February 22, 2007
Fish Blessing
A reader sent me the following story.
KFC, the nation's largest fast-food chicken chain, this week began selling something it's never sold nationally: fish.
Its new Fish Snacker sandwich sells for 99 cents and is available at all 5,500 locations across the USA. In an unusual move, President Gregg Dedrick sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI, asking him to lend his personal seal of approval for the item "as a way for members of your flock to keep a holy Lenten season."
ON DEADLINE: Cute? Offensive? Will you be eating a Fish Snacker this Friday?
The Fish Snacker is a filet of 100% Alaskan Pollack topped with tartar sauce and served on a sesame bun.
Vatican officials confirmed they received KFC's request, and the company is hopeful to get the pope's blessing this Lenten season.
"People can enjoy the flavor of the new Fish Snacker any day of the week, but we believe it will be especially popular on Fridays," said James O'Reilly, chief marketing officer for KFC, a part of Yum Brands
Well as an outright publicity stunt I guess this one is rather successful since it is getting coverage. But publicity stunt it is since the Pope never endorses any product and even if he did how would you bless a product line?
Though if they were going to pick a product name for a line with Catholics in mind how about snappers instead of snackers. As in Mackerel Snappers. While Mackerel Snapper was a derogatory term for Catholics, I think most Catholics find the term rather fun. Chicken Snappers would be quite fun. Now I know the Church supports the KoC not KFC, but you can imagine a kind of fun merger. Holy Water could be advertised as "Finger dippin' good." When it comes to the Catholic Church of course it was the Original Recipe of Christianity. Though KFC now provides fish for men the Church is a fisher of men.
Now KFC isn't the first chicken chain to try to blatantly appeal to Catholics. For example the following graphic illustrates something that other people have noticed.
Certainly Pope Yes has to have great appeal among those united with the Pope. The Popeno chain never really took off since you were only allowed to select one or two items off the menu and they gave you condoms not condiments.
But none of them beat my favorite chicken restaurant.
From my previous parody.
Thank you for this! Now when I drive by KFC I'll have a good laugh instead of the feeling of nausea I usually get!
Posted by TimC email at February 22, 2007 1:55 PMIsn't this the same company that donates to abortion supporters and providers? Uh, hello?
Posted by Amy email at February 22, 2007 2:06 PMI read that McDonald's introduced their fish burger for exactly the same reason: low sales on Fridays and during Lent.
Posted by Steve email at February 22, 2007 2:37 PM>>>Isn't this the same company that donates to abortion supporters and providers? Uh, hello?>>>
Unfortunately, so does your ISP, your phone company, your insurance company, your department store, Disney, etc.... It's hard to keep track of. I used to boycott everybody that Focus on the family identified as anti-family, but it's become overwhelming.
I haven't worn Levis since the 1980's, though they fit the best. Levi-Strauss was very pro-homosexual back then when that wasn't even cool.
If your goin to pick and choose, you'll make the best impact if you boycott locally.
I for one am glad they are catering to Catholics. Sure beats mocking us at every turn.
I was disappointed when McDs stopped offering their fish sandwich as the special on Fridays.
I don't need the papal blessing, I will support a company that recognizes a need and is willing to meet it. It is usually profitable too.
Posted by kalej email at February 22, 2007 4:18 PMThat picture is absolutely hilarious!!! I can't stop laughing.
Posted by Dean Soto email at February 22, 2007 5:26 PMHa ha! Good one! Now, how about the oil that fish is fried in? My grandmother wouldn't even allow artificially bacon flavored crackers on Fridays; I'm not sure fish fried in oil contaminated by chicken would work. Or fish grilled on hamburger-y griddles, either...
Posted by Literacy-chic email at February 22, 2007 5:49 PMI don't see anything wrong with restaurants catering to Catholics by having special lenten items on the menu. I know their motive is commercial, and that it's hypocritical for a restaurant to offer special Lenten items and then to support abortion on the side. But the reality is, a lot of Catholics live very mobile lifestyles and would need to eat on the run even on Fridays of Lent.
Posted by Cristina A. Montes email at February 22, 2007 7:23 PMThe cynical yet hopeful part of me thinks, "So there's finally some public acknowledgement of the number of Catholics in the US--even if that is only as a market share." *Sigh*
Posted by Melody email at February 22, 2007 8:40 PMdarn, now i'm hungry! curse you jester!
Posted by ThePerpetualMalcontent email at February 22, 2007 8:48 PMHow did I write about this and forget the KFC and K of C connection.
I am but a poor imposter. lol!
Posted by Domini Sumus email at February 22, 2007 10:54 PMI'm surprised to be the first to mention Church's Fried Chicken, which merged with Pope Yes in '89 but still operates under its own name.
Since snapper's a kind of fish itself, though, why not just use that? Snapper Snacker sounds almost catchy enough for me to order it on a non-Lenten weekday.
HA! I LOVE the LOTR parody.
First off, for some reason that I cannot discern or begin to justify, I hate the word "snacker". Don't. Know. Why. But I do know that whatever is in it, it's still deep-fried into oblivion. So it may allow one to keep Fridays technically, but man, it's not an even-remotely-healthy choice. Like, the chicken is a better choice nutritionally, fried though it is. But if you want KFC and it's Friday during Lent, hey, at least there's an option now.
Posted by Madame Sosostris email at February 23, 2007 1:18 PM"10 Commandments. 11 Herbs and Spices."
Very interesting.
I posted one of my favorite images on this over at my site: http://blog.catholicsphere.com
Posted by CatholicSphere email at February 23, 2007 9:07 PMGood idea, but their timing stinks...
As reported in the story titled:
Scurrying rats plague Yum Brands shares
TV footage shows large rats scurrying around a Manhattan eatery
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17296649/
Posted by Rob email at February 23, 2007 10:24 PMthe Sonic chain of drive-ins had a promotion at least one Lent awhile ago of fish sandwiches at a cheaper price in a combo meal and they actually called it their "Lenten Special."
=^.^=
Posted by Raphia email at February 28, 2007 3:58 AM