The Latest In KFC Grilled Chicken Mayhem
Poor KFC. It seemed like such a good idea. New product; launch it with a giveaway. And then another, with a big-name celeb like Oprah to announce the coupons. KFC gets foot traffic; the people of America get free chicken. (And Oprah gets a few million more hits on her website.) So simple, right?
Not quite. First, the website couldn’t handle the sudden online crush of chicken-seekers, making downloading the coupon impossible. Then, a KFC near New York’s Grand Central Station refused to honor customer coupons—despite, some report, clearly visible chicken waiting behind the counter—sparking a pretty intense outcry. (But not a "riot," KFC insists.) And to add insult to injury, California-based chain El Pollo Loco started a giveaway of their own grilled chicken, asking customers to try both and pick a favorite. The result? El Pollo Loco alleges that prank calls were made to their hotline—and traced back to KFC employees.
But the upside? Nothing generates talk like a good scandal. At this point, there can't be too many people out there who don't know that KFC's serving grilled chicken. And isn't marketing the whole point?
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6 Comments:
This is almost as bad as the Popeye's incidents. Sheesh. Why can't companies follow through on their promises?
pips_plate at 12:05PM on 05/07/09
KFC won't honor the coupons on Mother's day, so El Pollo Logo is accepting the KFC coupons on Mother's day in response.
http://fastfood.freedomblogging.com/2009/05/06/el-pollo-loco-will-accept-kfc-oprah-coupon/20155/
peekpoke at 2:59PM on 05/07/09
I couldn't print mine, it said I already did
Sigilum at 4:53PM on 05/07/09
Apparently I was lucky - got the coupon to print in ~20 minutes and found a KFC with no lines that honored the coupon no problem. Only issue is that the chicken was no good. Review here: http://tinyurl.com/cy7yxa
NCGourmet at 5:19PM on 05/07/09
As of today KFC is no longer honoring the coupons. Originally the coupons were valid through may 19. Unfortunately for KFC, they did not expect to have such a response. As a result, they ran out of chicken, biscuits and patience all over the country. LOL KFc is second to Popeye's to follow the trend of underestimating the response to cheap/free chicken and run out of stock and incite chicken riots all over.
philadooklyn at 8:22PM on 05/07/09
In my area, they now say they are only honoring the coupons from 1-4pm. WTF?
UptownGirl at 2:40AM on 05/08/09