The Drum’s resident humorologist, Paddy Gilmore, puts his finger on why the recent KitKat heist wasn’t, and couldn’t, be a laugh-a-minute this April Fool’s Day.

Last week, as the media turned to the fate of Iran or the four astronauts sitting in a tin can, it seemed the entire marketing world became obsessed with several tonnes of missing wafer and chocolate. If you’ve missed the facts, perhaps because you were floating around inside Artemis II, here they are: a lorry carrying 12 tonnes of KitKats was stolen en route from Italy to Poland. The lorry and KitKats were never traced. 

KitKat and Nestlé — the brand’s owners — had a major PR issue on their hands.

Or rather: there were several issues here.

The first was: is this story true? 

After all, the story landed on March 28, only a few days before April Fool’s Day. 

Second, it seemed well-timed to land in the run-up to Easter: every chocoholic’s dream. 

Third, KitKat is known for its playful, humorous tone of voice. Can you trust the tears of a clown? 

What’s more, people wanted it to be one big PR stunt. Andy Barr, also writing in The Drum, noted: ‘I won’t lie; I want it to be an April Fool campaign’.

But it was true, confirmed by several press releases and – for me – a chat with a senior Nestlé person.

This brings us on to the next issue.

 How should Nestlé respond? 

Should it use humor? 

Once the news broke, there was a rash of puns across social and in the mainstream media: Sugar High(st) chortled the Guardian, “police are still looking for a break,” said a million wags on social. Indeed, the fact that KitKat wasn’t using humor in one of its posts was seen as severely amiss. 

This was its first response, on March 28: it’s like a press statement written by C-3PO.

Indeed, a geezer called James Coyne articulated what many were thinking: ‘Remember when Social used to be “fun”?’

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Mr Coyne had a point. As the days wore on, not coincidentally, humor started to emerge. By March 31, Nestlé was noting that cargo theft is a problem, but still praising the ‘criminals’ exceptional taste’.

And by April 7, a marketing agency in Canada had turned it into a PR stunt designed to give the story more — do forgive me — mileage.

But here’s the thing.

There’s a human story here: a lorry driver was held up, presumably violently, and their lorry was stolen. There was a theft of Nestlé’s goods and there is an epidemic of cargo-related thefts right now. In the UK, it accounts for £700m; in the US, it now accounts for $15bn to $35bn worth of theft. A recent CNBC documentary wryly noted, “It’s grand theft… cargo.”

Does it look good for Nestlé, the world’s largest food and drink producer, to be making light of this? 

Hardly. 

The simple truth is that it can’t be playing fast and loose with such issues — especially when they’re on the increase.

All this might sound like I’m taking the moral high ground and being all rather po-faced — ironically so, as I run a consultancy that helps brands use humor safely and effectively.

This isn’t my intention — rather, it’s to point out that this isn’t an open-and-shut case.

There are tensions between the vast owner of the brand — Nestlé, which, given its size, prestige and history, must be serious — and the brand itself: KitKat, which can be playful. What’s more, there are tensions between what really happened — a truck driver accosted and his or her truck stolen — and between our natural assumption that everything on social must all be a bit of harmless japery.

Using humor in crisis comms is, of course, a wonderful way to defuse the tension and make a brand seem more human. The textbook example of this is KFC’s FCK from 2018.

It ticks all the boxes: using the brand assets, subverting the name and an apology. Job done. But in many ways, this was a far easier campaign to run: there was a logistical failure to deliver chicken, so forcing 700 out of 900 restaurants to close. There wasn’t a robbery.

In the case of KitKatgate, there was a crime: a robbery. There is a real victim here — and it’s not just Nestlé.

And therein lies the rub. KitKat’s humor prevailed, but given the fact that it was a crime, within Nestlé itself, there were many who, I imagine, felt it should be treated with more of a straight-bat approach. Many people wanted KitKatgate to be a work of fiction – including, I’m sure, several thousand people working for Nestlé itself.

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story,” said Mark Twain. In this case, it did.

Paddy Gilmore is the founder of HumourScope. Using humor well makes customers more likely to buy – he helps brands achieve this. He can be found on LinkedIn here.

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