I got this email recently. Can this possibly be true?? If so, no more KF"C" for me!
During a recent study of KFC done at the
University of New Hampshire, they found some very upsetting facts. First of all, has anybody noticed that just recently, the company has changed their name? Kentucky Fried Chicken has become KFC. Does anybody know why? We thought the real reason was
because of the “FRIED” food issue. It’s not. The reason why they call it KFC is because they cannot use the word “chicken” anymore. Why? KFC does not use real chickens. They actually use genetically manipulated organisms. These so called “chickens” are kept alive by tubes inserted into their bodies to pump blood and nutrients throughout their structure. They have no beaks, no feathers, and no feet. Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk to get more meat out of them. This is great for KFC because they do not have to pay so much for their production costs. There is no more plucking of the feathers or the removal of the beaks and feet. The government has told them to change all of their menus so they do not say chicken anywhere. If you look closely you will notice this. Listen to their commercials, I guarantee you will not see or hear the word chicken. I find this matter to be very disturbing
This urban legend is a follow-on to the one about how the state of Kentucky had trademarked its name to raise revenue, and KFC didn’t want to pay so it dropped its full name in favor of the acronym.
I like this UL particular, because I think it would be a great technology. Great chicken taste, with no moral qualms about killing birds. The fact that it’s bullpucky notwithstanding…
The real reason (brand-new UL follows) KFC changed its name from Kentucky Fried Chicken, is because “Kentucky Fried Chicken” is a magical incantation in an old Indian language, Sioux or Hindustani (I can’t remember which), which means “Curse me with bad luck, O Lord”. It only works if you say it one hundred times in a year, though. Several employees and regular customers were having bad luck so they asked the President of KFC to change the name.
Hopefully, I can convince you to accept “hopefully” as a disjunct adverb.
Frankly, I would be lying if I said I were confident.
Perhaps this subject is simply too complex for me to explain.
Unfortunately, I would be lucky to explain my way out of a paper bag.
been discussed here too… http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/003858.html funny stuff I say… if you could even believe something like this that comes in EMAIL even… you have a serious problem… and I have a bridge I need to unload.
I was sad because I had no shoes, until I saw a snake with no legs.
No, they can’t use the word chicken at all, except on their web site where it appears six times on the home page alone, in their commercials where they chant their slogan “we do chicken right”, in just about every window advertisement in their restaurants, and all over their freaking menu.
But if you don’t count any of those, then by gosh you’re exactly right- they don’t use the word “chicken” anywhere!
Book called THE SPACE MERCHANTS by Frederick Pohl, 1950s science fiction, set in a future era when advertising agencies and multinational corporations rule the world (Chairmen of the large corporations have more power than Presidents of countries, for instance)… anyway, food comes from a giant amorphous blob of self-replicating protein, sarcastically called “Chicken Little.” So, this UL isn’t even original.
Breed for no beaks… well that has to be an advantage! Everybody knows how time consumming it is to remove the beaks before you fry up the chicken heads! LOL
I was sad because I had no shoes, until I saw a snake with no legs.
I was working with the folks in the super-covert KFC genetics labs, and while they came up with this type of “chicken”, I was fired from the project. I came up with a “chicken”, but all it was was a giant beak with two feet coming out from underneath it. The feet had feathers on them, too. Even though I was sent home early, I brought my creation with me. He lives in a cage on my desk. I call him “pecky”.
That movie taught me some important lessons in life. 1. I can build a robot that loves me. 2. I can reanimate my dead girlfriend by jamming bits of metal and silicon into her skull. Both are lessons I use on a daily basis…
Jeez. “Snopes” is the best you can do to answer this question. Those guys are as reliable as this friend of a friend I have.
Seriously, Tdonald, the problem that caused KFC to have to change it’s name is not that it over-engineered the chickens. There is nothing wrong with KFC using either the words “Kentucky” or “Chicken” in its name. Surprisingly, it’s the word in the middle that got them in trouble.
In the early 1980’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. entered into an unholy alliance with the Archer Daniels Midland Corp. In order to stretch profits, KFC purchased the rights to a radical experimental soybean oil that ADM was developing. In an effort to reduce cooking times for commercial food service businesses, ADM began a series of experiments to blend regular vegetable oil with a top-secret mixture of particular acids.
With a little bit of tinkering, KFC eventually discovered that it could shorten cooking time (and thus, reduce all manner of costs) dramatically by increasing the acid concentration in the oil somewhat. The finished chicken was effectively indistinguishable from regular fried chicken, since the acid cooked it fully and crisply, and the small amount of hot oil in the mixture was enough to dilute the acid to non-poisonous levels.
Eventually, the FDA stepped in. As ADM has a long history of lobbying politicians, it was no surprise that the FDA approved in principle the oil-acid mixture. However, it concluded that because KFC had so escalated the percentage of acid in the mixture, the majority of the cooking done at KFC had ceased to be scientifically classifiable as “frying.”. Rather than change their name to “Kentucky Chemically Scalded Chicken,” they elected to simply shorten the name to the cryptic “KFC.” (Fun fact: one executive made up a nonsense word to describe the cooking process: “broasted.” Subsequent chicken places have adopted this term to refer to their own cooking process involving the oil-acid.)
That, my friend, is the real reason why Kentucky Fried Chicken had to change its name. Feel free to e-mail everyone you know with this bit of information. I’m sure they’ll want to know.
Not that I want to give any creedence to the KFC myth, but according to “Diet for a New America,” broilers (the trade term for chicken being raised to be eaten) are routinely de-beaked (subjected to beak removal) to keep them from pecking each other to death before maturity.
Breeding chickens to be beakless would not be the craziest idea in the world.
Am I supposed to believe that all this rain was suspended in mid-air until moments ago?
One of my favorite Far Side cartoons was of a chicken ranch with all the chickens just sort of flopped around on the ground. The sign said Bone-less Chicken Ranch.
Virtually yours,
DrMatrix
If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you 0.99999999… times.
It is my understanding that when Harlan Sanders (founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken) died, his family agreed to let the business continue but would not let the name “Kentucky Fried Chicken” be used but would accept “KFC” and Harlan Sanders’s picture could be used only as sort of cartoon in the commercials but never a real picture anymore. There was more legal things involved but I don’t remember exactlly what.
Harlan Sanders died in 1980. The chain continued to use the name “Kentucky Fried Chicken” for many years after that. They also used photos of the Colonel and in fact had Col. Sanders lookalikes appearing at events. The KFC and cartoon Colonel didn’t show up until a few years ago.
I have a question of my own. Why is everyone so quick to dismiss the idea that the chain changed its name to KFC simply because they didn’t want the word “FRIED” in 2-foot letters in front of every store?
I understand all the words, they just don’t make sense together like that.