Oct. 27 2009 - 1:37 pm | 6,672 views | 1 recommendation | 7 comments

Kentucky Fried Chicken infiltrates the UN

A KFC representative dressed as Colonel Sanders shakes the hand of the UN General Assembly

When publicity stunts turn into serious security lapses, the result can be tragicomic.

Case in point: An intruder dressed as Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “Colonel Sanders” was granted access to restricted areas at the United Nations… and was able to pose for a photo opportunity with the current president of the United Nations General Assembly, Libya’s Dr. Ali A. Treki. The photograph is shown above.

According to activist publication Inner City Press, who were also at the UN that day, the Sanders doppelganger was walking around the heavily secured UN General Assembly stakeout area — a lounge area where diplomats and governmental officials frequently pass by. Journalists and correspondents working in the stakeout area are required to have an escort with them at all times; “Sanders” was there, white suit and all.

The actual Kentucky Colonel, Harland Sanders, passed away in 1980.

Kentucky Fried Chicken’s parent company, Yum! Brands, just launched a new grilled chicken advertising campaign. Yum! is publicly calling on Ban Ki-moon to admit the “Grilled Nation” as its 193rd member state. According to Kentucky Fried Chicken president Roger Eaton:

As Secretary-General, you have pledged to build a “stronger United Nations for a better world.” We at KFC are confident that recognizing Grilled Nation will strengthen your organization and satisfy the stomachs of your many Member states.

While we realize that incorporating Grilled Nation into the UN is a long shot, we hoped to possibly squeeze a chair in between Grenada and Guatemala. We promise to make sure the mashed potatoes get passed to folks from all Member States.

On October 22nd, Kentucky Fried Chicken gave away free grilled chicken and copies of their UN petition outside of the organization’s iconic headquarters in New York.

Some naysayers, like The Guardian’s Andrew Clark, claim the campaign is “silly.”

Nonetheless, a credential-lacking stranger was granted access to a secure area behind checkpoints at United Nations headquarters and even managed to interact with the President of the UN General Assembly. According to Treki’s spokesperson, Jean-Victor Nkolo, Treki shook his hand because “he’s a very polite man.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations is responding with damage control. Speaking with Canada’s National Post, Ki-moon spokesperson Michele Montas stated:

It should not have happened — that I will stress, and very strongly,” said Michele Montas, spokeswoman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. “There was some lapse in security and the individual in question [...] was, on the initiative of one security guard, taken [...] into the UN.”

We’re presuming that security guard’s job prospects are not very good right now.

Personally, we’re just happy that the strange intruder who was granted access to the UN was just a corporate spokesperson… and not someone with darker designs than spreading the gospel of fast-food chicken.