by Emily LAWTON

“When I heard about Taco Bell, KFC and Long John Sil­ver’s, I felt we would be a per­fect fit be­cause I can re­late to these restau­rants. Be­sides, my friends and I eat there all the time.” 

— Dale Earn­hardt, Jr.

…

It seems that an­oth­er ques­tion­able mar­ket­ing ploy has been un­der­tak­en by a fast food restau­rant, this time the ven­er­a­ble south­ern-fried chain KFC. I can the­o­ret­i­cal­ly con­done the spon­sor­ship of a NASCAR ve­hi­cle by KFC, re­al­iz­ing that the NASCAR-lov­ing seg­ment is pro­por­tion­al­ly great with­in the fried-chick­en-pur­chas­ing pop­u­la­tion. I can­not, how­ev­er, over­look the ab­surd na­ture of a col­lectible chick­en buck­et. Is it of any use? Per­haps your wee grub­by chil­dren will use it to play in the sand­box. But then, that’s no way to treat a col­lectible. Does slap­ping the words “lim­it­ed edi­tion” on a plas­tic buck­et make it worth some­thing? Will it some­day com­mand more than $1.35 on eBay?

Ken­tucky Fried Chick­en, why would you ever think I’d wish to gaze up­on the face of Dale Earn­hardt, Jr. when I could see Colonel Sanders?

Filed under Dispatches on June 28th, 2004

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