KFC Satisfies Media Hunger

by nicole ~ May 8, 2009

While I’m not an avid Oprah watcher, I’m lucky enough to get an update almost daily from my roommate.  “You’ll never guess what Oprah did/said/wore today” is a common statement in my household, but I was shocked when I came home on Tuesday to her about her national Kentucky Fried Chicken grilled chicken meal giveaway.  Oprah?  Fast food?  Really?

While the coupon is no longer available for download, you can check out the details of the offer here on Oprah’s site.

Based on this week’s media, I’m certainly not the only one shocked by Oprah’s giveaway and the impact it had across the country.  Gawker reports on what it calls “chicken riots of 09″ here and according to this article in the New York Daily news:

“Bargain-hungry New Yorkers flocked to KFC outlets for a second day Thursday to take advantage of a free meal coupon deal from the talk show queen.”

As of about 45 minutes ago a line was still present outside of that same KFC pictured in The Daily News (which happens to be just down the street from Mediashop’s office) and Fox News has been parked outside since before 8:45 AM today.

So again, why is Oprah giving away free KFC?  I think Dr. Marion Nestle, NYU professor of nutrition and author of Pet Food Politics, What to Eat and Food Politics, hit the nail on the head in her interview on Huffington Post regarding the actual nutritional value of KFC’s grilled checking.  In the interview she said:

“My conclusion: the grilled chicken option is about marketing, not health. The  proof? Oprah talked about it.”

Dr. Nestle also suggests in her interview that if fast food restaurants really cared about health, there are other more effective measures they should take.  She said:

“Here are five simple suggestions: they could (1) make it easier and cheaper for customers to order smaller portions, (2) make healthy kids meals the default, (3) add vegetables (other than potatoes) to all of their meals, (4) provide fruit desserts, and (5) reduce the sugars and salt in everything they make.

What do you think the chances are that any fast food place will do these? Grilled chicken is easier and gets them off the hook, apparently.”

While all of those measures seem to make for sound healthy choices, what they probably wouldn’t make for is all of this media hullabaloo….and I certainly don’t think KFC will mind all of the attention.

Nicole Amato is an Account Executive at Mediashop PR and a graduate of Northeastern University with a BA in Journalism.