On 18 January, KFC launched a new product specifically for the Crazy Thursday promotion of the week. The dish was a box of nuggets shaped in the letter “V” and numbers “5” and “0”. It was called the “V50 Get Rich Fast Nuggets” (V50暴富鸡块) or simply “V50 Nuggets”. For 19.9 RMB (2.79 USD), you get 20 nugget pieces in random shapes out of the 3 letters and numbers, and you can also get 10 pieces for 9.9 RMB (1.39 USD).
KFC’s Crazy Thursday weekly promotions have seen unwavering popularity on Chinese social media, and of course at its restaurants and delivery platforms. The number of views for “KFC Crazy Thursday” has reached a whopping 2.78 billion views at the time of writing. There have also been various memes stemming from the weekly campaigns. One of them is the “V50” or “V me 50” (V我50). “V” in internet slang refers to WeChat, and in this context, WeChat transfer. The line means “Send me 50 RMB (7.02 USD) through WeChat” and it implies that during the Crazy Thursday sales, 50 RMB is enough for a person (or two) to feast.
To harness the power of the popular meme, KFC realised a series of gif stickers with words and emojis created with the letter and number-shaped nuggets on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent. These are intended for followers to download and use in their own chats. The American fast food chain subsequently released a promotional video on Weibo, featuring its brand ambassador boy band TNT, advertising the discounts for this week’s Crazy Thursday. The topic “KFC Crazy Thursday” (#肯德基疯狂星期四#) has already accumulated 2.76 million views on the platform.
KFC has long been enjoying the meme frenzy over Crazy Thursdays. “Crazy Thursday literature” (疯四文学) has been a staple each week, where users create their own copy or memes derived from the campaign, or more specifically, the “craziness” since 2021, mostly in the form of nonsensical writing and witty punchlines. It tried to leverage this by hosting awards and making its own version of the meme. By participating in the meme culture and giving fans an official product based on a popular meme, KFC will likely further captivate loyalty from followers, especially with affordable prices during the events.
