual oversight."

      • This was a script. Not an AI, not a "bot".

        It is implausible that "AI" was involved in such a simple operation.

        But a "bot" is a common term for any program that starts and runs automatically. In the olden days, we called them "cron jobs".

    • I say we pin a star on them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Looks like it. No sir, we did not program the bot wrong, the bot did it all by itself! Honest!

  • You are to blame (Score:5, Informative)

    by El_Muerte_TDS ( 592157 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @12:38PM (#63045705) Homepage

    Not a "bot". Computers will do what they are instructed to do. Instructions unclear? Well, this is one of the possible results.

    • It's not hard to figure out what happened (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @12:54PM (#63045743)
      they took a list of "holidays" and plugged them into a bot. Nobody checked the list to make sure there weren't things like this on it.

      It's an easy enough mistake, but one you'd think by now people would know better than. i.e. check your data source for your bot. Still, brands do this crap constantly so it's gonna happen sooner or later and it makes the news every time because it's eye catching.

      • Re:It's not hard to figure out what happened (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @01:15PM (#63045777) Homepage

        they took a list of "holidays" and plugged them into a bot. Nobody checked the list to make sure there weren't things like this on it.

        It's more of a cultural difference actually. Here in the USA, literally everything is an excuse to have some sort of sale or promotion.

        Halloween? Sale. Also pumpkin spice flavored everything.
        Veteran's day? Sale.
        Thanksgiving? Really big sale.
        Christmas? Sale.
        Valentine's day? Sale.
        Saint Patrick's day? Sale.
        Easter? Sale.
        Mother's day? Sale.
        Memorial day? Sale. Also BBQ.
        Gay pride month? Sale on rainbow colored stuff.
        Father's day? Sale.
        4th of July? Sale.

        I guess this would kind of be like having a sale on September 11th, but I think enough time has passed that most Americans would just shrug and go out shopping anyway.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shanen ( 462549 )

        Seems to be a weird dynamic. They (usually representing a corporate cancer like Yum! Brands, owner of KFC) most often build a brand name around a good product. Then they milk the "valuable" brand for excess profits and at the same time let the "efficiency" and "productivity" experts cut the production (and product development) costs until the quality of the product goes to shite. The reputation goes to heck, but they are still milking those sweet, sweet profits.

        You would think that should be enough to kill

        • Cue the squirrel: "That trick never works."

          I prefer to refer to that as the Bullwinkle Syndrome: "This time, for sure!"

          • "I gotta get me a new hat!"

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by shanen ( 462549 )

              What is the Rocky and Bullwinkle joke for: "Old farts detected!"

              I don't think those cartoons are still being shown anywhere. If there is any problem with them, don't we have to technology to fix 'em up? Or are the copyright holders idiots.

              Oh, wait. "That trick always works." We need to appeal to Shakespeare, "The First Thing we Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers". (That's how it appeared miscapitalized in an early webhit.)

              But I still hope Slashdot rises to the potentially humorous occasion offered by the story.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Junta ( 36770 )

        I'd say the mistake is being obviously insincere by offloading holiday recognition to some bot. It's pointlessly soulless.

        • A corporation is insincere? Say it ain't so!

        • Christmas has been souless for many years now. "Let's stampede, assault people, and cause property damage because my kid wants Zippy Binkie-Boo that all his school chums also want, and he will be uncool if he does not get it this Christmas. And it's hot and popular and only a few are left (artificially created scarcity)".

          "Wait, isn't this holiday about some guy that was born a couple thousand years ago, or something?"

          "I thin..HEY GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF MY BINKY-BOO, YOU TWAT!"

      • Re:It's not hard to figure out what happened (Score:5, Informative)

        by Sique ( 173459 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @02:15PM (#63045879) Homepage
        The main problem is that in Germany, on about every day something is commemorated. The German poet Christian Morgenstern made fun of it already more than 100 years ago:

        Durch Anschlag mach ich euch bekannt:

        Heut ist kein Fest im deutschen Land.

        Drum sei der Tag für alle Zeit

        zum Nichtfestfeiertag geweiht.

        By notice I make known to you:

        There is no festival in Germany today.

        Therefore, this day be for all time

        celebrated as the non-holiday festival.

        Sometimes the reason for that day is cause to celebrate, sometime it is not. Just taking the list from a calendar sold in Germany does not make this distinction.

        • Re:It's not hard to figure out what happened (Score:5, Informative)

          by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @02:42PM (#63045933)

          Well, November 9th is a big day in German history. Pretty much anything important that happened in the 20th century in Germany happened on that day.

          1918: Declaration of the Republic
          1923: Hitler-Ludendorff Coup
          1938: "Reichskristallnacht" (If you're German, it's the "night of the pogrom")
          1949: The 3 western allied forces decide to enter talks with the FRG (aka West Germany, pretty much where that country came into existence "for real").
          1967: Demonstrations that are considered the start of the "68 movement"
          1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall

          That last bit was also supposed to be the new national holiday of Germany, but nobody wanted to celebrate the 9th of November for obvious reasons. So Germany now celebrates its national holiday of the German Reunion on October 3rd. Reason? None. No really. It was arbitrarily chosen for not being the 9th of November.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Sique ( 173459 )
            It had to be before the 7th of October, because one rallying cry of the Monday Demonstrations in East Germany was "40 Years GDR -- and not another year", as East Germany, formally known as German Democratic Republic or GDR was founded on Oct 7th 1949. So German reunification had to be completed before the 7th of October 1990.

