Techdirt. Stories about "kfc"

Techdirt. Stories about "kfc" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories about "kfc"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 9 Jul 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Advertising Mistakes; Hilarity Ensues Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100820/10212510707/dailydirt-advertising-mistakes-hilarity-ensues.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100820/10212510707/dailydirt-advertising-mistakes-hilarity-ensues.shtml half your marketing budget goes, but it's possible to waste 100% of your advertising with an innocent mistake. It's tough to try to make funny and catchy ads, and not everyone has the same sense of humor. Here are just a few examples of some ads that have backfired.

Automatically serving ads without a human editor to judge the appropriateness of the content can be a really bad idea -- especially when placing ads on news items. Yahoo News recently inserted ads for Express clothing on a news photo -- unfortunately the photo pictured a distraught man who survived an attack by Taliban militants. [url]
KFC ran a commercial in the UK a few years ago that set a record for complaints -- because viewers thought it encouraged bad manners and mocked people with speech impediments. This commercial has held on to its record to this day, but there probably aren't many agencies vying for the title. [url]
Pizza Hut knows its customers love pizza, but does a love of pizza correlate with disliking math? This commercial needs to show its work on how it arrived at its conclusion. [url]
Kenneth Cole is trying to raise "awearness" with some edgy ad campaigns. But one of its billboards generated some backlash from teachers when it suggested that teachers' rights were at odds with student interests. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100820/10212510707 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Faster Food, Faster! Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110909/04304315878/dailydirt-faster-food-faster.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110909/04304315878/dailydirt-faster-food-faster.shtml

Burger King is testing out a home delivery service for its food in the DC area. Best sentence in the coverage: "There are some real food-quality issues here," says Ron Paul, president of research firm Technomic. [url]

McDonald's tried a social marketing campaign on Twitter, asking for customers to tell some of their #McDStories. Oops. They didn't expect the #McSnideRemarks -- which is par for the course on the internet. [url]

Yum! Brands restaurants (eg. Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut...) in Kentucky lobbied to accept food stamps -- but some people don't think that's a good idea. Others argue that it's a step up from getting food from a gas station. [url]

To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110909/04304315878 Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:05:48 PST The Ridiculous Trademark Saga Of Kennedy Fried Chicken Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110220/18101913177/ridiculous-trademark-saga-kennedy-fried-chicken.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110220/18101913177/ridiculous-trademark-saga-kennedy-fried-chicken.shtml recently received a stamp of approval for the trademark on "Kennedy Fried Chicken." Now, there are all sorts of problems with this. First of all, Mr. Haye did not create Kennedy Fried Chicken. It was actually created by another guy (both men are from Afghanistan, and apparently much of this saga involves Afghani ex-patriots in New York City). Haye worked at one of a few Kennedy Fried Chickens many years ago, and then started his own (without the blessing or licensing from the originator). Apparently, this was common in the Afghani community, where there are a ton of Kennedy Fried Chickens, most of which have no relation to one another (think: Ray's, Original Ray's, Famous Ray's, etc. when it comes to pizza in NYC).

Separately, of course, the very name Kennedy Fried Chicken has a separate problem, which is that the folks at Kentucky Fried Chicken didn't appreciate the name and sued many years ago... and won. So there shouldn't be any Kennedy Fried Chickens at all. Except, what saved the original Kennedy Fried Chicken was Kentucky Fried Chicken's decision to drop its full name and revert to the nickname KFC, leading it to no longer pay much attention to the Kennedy Fried Chickens, which continued to explode. And, yes, the original Kennedy Fried Chicken was created on purpose to play off of the KFC name, with a nod towards JFK.

However, Mr. Haye, despite not coming up with the name, not being the first, and not really having any sort of "right" to the name, did apply and get a trademark on it... and has now started threatening other Afghani shop owners who use the name. He's sent out 300 letters to others, telling them they have to pay him or he'll sue. He claims their "poor-quality chicken is going to kill my reputation." Must I point out that he copied the name in the first place? Anyway, those KFCs don't seem to have much interest in either paying Mr. Haye or backing down at all.

"We won't pay a penny," huffed Nour Abdullah, the manager of Kennedy Fried Chicken on Junction Boulevard in Corona, Queens, which seems indistinguishable from Mr. Haye's except for the fried shrimp balls and gyros on the menu. "I can rename the shop Munir Fried Chicken after my son or even New Kennedy Fried Chicken. Then let's see what he’s going to do."

A few doors down, Najib Ullah, a chicken fryer from Kabul, was equally defiant. "Anyone can own a Kennedy, and I've never heard of this Abdul Haye," he said. "Every place has a different owner: same chicken, different menu. So what’s the problem?"

As for the guy who created the original Kennedy Fried Chicken, Zia Taeb, even though he's long been out of the business, he seems to suggest he might jump into the legal fray as well:

He insisted that he -- not Mr. Haye -- was the rightful owner of the Kennedy brand. "He won't win because I know my people, and Afghans will never pay him," he said. "I will go after him."

Oh, and the biggest irony in all of this? At the very end of the article, Mr. Haye who kicked off this whole thing with his legal threats, tells the NY Times reporter over a dish of lamb chops at a different Afghani restaurant: "You know, Afghans don't even like eating fried chicken."

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]]> and-we-don't-even-like-fried-chicken http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110220/18101913177 Thu, 28 May 2009 15:10:00 PDT Have A Family Feast Tonight... And It Doesn't Have To Be From KFC Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090522/0331504977.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090522/0331504977.shtml threatened a small pizzeria in Scotland that had been using the phrase "Family Feast" since 1992. After getting the threat letter from KFC, the pizzeria responded with a straightforward letter to KFC, saying:

"we refuse to be bullied by a global conglomerate such as yourselves".

And... amazingly, it worked. KFC backed down and told the pizza place that it will take no further action. So, everyone, go out and have a family feast tonight from someone other than KFC.

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