Tag Archives: kfc

KFC and Moms Blasted for Using Bloggers’ Children to Sell New Kids Meals

It’s a very common practice amongst mom bloggers to accept products from companies to review or promote to their audiences. The bloggers get everything from candy bars to mattresses and vacations for free and the brands benefit because, for what is usually no more cost than samples of their product, they get a lot of highly influential publicity.

This weekend, some of those mom bloggers came under quite a bit of fire from their peers. Several moms were invited by Kentucky Fried Chicken to visit the restaurant’s headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky to learn about their new “healthy” kids meals and in turn promote them to their followers using #KFCKidsMeals on Twitter. That’s pretty standard, but where eyebrows raised on this publicity event was that the company invited the moms with their kids.

The health of our children is a hot button issue right now, and the #KFCKidsMeals hashtag was practically high jacked by moms condemning both KFC and the participating moms for subjecting their children to what is no better than chemically laden, nutritionally void food.

Leah Segedie, known best as @BookieBoo and the leader of Mamavation, was one of the moms on the outside of #KFCKidsMeals tweeting in. Any time you intersect kids and nutrition you’ll find Leah, and this campaign was no different.

“I basically took control of it to make sure it was done in a fair way without attacking the bloggers involved,” she told us. “But I can’t control what people write on their blogs, obviously.”

Leah spent this weekend tweeting out questions to the moms involved. She wanted to know about MSG, sodium, carcinogens, and other chemical ingredients in the food. Who better to ask than the people sitting right inside KFC HQ? As far as we could tell, no one got back to her with those answers; although, one tweet implied that the company would get in touch with her. (more…)

Some of America’s Top Brands are Leading Culprits in the Obesity Epidemic

You know advertising is a big deal when there’s such a thing as Advertising Week in the U.S. While few consumers took note, the event is happening this week in New York with the goal of identifying how brands sold by marketers can produce better business results.

A study released yesterday identified which brands are the most powerful and how they’re getting it right. Additionally, the study pointed out the problems of brands whose value is on the decline.

As reported by Yahoo Finance, the study is the 13th annual Best Global Brands report from Interbrand – an Omnicon Group-owned brand consulting company. The result of the study was a ranking of the top 100 most valuable brands based on measures such as financial performance, how the brand influences consumer choices, and its ability to boost its parent company’s earnings.

The best global brands of 2024 include 1) Coca-Cola, 2) Apple, 3) IBM, 4) Google and 5) Microsoft. Ferrari and Gap round out the list in slots 99 and 100, respectively.

Of the ranking, Christine Fruecthe, president and chief executive at Colle and McVoy advertising agency, believes companies should take note as to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to marketing and advertising their brand. “When we put together advertising programs, we’re constantly keeping in mind how to add shareholder value,” she said during the Advertising Week panel on Monday. “We want to have a tangible impact on the client’s business or service.”

As an example of their work, Colle and McVoy pointed to their client Caribou Coffee Company whose share value has risen from $1.17 to $18 since beginning work with the agency. The message here? Advertising is powerful, and when done well, it works.

Coca-Cola knows this. The soda company was ranked number one again for the 13th consecutive year. Its estimated brand value? $77.8 billion, up 8 percent from the 2024 report. Coca-Cola executive vice president and chief marketing commercial officer Joseph Tripodi believes this success is due to effective ads, which he suspects will help Coca-Cola increase its revenue from $95 billion in 2024 to $200 billion in 2024. (more…)

10 of the Worst Restaurant Foods in the U.S.

By Melissa Breyer for Care2.com

What the fudge is wrong with us? As obesity, diabetes and heart disease are plaguing the country in lethal proportions, restaurants are chirpily churning out caloric combinations of sodium and saturated fat that would make Henry VIII blush. Things are getting so raucous around here that a new study found that gout, yes gout, has increased by 44 percent in the last two decades, courtesy of the obesity epidemic and related health problems (diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol).

Restaurants create and tempt the masses with flashy dishes caloric enough to feed a small family, while the USDA, earnest as a shy sister, issues dietary guidelines which pretty much fall on deaf ears. Although recommended calorie intake varies by person, the range is from 1,600 to 2,400 calories per day for adult women and 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day for adult men, depending on age and physical activity level.

As for sodium intake, another daunting piece of the puzzle, the 2024 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day—or 1,500 mg if you’re age 51 or older, or if you are black, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.

So with those nuggets in mind, how do these ten contenders for worst foods in America stack up against what is recommended for maintaining nutritional health? Let’s see…. (more…)

Food Companies Serving Customers Wood

It’s breakfast time and you want to start your day off right with a healthy and nutritious meal that doesn’t take long to make. You open your pantry and grab the Fiber One Original cereal. Then for lunch time, you are away from home so you run to McDonald’s and get their Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken. Around 3:00, you need a snack so you snack on some Wheat Thins Fiber Selects. Then for dinner, you have some spaghetti and meatballs from Pizza Hut.

What do all of these foods have in common? They all contain wood cellulose, which means that you are eating wood. Many companies, including those listed above, use wood cellulose in their foods all the time, and therefore, you are eating wood on a fairly regular basis. It is shocking to realize that many of the foods we eat when we are trying to make healthier options are so processed that they really are not as healthy as we may have thought.

