Construction of Sign in Chicken Consumption Culture in Thai Society from KFC Fried Chicken Incense Sticks Campaign

Abstract

Consumption has become the essence of contemporary life, and chicken consumption might be regarded as an uncomplicated matter. In fact, positive meanings underlying chicken consumption have been selectively constructed and presented, especially a case of a world-famous fried chicken brand KFC.This research adopted the qualitative approach. The data was collected from documents concerning the fried chicken industry. Following the documentary research, the textual analysis was conducted. Selected texts were a video clip and posters for the KFC Fried Chicken Incense Sticks campaign, which were published on the KFC Facebook page during the Chinese New Year festival in 2023. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate construction of sign of KFC fried chicken based on Jean Baudrillard’s logic of sign consumption framework. This research article illustrates a history of KFC in Thai society, the brand’s sign construction process in several last decades through different types of communication, including advertisements and restaurants and their design elements, as well as the analysis of the 2023 KFC Fried Chicken Incense Sticks campaign and its social phenomenon. The results show that the producer emphasized both the logic of sign and the logic of symbolic exchange in order to construct positive meanings for KFC fried chicken incense sticks and KFC products. The positive connotations mainly selected included adherence to Chinese traditions, auspiciousness, sacredness, middle- class status, modernity, and gratitude. Therefore, utilization of signs served as a crucial mechanism for generating new meanings for products, thereby sustaining consumption and economic growth under capitalism.