The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2026
Pelicana's AI ad turned infidelity into a fried-chicken love triangle — then deleted it
Pelicana's AI short had a chicken wife cheat on her chicken husband. Viewers called it infidelity played for laughs; Pelicana apologized and deleted it.
Pelicana Chicken · 2026-05
What happened
In early May 2026, Korean fried-chicken chain Pelicana posted an AI-generated video on its official Instagram. It anthropomorphized its menu: a fried-chicken couple has a seasoned-chicken baby, the wife-chicken then kisses another seasoned-chicken man, and the distraught husband-chicken drinks alone until a pelican doctor character tells him to 'get revenge.'
Online reaction split between mockery and anger. Critics said dressing up an affair narrative as a cute mascot story trivialized infidelity and read as casually misogynistic — the wife was the one who strayed and the story treated it as a punchline rather than a betrayal.
On 9–10 May, Pelicana apologized on its official Instagram: 'We sincerely apologize for the discomfort and disappointment caused by recently uploaded content,' saying the piece 'was posted without sufficient consideration for the appropriateness of expression and social perception during production.' The video was deleted and the company said it would tighten content review.
Why it happened
- A mascot format doesn't neutralize a mature storyline — giving infidelity to cartoon chickens didn't make it lighter, it just made the choice to tell that story at all more visible.
- Generative AI made the video cheap enough to skip the review a script like this would normally get — the cost of production dropped faster than the judgment applied to it.
- The apology named 'insufficient consideration' rather than a specific misjudgment — a brand that can't say what it got wrong is more likely to get the next AI ad wrong the same way.
The lesson
Pelicana let a generative-AI ad tell an infidelity story through its chicken mascots. The format was cute; the backlash wasn't. It deleted the video within days.
Aftermath
Pelicana removed the video from Instagram and pledged closer review of AI-made content before publishing, without giving a timeline or naming who approved the original post.
Sources
- Fried chicken brand Pelicana apologizes after AI ad slammed for 'trivializing infidelity' — Korea JoongAng Daily
- Pelicana Apologizes Over AI Ad Depicting Chicken Infidelity — Seoul Economic Daily
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