Knife crimes are on the rise worldwide including in the United Kingdom. The Government has started enforcing knife crime warnings on takeaway boxes.

YouTuber Elijah Quashie who is popularly named Chicken Connoisseur feels that these are too mild methods to overcome the rising knife crimes in the UK. He also feels that it has a racist undertone.

Chicken Connoisseur and his remarks

Taking objection to the government’s measures to put knife crime warnings on takeaway boxes, YouTuber Chicken Connoisseur feels that it is too simplistic a step to counteract the knife crimes. He told Wise Up To Money on BBC:

“I can see the racist connotation. I’m not sure if I’d say racist, or stereotype but it’s in that bracket.“

Chicken Connoisseur sees no sense in this part of the government campaign. He said:

“There should be someone who has a deeper train of thought than: ‘Black people, they eat chicken we can intersect the black people who kill each other at a chicken shop, with the chicken boxes.”

“I don’t know what they think that’s really going to do.”

He adds:

“If something real happens, the chicken box unfortunately is not really going to weigh up.

“They would have at least thought maybe there’s a reason why people are doing it. Let’s look into the reason why.

“Or the circumstances people who commit knife crime are in and maybe we can do something to stop it at its infancy. It’s not really treating the symptoms either.

“It’s just a chicken box.”

The government’s anti-knife campaigns

The government has said that its adverts on takeaway boxes are part of its wider campaign to counteract the increasing knife crimes in the country.

At the month’s start, the government revealed that more than 321000 takeaway boxes for chicken items would carry the anti-knife messages. It has commenced its #KnifeFree campaign. And replacing the standard packaging boxes with the takeaway chicken boxes printed with anti-knife slogans is part of this campaign.

What is the reason for using takeaway chicken boxes for its campaign?

The government has clarified that the agency All City Media Solutions which is spearheading the campaign has done a study. And its research revealed that the age group of 16-24 years comprises 70% of the customers in chicken shops.

This is the group that the campaign wants to target and hence it has chosen the chicken shops to spread the knife-free slogans. The agency stated:

“Making the presumption that any one strategy alone, however big or small can tackle an endemic problem such as knife crime is naive at best, and politicising an issue that’s ripping the heart out of this country is misplaced and counterproductive,” 

“If even one young vulnerable person is helped by this campaign, this would’ve all been worth it.”

Elijah Quashie and his career

Elijah Quashie or Chicken Connoisseur writes about the various chicken shops. He has a YouTube series called Pengest Munch and he gained fame through it. It garnered more than 50 million views.

It began in the year 2015 and its selling point is its reviews of chicken shops in London. These reviews provide all details about the chicken shops including the seating arrangement and quality and taste of food.

He also gives information on the chips and how the staff put together the delicious burgers.

In each of the episodes of the series, Chicken Connoisseur visits a different non-vegetarian restaurant. But he orders the same food items from the menu namely a chicken strip burger, wings, and a portion of chips.

He compares the food with that at the other places. Chicken Connoisseur has over 500k followers on his YouTube channel. He also works on the new show on Channel 4 called Peng Life. Chicken Connoisseur, 26 is honest about his reviews. He said:

“There’s no particular diplomacy. If it’s good, it’s good if it’s not – I make sure people know,”

The restaurants in the knife-free campaign

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Morleys, Dixy Chicken, and Chicken Cottage are the three chicken restaurants involved in this campaign. Chicken Connoisseur feels that the involvement might help the ships. He said:

“For a chicken shop to be recognised by a government body like the Home Office. They’re in the newspapers now. Maybe they weren’t before. The more marketing the merrier.”

“From their perspective it’s very easy. Just switch a box that’s it. Bossman doesn’t need to do anything different,”

Source: BBC UK