Is fast food chain’s marketing message misleading?
May 4, 2010 by Shane BorerPosted in: Latest News, Scandals
Planning to combine your passion for fried chicken and breast cancer research? There’s one promotion you’ll want to steer clear of.
Kentucky Fried Chicken’s latest advertising blitz urges customers to run to their nearest location and pick up a bucket of the Colonel’s secret-spice laden chicken to fight breast cancer.
According to the ads, the restaurant chain is running a promotion with the Susan G. Komen foundation, and for every “pink bucket” purchased, KFC will make a $0.50 donation to the fund.
The only problem? Customer purchases of the pink buckets won’t lead to any additional donations to the fund. The fine print of KFC’s promotion spells it all out: “KFC restaurant operations have contributed 50 cents to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure for each Komen branded bucket purchaser by the operators.”
In other words, when individual KFC franchises purchase the pink buckets from their supplier, they have to pay an extra $0.50 per bucket that automatically goes to the cancer research fund. But if you go out and purchase a pink bucket every day, it won’t actually move the donation needle any higher.
Customers can only help the fund by purchasing enough pink buckets so that an individual KFC franchise runs out and has to place another order.
If you really want to make an impact, here’s a better plan: Visit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure site, make a direct donation and have something a little more heart-friendly for dinner.
Tags: Home equity loan, KFC, Susan G. Komen
May 5th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Seems to me the judgement to report this is what’s deceptive! So, the vendor “predonated” the amount… Customer purchase of the buckets does support the chain’s charitable effort. And certainly, the foundation receives interest on that front paid sum. By buying the product ahead of time in mass, the marketer does ALSO run the risk of not selling enough pink buckets. Come on, there’s enough sinister marketing to report on. This is a stretch!
May 5th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
I Agree with Cici, This is irresponsible reporting. The only thing this will accomplish is companies like KFC won’t donate in the futrue.
May 5th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I agree totally with Cici I dont see anything sinister about KFC predonating the money and disagree that buying them does not lead to any additional funds. If enough are purchased they will need to buy additional buckets and pre pay another donation.
May 5th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Birgit Rickert. Birgit Rickert said: Check out Is fast food chain’s marketing message misleading? at http://bit.ly/djv3GN [...]
May 5th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Each of you is missing the point. Even if no one goes and buys the chicken, the donation has already been made. Consumer sales will produce no additional benefit, UNLESS enough purchases are made to warrant the purchase of more of the actual buckets. The advertising, however, clearly implies that for each bucket purchased, they will make an additional donation; this is deceptive.
May 6th, 2010 at 12:35 am
The article might be right. If I don’t buy a bucket, the foundation still gets the same amount of money. This time.
If less buckets are sold, KFC will buy less next year. If double the normal number of buckets are sold, KFC will buy double the buckets next year. If KFC is making a profit from this, they will do more charitable things of this nature. If KFC is selling the same number of buckets, they’re just adding an extra cost to the individual franchises. Who will avoid ordering the more expensive buckets in future.
I don’t think KFC are saints. I think KFC is a company, and companies make money. I’m in favor of companies making money by doing charitable work. It’s a win-win situation, as long as you like fried chicken.
May 6th, 2010 at 7:23 am
They got the point-predonations are donations, and when the buckets are gone, there will be anohter predonation. This is good in the sense that if I want the chicken anyway, I will ask for the pink bucket.
Abigger point is-there is nothing to lose and something to gsain. I won’t buy chicken instead of a salas, won’t buy KFC rather than Churhes…there is no scam. There is a little spin in the language. n There is no bad guy, and the pink bucket reminds me to send a little to the other site you mentioned, donate a little to the next Susan G Komen Run for the Cure, and your blog brought it to my attnetion-so no harm that.
The harm is that the lead in to you article turns good guys into bad guys (impression) and there are bad guys out there who will take my money and in rerturn, I’ll get an empty bucket. Alert me about them.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:51 am
KFC will learn no good dead goes unpunished. Keep this up and soon no one will bother donating.
May 6th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Afterthoughts-on both sides…
Wow! What a scam…and here I was thinkin’ I would jump in my truck, run to KFC, order a bucket, stand up on the tailgate in front of God and everybody…open a couple of buttons to show the hair on my chest and in my most manly way reach into the pink bucket and pull out a drumstick-proving “Real Men buy Pink.”
