PSYOP and Fried Chicken!

Most of us in the PSYOP Community have spent time at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, or as it is some times called “The Center of the Universe”. During out stints there we availed ourselves of legendary Southern Cuisine. While some favored Fried Chicken or catfish and hush puppies, I was a Waffle House fan.

What does this have to do with PSYOP? Well, up until this afternoon I would have said “nothing”. But thanks to the NY Times print edition of August 16, 2019 I learned that the UK is using takeout chicken boxes as an influence delivery vehicle. (see: https://nyti.ms/2Z22XaV, which is also a photo source).

Concerned with the just under 43,000 offenses committed with a knife (remember guns are very hard to come by in Britain so the knife is the weapon of choice) in the year ending 30 September 2018. In April 2018 reason.com ran an article “British Politicians Declare War on Knives”. (see: http://bit.ly/33Apmux, which is also a photo source). This concern was partially driven by the fact that the murder rate in New York City was lower than London’s.

 In the latest attempt to control knife attacks, the British government opted for a takeout chicken box campaign. More than 300,000 chicken boxes are part of the campaign being distributed by about 200 outlets in England and Wales.

The messages on the boxes are statements from convicted knife attackers and are designed “help reduce the numbers of young people carrying knives”. Critics label it as “explicitly racist, or at best, unfathomly stupid”.

It is implied of course that the majority of offenders are great fans of fried chicken!

We have seen PSYOP messages on leaflets, posters, soccer balls, dropped from bombs and balloons and delivered by simple radios – I’m pretty sure this is the first food/PSYOP campaign.

Having said all this, let’s step back for a moment. Did the British government do its homework? Did the establish that there is a relationship between their message delivery vehicle (the medium) and the target audience? Have they established MOE?

I’m guessing no to most of the above. Does this mean that food/PSYOP wouldn’t work in another place at another time to accomplish different goals? No, it doesn’t, but I may never look at Colonel Sanders again the same way.