NEWS: Keep It Greasey So It Goes Down Easy

DireChocobo said:

Amen to that.

It sounded good, but the real reason behind the shift to KFC had nothing to do with healthy food or finicky consumers: it was about money — money that Kentucky Fried Chicken would have had to pay to continue using their original name. In 1990, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, mired in debt, took the unusual step of trademarking their name. Henceforth, anyone using the word "Kentucky" for business reasons — inside or outside of the state — would have to obtain permission and pay licensing fees to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It was an unusual and brilliant scheme to alleviate government debt, but it was also one that alienated one of the most famous companies ever associated with Kentucky. The venerable Kentucky Fried Chicken chain, a mainstay of American culture since its first franchise opened in Salt Lake City in 1952, refused as a matter of principle to pay royalties on a name they had been using for four decades. After a year of fruitless negotiations with the Kentucky state government, Kentucky Fried Chicken — unwilling to submit to "such a terrible injustice" — threw in the towel and changed their name instead, timing the announcement to coincide with the introduction of new packaging and products to obscure the real reasons behind the altering of their corporate name.

Kentucky Fried Chicken were not the only ones who bravely refused to knuckle under. The name of the most famous horse race in North America, held every year at Churchill Downs, was changed from the "Kentucky Derby" to "The Run for the Roses" for similar reasons; many seed and nursery outfits that had previously offered Kentucky Bluegrass switched to a product known as "Shenendoah Bluegrass" instead; and Neil Diamond's song "Kentucky Woman" was dropped from radio playlists at his request, as the licensing fees he was obligated to pay the Commonwealth of Kentucky exceeded the peformance royalties he was receiving for the airplay.

jake_lex said:

As I understand it, there were two big motivations: first, get the word "fried" out of the name, and, secondly, the thought that "KFC" sounded hipper than "Kentucky Fried Chicken." Oh, and, also, there was thought of expanding the menu out past chicken, so calling it "Chicken" would hurt that. (It's the same reason Boston Chicken became Boston Market.)

It hasn't quite worked.

[Edited on Apr 23, 2005 12:53PM]

jake_lex said:

In addition to using the "Kentucky Fried Chicken" name, the new Louisville restaurant [...] features a younger, apron-clad image of the chain's founder, Colonel Sanders.

MisterSatan said:
People still think KFC's chicken is genetically created in a lab? Check it.

That being said, even though it's real chicken, it's still fucking nasty.

Mqx said:
Also from Snopes:

Ezell's is the best fried chicken in the world, but I do admit to slumming at KFC every so often... though, honestly, it's mostly because of the biscuts and fake honey.

[Edited on Apr 24, 2005 1:55AM]

StudentDriver said:

Wow, I can't wait until they unveil a young-looking CGI Xtreme Sanders, who skateboards down a mountain, then eats some chicken.

I can see the appeal of updating/changing fictional mascots, but Sanders was a real man, and he was pretty old when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken. Seems almost sacrilegious to alter his appearance now that he's dead.

rottenart said:

or hell, even a cartoon one who raps would be enough...oh wait.

HenryC said:
Oh my bad I guess the whole image doesn't want to fit

Mqx said:
Also from Snopes:

Ezell's is the best fried chicken in the world, but I do admit to slumming at KFC every so often... though, honestly, it's mostly because of the biscuts and fake honey.

[Edited on Apr 24, 2005 1:55AM]

If any or all of the stories in this section caused your internal clue phone to ring, we hope you didn't let the answering machine take the call. That niggling little voice of common sense whispering to you in the background was right — there was something wrong with what you read.

You've just had an enounter with False Authority Syndrome.

Everything in this section is a spoof. Mister Ed was no more a zebra than the origin of the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence had anything to do with pirates on a recruiting drive. As for Mississippi's doing away with teaching fractions and decimals in its school systems because kids find them too hard to master, that's no more true than Kentucky's imposing a licensing fee on uses of its name, Edgar Rice Burroughs naming his celebrated apeman after the city he lived in (other way around, actually), George Bernard Shaw penning a poorly-attended play called Closed For Remodeling, passengers on the Titanic viewing a 1912 silent version of The Poseidon Adventure while their doomed ship was sinking out from under them, or the design of California's flag being the result of "pear" being taken for "bear."

undeserving said:
yeah, it's not really chicken, just pieces of meat on life support.