Now, I know better-no one gets my 50 cents til I get my chicken…or maybe we can compromise…if the restaurant buys the buckets on credit, some of the money will not be sent in until after the bucket is sold, and both sides can be unhappy about the compromise.
What a scam-ranks right up there with Bernie Madoff and those Libyan princess letters. Move over Bernie-here comes the Colonel!
This is about as important as events in my small town-the kids watch grass grow, paint dry, and hubcaps rust….real excitin’ when you have nothing else to fret about! Fun stuff…big threat to our well being…maybe I will buy a pink bucket…maybe real men do wear pink.
May 6th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
WOW !!!! They’re are so may more important things to worry about in the world than how the $0.50 gets to Susan G. Komen…Lets refocus our thoughts. Thank God they are giving!
May 6th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Ditto Cindy. KFC “is” a business. And they’re in business to make money. If they don’t make money, they can’t donate money to such worthy causes. And if they want to stay in business and sell pink buckets next year, they need to advertise this year…and every year.
I’ve seen worse reporting, but this is certainly irresponsible. And the headline was sensationalized purely to attract readers. Yes, headlines serve to attract readers, but there is no excuse for them to mislead. How about simply reporting that KFC is selling pink buckets to support Susan G. Koman…and emphasize their creativity, etc.?
It seems that “If it bleeds, it leads,” isn’t going away anytime soon.
May 6th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
So, KFC donates money based on buckets their operators purchase. That’s a good thing to motivate individual operators. It also gets them to push their pink buckets on to customers since the container is a dated item while this promotion is running. It helps increase sales.
But, the idea that the more buckets THE CUSTOMERS buy, the more money goes to Komen….well, that is simply deceptive.
I suppose that if their campaign was something like: “Come support your local KFC operator who, if they have these special PINK buckets in stock, has made a donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation….etc., etc.” …….. Nah. Not quite the same.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:34 pm
It just underscores the sinisterness of the Komen work–eating unhealthy doesn’t “cause” breast cancer, but wacked out hormones do, and the big pharmacy/physician-backed Komen group won’t tell you that. Linda McCartney was a vegetarian who ate food grown in her own organic garden, and she died of breast cancer after being treated by some of the best “cancer experts” in the country. Estrogen off balance and operating unopposed by protective progesterone is the main cause, and it is no more hypocritical for the big chicken people to support Komen’s so-called cancer research than it is for the big pharmacy groups to support it.
May 7th, 2010 at 1:46 am
Yes, I know research needs both money and publicity. But I’ll hold out for the irony of Phillip-Morris offering fifty cents to the American Lung Association for every super-special, pearl-colored pack of Camel smokes.
May 7th, 2010 at 3:29 am
Well, does it cost the consumer .50 more for the pink buckets of chicken with the .50 donation to the charity? I don’t think that the consumer is actually harmed and I don’t think this campaign by KFC is egregious. As previously stated they are a business with stockholders who expect to make money otherwise they will go out of business and we won’t be able to sample the Col.’s special receipe fried chicken which personally I really enjoy. Yes, it is a win win when they include charity in their marketing so give KFC “…a break today” as otherwise they may decide in the future that the negative publicity is a good reason to terminate the charitable relationship! Remember that KFC isn’t the govt. therefore they actually have to make a profit since they can’t just print up more money and add to their money supply by going to their computer like the Fed does.
May 7th, 2010 at 11:51 am
[...] to a report by Shane Borer, Kentucky Fried Chicken is misleading customers. KFCs sales promotion is that for every pink [...]
May 7th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
This is my first visit to Ripple, Are all the articles this sensationalized? It seems to me that there is probably a company that is actually trying to bilk me and my fellow Americans that could have been investigated. Hint: Banks, Oil Companies, Pharmacuticle Companies, etc etc etc This DID however encourage me to support KFC that I had been boycotting due to the PETA issue. Today I buy a bucket, toss the food to a Hobo on the corner, or some volunteers cleaning up th BP mess in my area ( I don’t eat meat ) and move on with my life, thanks KFC for trying something positive in todays world of negativity.
May 7th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
If the customer doesn’t buy the chicken, the franchisee will be less inclined to participate in the future. This sounds like a win/win for everyone at some level. This is a stretch.
