KFC and Frisby are direct competitors in Colombia. They compete in the same cities, on the same streets, for the same customer ordering fried chicken. In February 2026, KFC Colombia publicly sided with Frisby in a trademark dispute that had turned into something considerably larger than a legal case, and did it with a single organic social media post.
The Dispute
Frisby was founded in Pereira, Colombia, in 1977. For nearly five decades, it has been a cultural institution in the country, known specifically for its fried chicken served with honey, and recognised by Colombians not as a fast food chain but as something closer to a national symbol, the way certain regional foods become inseparable from the identity of the place that produced them.
In Spain, a separate business called Frisby España had been operating restaurants. On May 5, 2025, Colombia-based Frisby S.A. filed complaints against the Spanish entity for what it described as improper use of its brand. The legal complication was significant: the European Union Intellectual Property Office had already ruled in Frisby España’s favour, granting it exclusive use of the Frisby name across the European Union. Colombian law addressed the brand impersonation dimension. European law addressed it differently. Legally, the situation was contested.
In Colombia, none of that legal complexity was what people were talking about. Colombians were talking about the theft of something that belonged to them. Not a trademark. An identity.
KFC’s Decision
Mass Digital, KFC Colombia’s creative agency, identified the cultural conversation happening in real time and proposed a response that had no media budget, no production schedule, and no lead time. As a good gesture, KFC did a organic post with one message.
KFC Colombia altered the F in its own logo to match Frisby’s red and yellow colour scheme and posted it with a caption that translated as: “You don’t mess with the original.”
The post cost nothing to produce. It required KFC to publicly endorse a brand it directly competed with. It required the global KFC brand to take a position in a Colombian cultural and legal dispute that it had no commercial stake in. It required Mass Digital and KFC Colombia to move fast enough to be the first significant voice in a conversation that was already running at speed.
They were.
The Domino Effect
The single organic post triggered what the campaign documents describe as a nationwide domino effect. Other brands changed their logos or profile pictures to incorporate Frisby’s colours in solidarity. Colombian media picked it up as a story. Creators amplified it. Memes spread it further. Former presidents of Colombia publicly took a stand in the Frisby debate.
KFC became, as the campaign documentation states, the primary public supporter in a cultural conflict. A global fast food corporation had become the most visible defender of a Colombian national institution against a European trademark ruling. The incongruity of that position, a multinational competitor backing a domestic rival, was part of what made the story travel.
The social movement lasted two weeks. During that period, Frisby España announced the creation of up to 90 new jobs and adjustments to its image, acknowledging the public pressure the Colombian response had generated. In February 2026, Frisby España filed a complaint against KFC in Spain and Colombia for what it described as abuse of dominant position, arguing that KFC’s campaign actions affected its entry into the European market. The lawsuit confirmed what the post had achieved: KFC had intervened in the dispute meaningfully enough that the opposing party felt compelled to respond through legal channels.
Why the Move Made Commercial Sense
Supporting a competitor in a public dispute is the kind of brand decision that sounds counterintuitive until the cultural context is understood. In Colombia, Frisby is not simply a competitor. It is a source of national pride that KFC’s customers share. The brand that publicly defends what Colombians love about Colombia is not sacrificing competitive ground. It is demonstrating that it understands the country whose market it operates in at a level that a generic global brand campaign never could.
The gesture was small. The F in the logo. One post. But in the specific moment it was made, in the specific cultural conversation it entered, it was the gesture that mattered. KFC did not run a campaign. It made a decision. Mass Digital’s role was to make that decision visible at exactly the right moment.
Frisby España’s subsequent lawsuit against KFC validated the intervention more persuasively than any award could. A brand that gets sued by an adversary for taking a stand has taken a stand that mattered.
Campaign Name: The F Support
Agency Name: Mass Digital Colombia / Managing Director: Oscar Acosta / ECD: David Patiño / Creative Directors: Miguel Van Bommel, Daniel Ibáñez / Art Director: Miguel Van Bommel, Juanito Lopez / Social Media Manager: Gabriela Ladron
Brand Name: KFC Colombia
Location: Colombia (single organic social media post; February 2026)