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A&W Fast Food Restaurants to Close in 2024

America could possibly bid farewell to an icon this coming year. The fast food restaurant chain A&W is speculated to stop serving burgers and root beer floats in 2024.

Founded in 1919, the restaurant developed the “drive in” format that remains a staple of American fast food even today. Known for its signature root beer and burgers, the company boomed after World War II and over 450 franchises were opened nationwide. However, today there are only 322 operating national stores. The company has been deemed too small to be successful. The soda manufacturing side of the business will remain untouched as Dr.Pepper/Snapple owns the container beverage version of A&W Root Beer.


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KFC’s Sugary Soda Sales Go to Support Diabetes Research

Those of us fighting the good fight against unhealthy diets, obesity, and the ailments they cause did a big palm-to-face smack this week.

A KFC franchise in Utah launched a promotional fundraiser to their patrons. It was advertised that with every $2.99 purchase of a KFC 64-ounce Big Jug drink, $1 would go to the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation.

One has to wonder how that planning meeting was conducted and who was the rising star who came up with this idea. However, the franchise owner has a personal connection to the disease and the promotion did run as advertised.

A spokesperson for the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) responded after the fundraiser received so much attention. It was clarified that the JDRF supports research for type 1 diabetes and not type 2. Type 1 diabetes is an auto immune disease and not an onset disease caused by obesity or consuming too much junk food.

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Healthiest Menu Choices at KFC

Of all of the fast-food chains, I would not have picked KFC to be a place that would have multiple options for people looking for a healthy meal on the go. But, to my surprise, KFC does have some healthy choices! Granted, you obviously can’t order the KFC Double Down or any sandwich or bowl from there, for that matter, but you can pair some things together for a meal that has less than 500 calories and less than 500 milligrams of sodium. This healthy criteria is based on feedback from registered dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield and the new daily sodium recommendations.

To find your perfect healthy KFC meal, pair one chicken option from the list below with one of the sides also listed below. Happy healthy-meal mix-and-matching!

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IHOP’s New Pancake Stacker Rivals KFC Double Down

On April 12th, KFC debuted its new Double Down Chicken Sandwich, boasting 540 calories and 32 grams of fat. Just a few weeks after KFC’s announcement, IHOP has one of its own – the IHOP pancake stacker available through June 20th.

IHOP, known for their pancakes and whose restaurants serve over 700 million pancakes a year are “giving our guests another reason to come to IHOP” as stated by the Carolyn O’Keefe, IHOP’s senior vice president of marketing.

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Fast-Food Nightmares: Hardee’s Fried Bologna Biscuit Sandwich and French Dip Thick Burger

Is it me or has the fast-food industry recently gone mad with their new and shameful creations of Angus burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, and now fried bologna breakfast biscuits?

hardees fried bologna biscuitWasn’t it just a few short months ago, KFC introduced their new grilled chicken menu and McDonald’s started placing ads in every parent magazine about how nutritious their small hamburger, apple slices and low-fat milk lunches are?

Maybe it’s a backlash to their healthier intentions, but Hardees has joined the low ranks of KFC and McDonald’s and just launched their new Oscar Mayer Fried Bologna Biscuit sandwich, which is being touted as a throwback comfort food of sorts. Apparently, Hardees like many other fast-food and chain restaurants is trying to appeal to the economically-downtrodden fast-food nation as we seek solace in cheap, processed, comfort foods like fried bologna and biscuits. (more…)

KFC’s New Double Down Chicken Sandwich is Frightening

kfc double down sandwich

UPDATE: The KFC Double Down Chicken Sandwich is set to debut on menus nationwide on April 12, 2024. The Original Recipe sandwich will boast 540 calories, 32g of fat and 1380mg of sodium; the Grilled sandwich will have 460 calories, 23g of fat and 1430mg of sodium.

It was one of the moments of television-watching where I thought maybe my eyes were playing a trick on me, but then I saw the commercial for KFC‘s new Double Down Chicken Sandwich and I realized this was no cruel joke.

This jaw-dropping concoction from the fast-food chicken chain points to why in this country we have our current obesity epidemic. This sandwich (if you can call it that) is two Original Recipe fried chicken filets stacked on top of each other with a slice of pepper jack cheese, a slice of Swiss cheese, two slices of bacon and the Colonel’s secret sauce. No bun. The fried chicken is the bun. Just a stack of saturated fat, sodium and calories. (more…)

Kentucky Grilled Chicken Offers Healthier Fast-Food Choice

kentucky-grilled-chickenIn recent months, all fast-food restaurants have worked hard to introduce healthy meal options into their usual menu of fried fare. From Long John Silver’s to Dunkin’ Donuts, you can pretty much head to any drive-through and come away with a somewhat healthy meal, as long as you stick to the nutritious eats and avoid fries at all cost.

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The latest fast-food giant to succumb to the demand for healthier convenience meals is KFC. The chicken giant just unveiled it’s new Kentucky Grilled Chicken, a lower-fat and lower-calorie alternative to the Colonel’s traditional bucket of fried breasts, thighs and legs.

The Kentucky Grilled Chicken also has its own clandestine secret recipe that contains six special herbs and seasonings. The mystery recipe is kept under tight security in a safe at the company’s headquarters, right next to the Colonel Sander’s handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices that coat the famous chicken. (more…)