Louisville (US), Nov 20: KFC said it will stop airing ads touting its fried chicken as part of a healthy diet, insisting the move is unrelated to a complaint that the campaign was deceptive. Company spokeswoman Bonnie Warschauer yesterday said the television ads will stop airing later this week as part of the "normal course of business."

But the Centre for Science in the public interest, which filed the complaint over the ads with the federal trade commission, said KFC's decision to stop them signaled that the campaign had backfired. "This has been a PR debacle for KFC, trying to pass their fried chicken off as health food," said Michael Jacobson, the group's executive director. "It's just not flying - people see it as a joke."

FTC spokeswoman Cathy Macfarlane would not confirm yesterday whether the agency is investigating KFC. She acknowledged that the agency received a letter in which the consumer group asked federal regulators to take "prompt enforcement action" against the company for its ads.

Warschauer declined comment on whether KFC was under investigation. She said the ads would end tomorrow after a nearly four-week run. KFC's ads routinely air for three or four weeks, she said.

Bureau Report