I feel like chicken tonight.
IT’S the urban legend that’s been around for decades, but think twice before posting a finger-lickin’ meme.
Fast food giant KFC has won a lawsuit against three Chinese companies for spreading rumours it served genetically engineered “mutant chickens” with extra limbs.
A Shanghai court fined tech firms Yingchenanzhi Success and Culture Communication, Taiyuan Zero Point Technology and Shanxi Weilukuang Technology, for posting the rumours on their social messaging accounts, Reuters reports.
The firms have been ordered to apologise and pay KFC a combined $127,000 (600,000 yuan).
It all started with a hoax photograph that went viral in 2013, portraying grotesquely deformed birds supposedly bred by KFC, and published alongside untrue claims about the origins of the three-piece feed.
“These so-called ‘chickens’ are kept alive by tubes inserted into their bodies to pump blood and nutrients throughout their structure,” one hoax story said.
“They have no beaks, no feathers and no feet. They grow with multiple legs and wings on one ‘chicken.’ Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk to get more meat out of them. This is great for KFC because it saves them money for their production costs.”
The story also cited a hoax University of New Hampshire study, which was later debunked by the university, which wrote on its website that “no such research ... was done here.”
In a statement on its official microblog, the Xuhui District People’s Court said the three companies had “damaged KFC’s reputation” and “caused it economic losses” by permitting the allegations to be posted on their social messaging accounts.
Meanwhile, an artist from the US has claimed responsibility for the original image, which was not intended to deceive.
“This hoax has gone viral, and they are using my Photoshop work,” Mr Wayne wrote on his website last year. “I am part of an urban legend!”
He predicted that the stories would backfire “because I have the evidence that I made it, and I like to dismantle hoaxes”.
Mr Wayne then posted a series of images showing just how he created the mutant chicken illusion.
Artist Eric Wayne shows how he made the digital image.Source:Supplied
“In the gallery above you can see some of the stages I used to create my original mutant chicken,” he wrote.
The Shanghai verdict comes as Yum Brands, which operates KFC, struggles to revive its business in China, its largest market, where its sales have slumped in the wake of food safety scares — and customers are highly sensitive to the issue.
Rumours about the origins of fast food ingredients have long tapped into public fears, and the “mutant chicken” legend has been around for years — along with a conspiracy theory over why Kentucky Fried Chicken abbreviated its name.
That rumour, also untrue, claimed the company was forced to do so when it stopped using “real chickens” and replaced them with tube-fed, genetically modified creatures.
Cindy Wei, a spokeswoman for the Chinese arm of KFC’s parent company Yum Brand, told Reuters: “We brought suits against these individuals for making false statements about the quality of our food and we are pleased with the outcome.”
KFC spokesman Rick Maynard labelled the urban legend “ridiculous”, pointing out last year that it had been debunked multiple times.
“KFC uses only top quality poultry from trusted companies like Tyson and Pilgrim’s Pride — the same brands customers know from their local supermarkets,” Mr Maynard told Business Insider.
Snopes.com knocked the rumour on its head, noting that while concerns about animal welfare, genetically modified and mass produced foods were understandable, “nothing like the Frankensteinian laboratory scenario described here is taking place”.
“Raising chickens that have been genetically modified so that they are born without beaks, feathers, or feet, or with additional legs is still beyond the reach of modern science for the time being,” the post continued.
“These companies are in the restaurant business, not the agricultural or farming business, and they buy their food products from suppliers who service many other customers as well.”
dana.mccauley@news.com.au
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