DailyDirt: Christmas Dinner Isn't The Same Without...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

If you're getting ready for a holiday meal meal with family, you might be planning anything from going to a Chinese restaurant to an elaborate home-cooked turkey. Whatever the case may be, there are more than a few holiday traditions out there. Check out a few of these delicious dishes.

• Here's a Christmas tradition that you might not be aware of: buying a live carp, having it live in your bathtub for a while until Christmas Eve, then serving it for dinner. Apparently, several European countries have practiced this (eg. Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Croatia), and it's a ritual that's not even restricted to Christianity. [url]
• In the Philippines, the Christmas Eve feast after midnight mass is rellenong manok -- a stuffed boneless chicken. This dish is related to the Spanish pollo relleno, but it has changed significantly over the years with influences from American cuisine. [url]
• In Japan, KFC's successful Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii! (Kentucky for Christmas!) campaign from 1974 has created a tradition of Japanese people eating far more fried chicken than anyone would otherwise expect. Only about one percent of the Japanese population is Christian, but people stand in line for this commercial tradition. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: carp, christmas, culture, dinner, kfc, kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii, meals, rellenong manok, traditions
Companies: kfc

DailyDirt: No Bones About It

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Some folks want to suck out all the marrow of life, but apparently when it comes to fast food, it's much more expedient to just suck all the meat off the bones, grind it up with some other stuff, and fry it until it's a delicious golden brown. Chicken nuggets are popular with kids meals, and there are apparently various patented processes for cutting up chicken meat into innovative products. Here are just a few good nuggets on some fast food chicken items.

• What is a chicken nugget made of? An anecdotal analysis finds that some chicken nuggets (not McNuggets) are mostly fat (~56-58%), about 40-50% muscle meat, along with some bone fragments and breading and other bits. (And don't forget the BBQ sauce.) [url]
• McDonald's Canada took a film crew to document the process of making chicken nuggets. Did you ever notice that there are four distinct nugget shapes: the bell, the ball, the bow tie and the boot? If you want to see how the sausage nugget is made, check out the video. [url]
• KFC got on the boneless chicken wagon in 2013 to go after the 6 in 10 customers that say they prefer chicken meat without bones. Customers have to pay a little more to eat chicken without bones, so the convenience comes with a price. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: boneless, bones, chicken, fast food, food, mcnugget, meat, nuggets
Companies: kfc, mcdonalds

DailyDirt: Advertising Mistakes; Hilarity Ensues

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Advertising is a tricky business. Not only do you not know where half your marketing budget goes, but it's possible to waste 100% of your advertising with an innocent mistake. It's tough to try to make funny and catchy ads, and not everyone has the same sense of humor. Here are just a few examples of some ads that have backfired.

• Automatically serving ads without a human editor to judge the appropriateness of the content can be a really bad idea -- especially when placing ads on news items. Yahoo News recently inserted ads for Express clothing on a news photo -- unfortunately the photo pictured a distraught man who survived an attack by Taliban militants. [url]
• KFC ran a commercial in the UK a few years ago that set a record for complaints -- because viewers thought it encouraged bad manners and mocked people with speech impediments. This commercial has held on to its record to this day, but there probably aren't many agencies vying for the title. [url]
• Pizza Hut knows its customers love pizza, but does a love of pizza correlate with disliking math? This commercial needs to show its work on how it arrived at its conclusion. [url]
• Kenneth Cole is trying to raise "awearness" with some edgy ad campaigns. But one of its billboards generated some backlash from teachers when it suggested that teachers' rights were at odds with student interests. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: ads, advertising, awearness, backlash, commercials, marketing, mistakes
Companies: express, kenneth cole, kfc, pizza hut, yahoo

DailyDirt: Faster Food, Faster!

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are a lot of food options out there, and fast food is certainly one of the more popular choices for people on the go. Not surprisingly, though, fast food establishments usually don't have the best reputation for healthy dining, but some of them are trying to change their image. Here are just a few stories on fast food news.

