KFC prank calls El Pollo Loco… and gets caught

Posted by Justin McDowell on May 7, 2009 under Notsocommon humor | Be the First to Comment

KFC played chicken and got plucked

KFC played chicken and got plucked

Folks in case you weren’t aware, there is a “War of the Birds” going on between El Pollo Loco, KFC, Chick-fil-A, and <insert your chicken joint here>.

El Pollo Loco CEO Steve Carley launched the first salvo at KFC by challenging them to bring their new grilled chicken offering to a taste test in California or Kentucky. Mr. Carley set up an 800 number for customers to call in and weigh in on both brands, and even had an option for an authorized representative of KFC to get set up in the system.

And call in they did. KFC reached into it’s bag of tricks and pulled out a notsocommoncents tactic of prank phone calls proclaiming that KFC has the best chicken. El Pollo Loco did what anyone in a “combat” situation would do, they laid an ambush. Not only were these phone calls traced back to Yum Brands corporate headquarters in Kentucky, but the callers were clearly using KFC jargon, i.e referring to the original recipe of 11 herbs and spices as “the OR”.

KFC, the next time you want to prank call the competition, I humbly suggest that you use a  throwaway prepaid cellphone.

Mikal’s note: Taste test aside – KFC corporate headquarters should be busy trying to figure out how to staff up for Oprah’s KFC coupon.

Line at KFC (courtesy of SavageChic):

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Shame on you Merck

Posted by Justin McDowell on May 3, 2009 under Scandal | Be the First to Comment

Merck continues it’s stellar string of “achievements” by creating a fraudulent peer-review journal to publish data that casts a favorable light on Fosamax and other drugs. I’m not surprised at this course off action from Merck, a company that hasn’t had a blockbuster drug in years. I am more furious at Elsevier, a respected academic journal publisher, that did NOT exercise due diligence and placed their own integrity on the line for payola.

The question I always have when these scandals break is how many yesmen and yeswomen in both companies did it take to let this fly? Seriously who with commoncents thought this was a good idea.

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