Saturday, August 29, 2009

KFC has something against bread and life as we know it



The next time you think you might be having a heart attack, just Double Down!

Double Down is KFC's new cheese and bacon sandwich, which is noteworthy for replacing the traditional bread part of the sandwich with meat. As the above ad helpfully says, "We didn't have room for a bun!"

That's right: Double Down is two slices of cheese and two slices of bacon housed between two fried chicken patties - plus heaps of something called "Colonel's sauce." Pause here to make your own inappropriate joke.

The sandwich is currently being tested in three U.S. states, which means that if the test subjects survive, it should be available here in Winnipeg in no time. It costs $4.99 or - if you want to make it a meal - $6.99. 

The New York Daily News reports that independent labs estimate the sandwich to have about 1,200 calories and 50 grams of fat, which is just about enough to drop an elephant. KFC estimates the sandwich to have just about half of these numbers, which is about enough to drop an emu.

What's really interesting is that KFC is in the middle of its "unthink what you thought about KFC" ad campaign in which it tries to turn around its image by promoting a healthier lifestyle.

With this bold, new sandwich, KFC might as well go back to calling itself "Kentucky Fried Chicken." As for a themeline, I have a suggestion: "The audacity of hopelessness."

3 comments:

  1. I'm sorry. Did someone raise Dr. Atkins from the dead? Doesn't KFC realize that the whole greasy fast food with no bun experiment passed on with the clogged arteries of Atkins.

    That sounds truly nasty... unless the Colonel's sauce is actually country gravy. Then hook me up to the defibrillator, cause I'm going in boys!!

    You raise an excellent point about the mixed signal this move sends. KFC can't play both sides for the middle and expect to succeed. Perhaps they can run a spot where people unthink their unthinking about KFC:

    "You tried to fool me with all that talk about healthy grilled chicken, but now you do this. Damn, you're even greasier and naaastier than I figured you were. And what's a man supposed to do without a bun? A man has got to have his buns. Now go get me some gravy for dipping, bitch."

    Can you hear Chris Rock in your head when you read that paragraph?
    That somehow seems like something he would spout off about.

    It's kind of scary to follow your "unthink" link and all the sudden you have crazy people employed by either KFC or their agency doing their "chicken dance". Also, the fact that Robert Eaton, the President and CCO (the second C is for Concept. Does that mean we can blame him for this farce?) of KFC is a South African born Aussie just somehow seems wrong, or is it just me?

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  2. That chicken dance is creepy, for sure.

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  3. I thought their campaign was to "think unsub," putting them in an "against" position with Subway, whose advertising is all about the healthiness, and cartoon monkeys. The last KFC ad I saw criticized the high price of Subway and went the McDonald's route, emphasizing being able to get an entire meal for under $5.
    That being said, I knew that the US KFC was on a different page than the Canadian one when I walked in to a Grand Forks KFC to find an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. Ugh.

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