• Burger King is testing out a home delivery service for its food in the DC area. Best sentence in the coverage: "There are some real food-quality issues here," says Ron Paul, president of research firm Technomic. [url]
• McDonald's tried a social marketing campaign on Twitter, asking for customers to tell some of their #McDStories. Oops. They didn't expect the #McSnideRemarks -- which is par for the course on the internet. [url]
• Yum! Brands restaurants (eg. Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut...) in Kentucky lobbied to accept food stamps -- but some people don't think that's a good idea. Others argue that it's a step up from getting food from a gas station. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: #mcdstories, food, marketing
Companies: burger king, kfc, mcdonalds, pizza hut, taco bell, yum brands

The Ridiculous Trademark Saga Of Kennedy Fried Chicken

from the and-we-don't-even-like-fried-chicken dept

More trademark madness coming to us via an article in the NY Times, which tells the story of Abdul Haye, who recently received a stamp of approval for the trademark on "Kennedy Fried Chicken." Now, there are all sorts of problems with this. First of all, Mr. Haye did not create Kennedy Fried Chicken. It was actually created by another guy (both men are from Afghanistan, and apparently much of this saga involves Afghani ex-patriots in New York City). Haye worked at one of a few Kennedy Fried Chickens many years ago, and then started his own (without the blessing or licensing from the originator). Apparently, this was common in the Afghani community, where there are a ton of Kennedy Fried Chickens, most of which have no relation to one another (think: Ray's, Original Ray's, Famous Ray's, etc. when it comes to pizza in NYC).

Separately, of course, the very name Kennedy Fried Chicken has a separate problem, which is that the folks at Kentucky Fried Chicken didn't appreciate the name and sued many years ago... and won. So there shouldn't be any Kennedy Fried Chickens at all. Except, what saved the original Kennedy Fried Chicken was Kentucky Fried Chicken's decision to drop its full name and revert to the nickname KFC, leading it to no longer pay much attention to the Kennedy Fried Chickens, which continued to explode. And, yes, the original Kennedy Fried Chicken was created on purpose to play off of the KFC name, with a nod towards JFK.

However, Mr. Haye, despite not coming up with the name, not being the first, and not really having any sort of "right" to the name, did apply and get a trademark on it... and has now started threatening other Afghani shop owners who use the name. He's sent out 300 letters to others, telling them they have to pay him or he'll sue. He claims their "poor-quality chicken is going to kill my reputation." Must I point out that he copied the name in the first place? Anyway, those KFCs don't seem to have much interest in either paying Mr. Haye or backing down at all.

"We won't pay a penny," huffed Nour Abdullah, the manager of Kennedy Fried Chicken on Junction Boulevard in Corona, Queens, which seems indistinguishable from Mr. Haye's except for the fried shrimp balls and gyros on the menu. "I can rename the shop Munir Fried Chicken after my son or even New Kennedy Fried Chicken. Then let's see what he’s going to do."

A few doors down, Najib Ullah, a chicken fryer from Kabul, was equally defiant. "Anyone can own a Kennedy, and I've never heard of this Abdul Haye," he said. "Every place has a different owner: same chicken, different menu. So what’s the problem?"

As for the guy who created the original Kennedy Fried Chicken, Zia Taeb, even though he's long been out of the business, he seems to suggest he might jump into the legal fray as well:

He insisted that he -- not Mr. Haye -- was the rightful owner of the Kennedy brand. "He won't win because I know my people, and Afghans will never pay him," he said. "I will go after him."

Oh, and the biggest irony in all of this? At the very end of the article, Mr. Haye who kicked off this whole thing with his legal threats, tells the NY Times reporter over a dish of lamb chops at a different Afghani restaurant: "You know, Afghans don't even like eating fried chicken."

Filed Under: chicken, trademark
Companies: kennedy fried chicken, kentucky fried chicken, kfc

Have A Family Feast Tonight... And It Doesn't Have To Be From KFC

from the bad-trademark,-bad dept

Jimmy alerts us to yet another story of trademark law gone bad. Fast food chicken joint KFC apparently was able to get a trademark on "Family Feast" and then threatened a small pizzeria in Scotland that had been using the phrase "Family Feast" since 1992. After getting the threat letter from KFC, the pizzeria responded with a straightforward letter to KFC, saying:

"we refuse to be bullied by a global conglomerate such as yourselves".

And... amazingly, it worked. KFC backed down and told the pizza place that it will take no further action. So, everyone, go out and have a family feast tonight from someone other than KFC.

Filed Under: family feast, trademark
Companies: kfc