When I was around eight years old, we had a little black terrier mix named “Bear” and he was my buddy. He was sweet and gentle, but also very protective of our house and family. One night a neighbor came in the door without knocking and Bear bit her in a place that nobody wants to be bitten; she was ultimately hospitalized. Even at 8, I knew this was a Very Bad Situation, but there was hope! My uncle was a police lieutenant and while he couldn’t ensure that Bear would get to stay with us, he did know of a police department in another state that needed a police dog and Bear had proven himself to be so brave that they would take him!
I am now 42 years old. Not too terribly many years ago, we were at a family function and sharing stories of our past pets, and I - a 40-year-old man - shared the story of Bear, who had left home to become a police dog. It took a good minute of my family staring at me before I realized, for the first time in three plus decades, what had actually happened to Bear.
I read somewhere that they changed it because “some people” associate Kentucky with racism. A pretty pointless move by a company whose mascot is a stereotypical southern colonel.
There’s been a giant list of reasons I heard KFC been renamed for in the past
-They thought the word fried had too many negative connotations
What they served could no longer legally be called chicken (genetically modified chickens that were made to be fatter)
The state of Kentucky filed a lawsuit for royalties for using their name
When expanding overseas didn’t think foreigners would understand Kentucky was a place and not a style of food.
I don’t think they ever gave an official reason but the fact that Kentucky Fried chicken is such a long name and everyone was shortening it to KFC anyway makes it seem like it was purely for brand awareness reasons.
