http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.2507175.0.0.php
It all began when Oprah said on her TV show, which has an audience of about seven million viewers, that viewers could download a voucher for a free meal at KFC from her website. The Colonel Sanders franchise was promoting its new product line, Kentucky Grilled Chicken, and Oprah, the doyen of diets and a woman famed for promoting the ethical treatment of animals, was helping.
With two pieces of chicken, and mashed potatoes and coleslaw on the side, it was a bargain that America could not resist. Within minutes, “Oprah Winfrey KFC” was the fifth most popular search on the internet. By the weekend, franchises were running out of food as free-loaders flocked to Oprah’s website. Stores were having to close up and hungry diners, coupon still in hand, were being sent home empty-bellied but full of anger.
In New York, the East 42nd Street branch was shut down when an angry crowd, waving slips of paper and yelling abuse at the manager, refused to leave until they had been fed. Company spokesperson Laurie Schalow denied there was a physical confrontation. “Some customers were upset because they couldn’t get their chicken, but there was no riot,” she said. In Greensboro, North Carolina, police were called to restore order and lock the doors.
By Friday, KFC had been forced to make a humiliating statement abandoning the promotion after just two days of its advertised two-week run, citing “overwhelming demand”. A video was released showing the company president, Roger Eaton, grinning desperately as he insisted the fiasco was proof that “America loves the great taste ”
On Broadway, across the street from Macy’s department store, employee of the month Rita, a KFC server, was dealing with a queue of disappointed clients. “We are taking a rain check,” she shouted, gesturing at a picture of Colonel Sanders on the wall. “The people who run the company, down to his brother that’s still living, decided we have to take a rain check. You will get your free chicken. But not today.”
To add to the mayhem, folk were flouting the “one coupon per person” and photocopying the vouchers wholesale.
“We’re about to go out of business because of people’s dishonesty,” Rita told the Sunday Herald. “They were getting Xerox copies, going in to work and saying let’s all eat free’.” The lack of a barcode or serial number on the coupon was a fundamental design flaw.
Janelle Henderson admitted that it was his fifth trip to the restaurant in two days. “But so what? I heard it’s free for two weeks. This is bulls**t,” he said. Rita smiled wearily: “Thank you, sir. Thank you for being understanding.”
The fast-food chain has spent huge amounts of time and money over the years persuading consumers to forget the F word – that’s fried, by the way. Kentucky Grilled Chicken is hardly health food, but it does significantly cut back on the 1000 calories in a regular meal and is therefore less likely to contribute to a furry-veined coronary.
Oprah could just about justify her blatant product placement as an exercise in promoting better eating. Her record of campaigning against factory farming is less easy to explain away. Last year, she won a Person Of The Year award from People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals, after exposing the horrific life and death of battery chickens on her television show. Needless to say, KFC’s birds are not happy hens raised in the Disney barnyard.
Two-thirds of Americans are overweight. One-third are obese. And a lot of them have looked to Oprah for a way out of fattydom.
Rita’s announcement that the coupons were no longer valid did nothing to clear the Broadway branch, which was packed with paying customers.
Taneka Jones shrugged. “In New York City, if it says it’s free, it always costs you something,” she said.
And anyway, if KFC did run out she could always go to Kennedy Fried Chicken, or Church’s Chicken or even Obama Fried Chicken instead.
Oprah Winfrey’s fault. If the TV Queen of Empathy hadn’t opened her mouth, then Kentucky Fried Chicken wouldn’t have run out of it’s key ingredient: chicken.
Michael Burks' Blog 