Did Niko Omilana really go ‘behind the bucket’ or did he just sell out for KFC’s lies?
BLOG: Prolific chicken abuser KFC recently paid off social media influencer ‘Niko’ and publisher JOE to give viewers an insight into conditions at a UK chicken farm as part of its ‘behind the bucket’ ad campaign. What we saw instead was a bucket of lies.
The fast-food giant was striking back at accusations that its broiler chickens are raised in terrible conditions. Worried that the UK’s impressionable youth might have a conscience, KFC parachuted in the likeable Niko - who skirts the line between Gen Z and Millenial - into a farm that we can definitely all believe is 100% representative of every one of its suppliers. The full-length JOE video is here.
The shed we’re shown is so clean it’s hard to imagine that anyone could be fooled into thinking that’s what the average chicken farm looks like. There isn’t a single muddy footprint on the pristine, freshly cemented area outside the entrance, where Niko dons his overalls, and not a chicken dropping to be seen on a floor that has probably never seen straw litter before. Either KFC jetwashed the place with obsessive zeal, or it’s a brand new facility.
The grandest illusions are the chickens themselves, still cute and fluffy and young enough for the lameness and other health problems characteristic of their fast-growing breed to not yet have affected them. Either that or they cherry-picked the chicks and conveniently removed the sick, injured and dead.
Also, in what was a very clever bit of misdirection, they addressed the ‘conspiracy theory’ (wording chosen to subtly infer that all critics of chicken farming are tinfoil hat-wearing crackpots) that chickens are pumped full of steroids to accelerate their growth, something ‘Tony’ the farmer denies categorically. He wasn’t lying in that regard, steroids aren’t used, but by choosing to correct the record on just one thing that is easily refutable, KFC distracted viewers from the fact that its broilers still grow abnormally large to reach slaughter weight in just 30 days. Not because of steroids, the use of which is illegal in UK farming, but by generations of selective breeding.
“Nobody grows chickens like that.” said ‘Tony’ the chicken farmer, referring to the steroids myth. “We don’t grow chickens like that. We’re very proud of our animal welfare here.” What he should have said is that they don’t need steroids, the chickens can be killed, processed and sold for profit in just a few weeks.
We’re also told that there are no cages and that the chickens are given “plenty of room to roam,” as if that helps them when their young bones break from being too heavy and they are too lame to stand and feed themselves, let alone move around. Does anyone really think broilers are still raised in cages, seeing as battery cages were banned nearly a decade ago? Granted, so-called ‘enriched cages’ are still used to house non-free-range egg-layers, but there’s been enough mainstream and social media coverage of investigations into broiler farms supplying pretty much every major UK supermarket plus Nandos and other restaurants, showing cage-free sheds, that mentioning their absence in the JOE video seems like more smoke and mirrors on the part of KFC.
Never miss an article
Stay up-to-date with the weekly Surge newsletter to never miss an article, media production or investigation. We respect your privacy.
Again, what good is being cage-free and having some hay bales and swings, as seen in the video, when broilers can’t even walk without suffering. This isn’t an argument for bringing back cages, but rather to do away with sheds and chicken farming completely as no amount of space or welfare standard can ever be high enough to save them from a life of misery.
Even the ‘Better Chicken Commitment’ mentioned at the end of the JOE video, one requirement of which is to switch to slower-growing breeds, won’t save chickens from other health problems, rough handling and violent deaths at the hands of slaughtermen. It won’t be long until BTC-certified farms are revealed to be bogus just like countless Red Tractor and RSPCA Assured farms today. Only last year, KFC admitted that a third of its chickens raised in the UK and Ireland suffered from painful foot inflammation and lesions, the result of poor ventilation and litter management. The Guardian reported that one in 10 KFC chickens suffers from hock burn caused by ammonia from the waste of other birds.
With 1.5 million followers on Instagram, 23-year-old influencer Niko is no stranger to accepting money from companies linked to animal exploitation. As well as collaborating with KFC, in August he teamed up with Cadbury’s to peddle its limited-edition Wispa Gold hazelnut bars. Footage of a dairy calf being shot in the head and dumped on the back of a trailer at a farm supplying Cadbury’s, captured by undercover investigators working for Viva! UK, has been instrumental in raising awareness of the plight of male dairy calves and forever tarnished the chocolate’s maker’s reputation despite its best efforts to portray itself as caring.
Rather than be an accessory to crimes against non-human beings - now recognised by law as well as science as sentient and emotionally complex - influencers must take responsibility for the impact they have on their impressionable audience, one which now has more trust in the word of its super-relatable online peers than mainstream media. For nothing more than financial gain, Niko and JOE have perpetuated lies without sparing a thought for the millions of broiler chickens whose short lives are spent in abject misery.
For anyone reading this who wants to do something about it, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) Code of Conduct also applies to influencer marketing. This means that anyone can file a formal complaint in writing via the ASA website. As evidence we recommend citing the following reports that link KFC suppliers to poor welfare:
KFC admits a third of its chickens suffer painful inflammation | The Guardian (July 2020)
Chickens died of thirst and dead birds left to rot at suppliers to Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl and KFC | The Independent (July 2021)
Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.
Your support makes a huge difference to us. Supporting Surge with a monthly or one-off donation enables us to continue our work to end all animal oppression.
LATEST ARTICLES
