LONDON — When KFC found itself in an extra-crispy predicament this week when it was unable to provide the one thing customers expect from the restaurant chain — chicken — it had two choices: Laugh or cry.

Apparently, it has chosen the former.

A mischievously contrite ad in Britain on Friday featured an empty chicken bucket with the image of Colonel Sanders. Below his smiling face, the letters that make up the company’s name were displayed in their typical typography, but they had been transposed to suggest a four-letter word that is associated with profanity, not poultry.

If a vowel was missing, the meaning was clear, expressing a sentiment held by both the restaurant and its customers, as problems with a new supply chain forced the closure of nearly two-thirds of KFC’s British branches this week.

Britain’s culinary reputation might have been built on a foundation of fish and chips and cucumber sandwiches, but the country has developed an extraordinary fondness for poultry slathered in batter and fried in oil.