I’m a new Doper, so forgive me if this subject has been broached before. Several months ago I read an e-mail from a coworker that said KFC can’t legally be called Kentucky Fried Chicken because the meat is no longer considered chicken.
In fact, goes this theory, KFC is using meat from genetically altered chickens, which don’t quite look like your normal clucker.
Now, I don’t believe this, nor do I believe any wild tale unless it’s proved to me or trusted individuals tell me it’s true. Has anybody here heard this urban legend? Who started it? Popeye’s? Hardee’s? A genetically altered chicken?
KFC hopes to avoid the negative connotations of the word “fried”, given 70% or so of the calories of KFC come from fat. I am sure whoever stared this rumour meant it as a joke. I am saddened by the fact I know so many people who take this sort of thing at face value. You would have heard about it by now if the rumour was true; look at Taco Bell. Besides, if it was true the pieces they gave you would be a lot bigger, no?
Funny: here in Florida there is another franchise restaurant called “Maryland Fried Chicken”. “Fried” is in big letters and evidently the state of Maryland does not have a copyright on its name.
Just sharing.
By the by, I didn’t see anything in the Snopes Web site to indicate the KFC name change was due to the state of Kentucky’s claim on its name. So, I don’t know where that explanation came from.
Just for the record, if KFC were chemically altering their food, they did it right! I’m a big fan of their original recipe chicken.
“. . . 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 seems Snopes has two links with different answers to the reasons KFC changed its name. One doesn’t refer to Kentucky’s copyright, and the other says that’s the very reason for KFC’s name change. Interesting.
And in the Bronx there is at least one “Kennedy Fried Chicken”, as if you won’t notice the difference. Not sure if the Kennedy family is reading any benefits.
An esteemed radical feminist (whose name, I unfortunately do not remember) appeared on the ever-insightful “Roseanne” program a year or so ago, and she said that in the near-future, chickens would indeed be “raised” at “pharms,” places where headless “chickenoids” (my word) would be maintained on life-support systems (sorta like in The Matrix).