        • It's my unbirthday today! And it was my unbirthday yesterday, and it will be my unbirthday tomorrow.

            I have a helluvalot of celebrating to do.

      • I created 50 million passwords for children's toy. i used an alphabet of 32 numbers and letters. F U C and K started 50 of the passwords.
      • Or some historically-illiterate 23-year-old product manager thought "kristalnacht" sounded like a festive, pretty, wintery crystal night.

        • Likely someone neither German, Israeli, or even "western".

            Likely some code drone in India set up the system and kristallnacht sounded like some sort of obscure festive holiday and didn't raise the alarm in him/her.

        • Kristalnacht is just the English translation. The German word used in the tweet was "Reichspogromnacht"

          The full tweet:

          "Gedenktag an die Reichspogromnacht
          Goen dir ruhig mehr zarten Cheese zum
          knusprigen Chicken. Jetzt bei KFCheese!"

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by fazig ( 2909523 )
            The event is remembered in Germany both as Reichskristallnacht/Kristallnacht (shortened), and Reichspogromnacht.
            The literal translation of Kistallnacht would be Crystal Night, referring to all the broken glass from the thrown in windows of Jewish stores and houses, lying on the streets, glittering like crystals. So a common corresponding English translation of that event is "The Night of Broken Glass" while "Kristallnacht" is a term directly borrowed from German.

            Let me quote the German wikipedia page:

            Die

  • I wonder if sales went up. My guess is that there are probably many "nationalists" in Germany who would celebrate it as a good thing. Nationalists are the same everywhere.

    • Re:Hm (Score:5, Insightful)

      by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @12:59PM (#63045751)

      In my experience most Germans are pretty good about owning up to basically being the "bad guys" in WW2 so while yes, they have ultra nationalist shit heads just like anywhere else I don't think they have so many it would increase sales.

      While they likely arent perfect on this subject I'd even go as far as to say a lot of people could benefit from learning from their example of acknowledging past evils. The glossing over of our treatment of native Americans and slavery in many of our state's school texts books comes to mind.

      • I don't know if you've lived in America long, but we talk about slavery and treatment of American Indians all the time. Certainly it is an important topic, but it's also something we all know about, and most of us regret.

        • >> but it's also something we all know about, and most of us regret.

          As demonstrated by our love of the Cowboy Western and it fetishist killing of Native Americans

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by skam240 ( 789197 )

          All my life and there are plenty of examples of modern American school textbooks that gloss over slavery and the treatment of Native Americans.

          https://www.theguardian.com/ed... [theguardian.com]
          https://www.vox.com/identities... [vox.com]
          https://www.splcenter.org/2018... [splcenter.org]

          • So what are you saying exactly? That you want textbooks to say, "Slavery was the core foundation of America."? Or what?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by skam240 ( 789197 )

              What? We're not talking about what I want, we're talking about US school text books in the context about German's being good about owning past evils. Are you trying to tie me down to something you can object to or something?

              But hey, sure, I'll bite. I want slavery and the American treatment of native Americans not glossed over with euphemisms and outfight lies. And sure, mentioning much of our nation's early wealth was built on slavery (we were an agrarian nation post revolution, only when industrialization

              • I want slavery and the American treatment of native Americans not glossed over with euphemisms and outfight lies.

                You said that, and it's not concrete.

                Basically, I think you haven't investigated the subject, don't understand it in any depth, and are just parroting stuff you heard somewhere. That's why you can't say anything concrete, and why you are worried about being "tied down." Because you haven't investigated to the point that you understand. '

                And sure, mentioning much of our nation's early wealth was built on slavery

                "Much of" is one of those weasel words you use when you don't have anything concrete. So was it built on slavery, or not? Sounds like you believe slavery was just a componen

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by skam240 ( 789197 )

                  Sigh.... You're being fucking ridiculous and I now see why I marked you. I have provided you with multiple links detailing the problems with our school text books which is what we're actually talking about here. I'm not going to go on a run of ridiculous tangents with you.

                  • I have provided you with multiple links detailing the problems with our school text books which is what we're actually talking about here.

                    Yeah, I read your links. I still have no idea what you want to see in textbooks that isn't being shown.

                    Do you want them to say, "Oh, Americans are horrible because we had slavery." Is that what you want?

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by skam240 ( 789197 )

                      What? We're not talking about what I want, we're talking about US school text books in the context about German's being good about owning past evils. Are you trying to tie me down to something you can object to or something?

