But it was true, confirmed by several press releases and \u2013 for me \u2013 a chat with a senior Nestl\u00e9 person.<\/p>\n
This brings us on to the next issue.<\/p>\n
\u00a0How should Nestl\u00e9 respond?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Should it use humor?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once the news broke, there was a rash of puns across social and in the mainstream media: Sugar High(st)<\/a> chortled the Guardian, \u201cpolice are still looking for a break,\u201d said a million wags on social. Indeed, the fact that KitKat wasn\u2019t using humor in one of its posts was seen as severely amiss.\u00a0<\/p>\n This was its first response, on March 28: it\u2019s like a press statement written by C-3PO.<\/p>\n Indeed, a geezer called James Coyne articulated what many were thinking: \u2018Remember when Social used to be \u201cfun\u201d?\u2019<\/p>\n \n Want to go deeper? Ask The Drum<\/p>\n Mr Coyne had a point. As the days wore on, not coincidentally, humor started to emerge. By March 31, Nestl\u00e9 was noting that cargo theft is a problem, but still praising the \u2018criminals\u2019 exceptional taste\u2019.<\/p>\n And by April 7, a marketing agency in Canada had turned it into a PR stunt designed to give the story more \u2014 do forgive me \u2014 mileage.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the thing.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a human story here: a lorry driver was held up, presumably violently, and their lorry was stolen. There was a theft of Nestl\u00e9\u2019s goods and there is an epidemic of cargo-related thefts right now. In the UK, it accounts for \u00a3700m<\/a>; in the US, it now accounts for $15bn to $35bn worth of theft<\/a>. A recent CNBC documentary wryly noted, \u201cIt\u2019s grand theft\u2026 cargo.\u201d<\/p>\n Does it look good for Nestl\u00e9, the world\u2019s largest food and drink producer, to be making light of this?\u00a0<\/p>\n Hardly.\u00a0<\/p>\n The simple truth is that it can\u2019t be playing fast and loose with such issues \u2014 especially when they\u2019re on the increase.<\/p>\n All this might sound like I\u2019m taking the moral high ground and being all rather po-faced \u2014 ironically so, as I run a consultancy that helps brands use humor safely and effectively.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t my intention \u2014 rather, it\u2019s to point out that this isn\u2019t an open-and-shut case.<\/p>\n There are tensions between the vast owner of the brand \u2014 Nestl\u00e9, which, given its size, prestige and history, must be serious \u2014 and the brand itself: KitKat, which can be playful. What\u2019s more, there are tensions between what really happened \u2014 a truck driver accosted and his or her truck stolen \u2014 and between our natural assumption that everything on social must all be a bit of harmless japery.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s FCK from 2018.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t a robbery.<\/p>\n In the case of KitKatgate, there was a crime: a robbery. There is a real victim here \u2014 and it\u2019s not just Nestl\u00e9.<\/p>\n And therein lies the rub. KitKat\u2019s humor prevailed, but given the fact that it was a crime, within Nestl\u00e9 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 \u2013 including, I\u2019m sure, several thousand people working for Nestl\u00e9 itself.<\/p>\n \u201cNever let the truth get in the way of a good story,\u201d said Mark Twain. In this case, it did.<\/p>\n Paddy Gilmore is the founder of HumourScope<\/a>. Using humor well makes customers more likely to buy \u2013 he helps brands achieve this. He can be found on LinkedIn here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/picture1-1775728356.png\"\/)
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