May 7th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
OMG! The bottom line is that people are going to buy KFC chicken no matter what color the bucket is and if a large company wants to donate to breast cancer research let them!!! They are not forcing you to eat their chicken! We still have some freedom in this country!
May 7th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
folks, we’re all “missing the point”! fast food =hungry over-worked, under-payed persons din-din for themselves and screaming family members after work. they for the most part aren’t going there for any other reason, outside of craving KFC. however, for those rare few decent caring people remaining on this planet, that happen to “drive-thru”….are probably pleased to see the “promotion” for the PINK bucket, adding cash to breast cancer research. so, in the end, PINK it is. at first, i too thought:”wow, that’s screwed up.” But after having thought b/4 reacting, it’s better that they pre-payed the $.50ea. this way, if we’re all still pinchin’ pennies cuz the economy rots unless your rich, and can’t buy fast-food, RESEARCH still benefits. and THAT folks….IS THE POINT.
May 8th, 2010 at 7:38 am
[...] Ripple.us.com » Blog Archive » Is fast food chain's marketing … [...]
May 8th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
This is the dumbest promotio ever. Support breast cancer research, while disregarding coronary heart disease research, obesity research, and diabetes research.
Th
May 10th, 2010 at 10:03 am
I agree that the language is misleading. This may not be a big deal to some people in this day and age, but words do mean something, and honesty is still important. If I was led to believe that a portion of my purchase was going to a certain cause, and I bought the product because of that, I would want to know that a portion of my purchase actually did go to that cause.
My bigger complaint, however, is the fact that a foundation that purports to want to fight breast cancer is encouraging people to eat high-fat food, which has been shown to increase the likelihood of getting breast cancer. That’s kinda like the American Lung Association striking a deal with one of the tobacco companies to have them donate a dollar for every pink carton of cigarettes they sell, and then encouraging the public to buy cigarettes to help fight lung cancer! (I just read Pam’s comment, making the same point!
I guess there are at least a couple of us who can still think critically and see not only the irony, but how money causes people and organizations to do things that are counter to what they claim to believe.)
However, my biggest complaint against Komen is that they donate to Planned Parenthood. Not only is this wrong because Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the country, but also because of the studies that indicate a link between abortions and breast cancer.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:13 am
I also wanted to make the point that it is always amusing when someone tries to belittle people who have a problem with something like what KFC and Komen are doing, by saying that there are much more important things in this world to be concerned about, as if we can only deal with one thing at a time!
And then there is Lee, who claims to be a PETA supporter, yet now gives his money (none of which will go to breast cancer research) to this company that PETA boycotts merely because the store operators paid 50 cents to Komen for each pink bucket they purchased. Hey, Lee, if you really believe in your cause, why don’t you just send a couple of bucks to Komen? It will be $2.00 more than they will get when you buy a bucket, and you will still be money ahead by not buying mistreated chickens that you don’t plan to eat anyway!
As for me, I don’t plan to visit KFC anymore–at least not until the pink bucket campaign is over!
May 10th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
I see nothing deceptive here. The author admits that KFC’s promotion discloses how funds are donated. As others here have pointed out, additional purchases in the pink bucket mean additional purchases of pink buckets, which means more donations. If you see a problem here, you are really splitting hairs.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
What I really got from this is that the author is telling us that we don’t really need to support KFC since the franchisee is already stuck with “pre-purchasing” the chicken containers. Come on. Every thing from knapkins to forks are purchased from the parent company by the franchisee. They don’t have a choice. Even the advertising that KFC puts out is back charged to the local operator. KFC is just tracking the buckets by making the franchisee pre pay for it. KFC isn’t putting itself at risk here. When the buckets are pre purchased SBK is being prepaid. Too bad KFC complicated a simple solution. The author of this article needs to get a life and go trolling somewhere else for real news.
May 11th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
The reporter (Shane) is on a witch hunt here, and has come up empty. My guess: Shane is sympathetic to chickens (a PETA fan) and has it in for KFC.
May 12th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Ha-
What’s cool is that we grown up, sophisticated, educated Americans have so much spare time and so little of value to do with it that we can read and respond to this blog. I guess it is more mind expanding than reading the rules to Monopoly. Maybe not.