                      But hey, sure, I'll bite. I want slavery and the American treatment of native Americans not glossed over with euphemisms and outfight lies. And sure, mentioning much of our nation's early wealth was built on slavery (we were an agrarian nation post revolution, only when industrialization started to set in did the North start making meaningful amounts of wealth for the country) is something that should be discussed.

                      https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]

                      I know you're busy trying to come up with tangents you can come up with you so you don't have to acknowledge you have your head up your ass but you could at least read my posts. If you're asking for more than this though then you're being ridiculous. I have highlighted the problem with multiple citations and covered what needs to be done in broad strokes. That's good enough for a conversation about global warming to establish global warming is real and it's good enough for

                  • Quit being a limp-dick and post under your one Slashdot handle

                    So true.

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by skam240 ( 789197 )

                      That you both have a limp dick and also dont post under a single Slashdot handle all the time?

                      TMI

      • They celebrate their war criminals.

    • Unlikely. "Modern" nationalists in Germany have a problem with immigrants, not Jews.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fazig ( 2909523 )
      There's indeed a festering number of people who conflate acknowledgement of past historic events that their ancestors were involved in and recognizing them as "bad" with feeling same.
      And as stupid often goes along with more stupid, their conception of the negation of shame is pride.

      So I would not be surprised if some subsets of modern German society did celebrate such events. But they would have to do it in private, because doing it openly, while technically not illegal, is still widely regarded as a fau

  • Responsibility (Score:3)

    by Retired Chemist ( 5039029 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @01:23PM (#63045795)
    I you use a bot, you are responsible for what it does. No excuses, no exceptions, no do-overs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xenx ( 2211586 )
      From the summary, they blamed themselves. They know the bot was merely the method.

    • Re:Responsibility (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @02:49PM (#63045953)

      Well, shit happens, and he who works will sooner or later make a mistake. If you find someone who never makes mistakes, I can show you someone who doesn't work.

      As long as they own their mistakes, I can deal with it. What pisses me off is when people make mistakes and refuse to accept they fucked up, either pretending they didn't or even worse, shifting the blame on someone else.

  • The, um, rogue intern we've definitely fired just might have placed an order with our supplier for extra-long plastic knives for our big june 30th-july 2nd promotional cutlery event. Is it too late to cancel?

  • Was the problem that they wanted people to celebrate Kristallnacht?

    Or was it the proposal to celebrate with chicken and cheese? Not kosher!

    • The problem was that the German calendar has memorial days that are not celebrated, quite the opposite. Imagine having a 9/11 day in the USA. Or a My Lai day. Or a Hiroshima day. Or three memorial days for the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, JFK, or Martin Luther King. All days to remember, but not to celebrate.

  • It's not KFP.

  • If they send out "treat yourself" messages on Hitler's birthday, too, then I'm going to get suspicious..

  • Don't they know the right forum for posting stuff that they want to later blame on AI or bitter chicken?

  • Seriously, I know this stuff isn't taught in school anymore, but geeze, nobody on the review team had heard of Kristallnacht?

    • Do you think there is a review team? I guess there is one guy checking, and there are 150 countries in the world or more. And there are things like Guy Fawkes day in Britain about a guy who tried to blow up the parliament in Britain. We take that as an excuse for bonfires and fireworks. Obviously we wouldnâ(TM)t if he had succeeded and caused 30 years of chaos in the country.

      I wouldnâ(TM)t be surprised if an average 20-ish year old American had never heard of it.
    • I assume the âoereview teamâ (most likely one person) was in the USA. If they were in Germany they would deserve to be fired for utter incompetence.

      • I'm in the USA. Born here. I know what Kristallnacht is. I know what Guy Fawkes day is. (That's actually cheating, as anyone who read or saw V for Vendetta should understand that reference.) Understanding important pivot points in US history is not that hard.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by skam240 ( 789197 )

          Gotta agree with the above poster, there's no way Kristallnacht is well known here in the US.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by nasch ( 598556 )

          Both the French and then the US knew Ho Chi Minh would win an election in a second which is why neither country ever allowed elections over there.

          The question is, do you have more or less knowledge of world history than someone employed to double check automatically generated KFC social media promotions? My guess is more.

      • Come on, let's be honest here. The "review team" was a contractor in India who probably didn't even look at the list.

  • Good Friday (Score:3)

    by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @05:50PM (#63046309)
    For Christians, Good Friday would be a day that you mark in your calendar but donâ(TM)t celebrate. (For non-Christians: That was the day when Jesus was tortured and killed. Obviously not something you would celebrate. This day and Easter are the most important Christian religious days, Christmas comes third.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      In Peru Good Friday is a feast (literally) day. They celebrate by cooking a lot of different foods (the goal is 'doce platos', or 12 different dishes, but most families settle for 6-8), and not drinking.

      • See this is interesting to me, the way different cultures commemorate that day. Conversely, those that follow the Eastern Byzantine practices actually semi-fast. Primarily it’s the avoidance of meat and milk consumption until Easter Sunday. So you tend to have Seafood that weekend instead.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          Oh, that's right, I forgot that all of the 'doce platos' are meatless. Lots of milk, cheese, fish, and eggs eaten that day.

    • Why wouldn't you celebrate? Since they decided at Nicea that Jesus actually is part of God, the crucifixion is like minor surgery at worst, and it supposedly led to the salvation of mankind. They should be dancing in the streets.

  • Well, whaddaya expect when you put ignoramus twenty-somethings in charge of your online marketing?

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