Whooooooshhhhhhh!
The reason for the name change SHOULD HAVE BEEN:
The process of frying (chickens or other things, in Kentucky or elsewhere) does NOT involve steam-broiling it in a pressure-cooker. KFC serves pretty good chicken, but it isn’t southern fried chicken any more than it is chicken marsala.
When i was in the Philippines, experienced a pretty big chain of restaurants with big CFC signs: California Fried Chicken. guess they don’t know that California is more known for health food that down home grease-bomb Southern fried chicken. either that, or nobody knows what the hell Kentucky is.
Oh. A parody. Very funny. :rolleyes:
Here in Panama, instead of “finger-lickin’ good,” KFC restaurants used to use the slogan:
Como chuparse sus dedos!
Which means:
So you suck your fingers!
But it can also mean:
So you suck your toes!
Just sharing.
So you suck your fingers!
But it can also mean:
So you suck your toes!
Thank God Sue Dunhym didn’t post to this thread. :eek:
I think the main reason the changed their name was to seem new and hip to get new customers. In the advertising world it’s called an identity. They changed how poeple percieve them. Burger King did the same thing only a year or two ago although it was much more subtle.
I heard that they changed their name because the Colonel lost a bet: He had to think of 3 words ending in -gry, or else start using genetically engineered “animals” that are not chickens, but had their kidneys stolen at a party the previous night. When he taste-tested the “chicken” he accidentally ate a cockroach, which promptly laid eggs in his cheek, so he tried to call his doctor from the store payphone, but it was busy. As he tried to get his quarter back from the change release, he stuck his finger on a syringe needle that was left in there, and saw a note telling him to “CALL 911, you have hepatitis!!”
It was a big convolued mess, and if I told you the rest, I’d have to kill you. At least that’s what the guys in the black helicopter told me.
Was this before or after he flashed his bright lights at you as part of his gang initiation?
Thank you dopers for straightening out this mess.
I work with a couple of young pinheads in my office, one of whom told, with passionate conviction, the following elaboration on the story: That the reason Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC is because the chemicals in their genetically altered chicken are so radically different than those of a real chicken that they caused a comparatively svelt customer to have an allergic reaction which resulted him swelling up to Oliver Hardian proportions. Therefore, in order to avoid future law suits, they had to take chicken out of their name since what they were serving was not techincally chicken.
I was tempted to try and point out that such a huge news story would hardly be a little-known secret and thus a public-relations disaster, but I have found that inflicting critical thinking on those who aren’t interested in it in the first place does not make for smooth working relations.
I don’t think KFC even uses the word ‘chicken’ for any of the individual menu items. That is disturbing.
They do in Canada. They also stil have that little puppet show window just big enough to see how greasy the teenager behind it is, and that phosphorescent coleslaw. No biscuits here, though, which is sort of a shame.
Sort of on this topic…
If you drive by the KFC on Route 5 in Enfield, Connecticut, it still says “Kentucky Fried Chicken.” I guess they never felt like changing the sign. (Well, at least it said it a few months ago the last time I drove through Enfield.) I break out that bit of info whenever someone tries to convince me of the urban legend about KFC not being chicken.
Did you notice that recently, KFC started putting lines like this in their ads: “It’s real old-fashioned chicken–on the bone.” I assume it was partly to debunk those stories.
Mental image of an overacting Charlton Heston:
“KFC is PEOPLE!!!”
Shudder.
AHunter3 - Thanks for the answer (some of you people could learn from him). Do you have a cite…press release, company notice, newspaper/magazine article, anything…which could confirm this?
I don’t doubt you for a second, I just want to see this thread nailed down once and for all, as I get weary of General Questions which degenerate into a never-ending stream of incredibly tiresome jokes.
DKW: The snopes answer (marketing one) is the correct one. Alhunter3 was just pointing out that it should have been for the reason that they don’t really fry their chicken.
…The KFC corporate headquarters is about a 20 minute drive from my house. There were a couple of different reasons why the name was changed to KFC, according to local news outlets at the time (Louisville, KY is pretty small town. Anything makes news around here). One was because it was more cost effective. Less money spent on inks and signs for advertising and that sort of thing. Second reason was simplicity itself: That’s what most people called it anyway. They were of the opinion that most people, when hungry (Ah! A word ending in -gry!), would say “let’s go to KFC” instead of “let’s go to Kentucky Fried Chicken.” And, I have to confess, they’re right. At least around here. Even before the name change, people around here called it KFC for as long as I can remember.
Are you calling my joke tiresome? Do you have a cite for that? From an objective, reputable source, please.
I don’t doubt you for a second, mind you…I just want to be sure you are addressing the FACTS, as I get weary of General Questions posts answered by people spouting anecdotes and opinions.
KFC just became a conglomerate, so the chicken part seemed wrong in connection with it’s various subsidiaries.