Fast-food chain KFC’s Chinese venture ‘Yum China’ faces a boycott over a wildly popular promotion. A top Chinese consumer group has called for the boycott of the KFC meal promotion, citing that it encourages food waste and bulk buying. In the promotion launched last week in collaboration with Pop Mart, the consumers were gifted limited-edition versions of Dimoo toy dolls with the meal.
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The fried chicken chain partnered with Chinese toymaker Pop Mart famous for their large-eyed and round-faced Dimoo toy dolls to give away the toy with selected KFC orders in celebration of the brand’s 35th anniversary of its first restaurant in China. The exciting offer drove, one Chinese customer to spend a whopping $1,650, to buy 106 set meals at one go just to collect the toys. The China Consumer Association urged the consumer to beware of these gimmicks and boycott the promotional meals in a statement.
Some collectors even hired helpers to buy meals and find toys for them, in some cases throwing away the food they were required to buy.
China had launched a major campaign against food wastage in 2020, led by the President Xi Jinping, during the growing worries about food security during the COVID-19 pandemic.
