This item actually came out a few months ago, but I didn't have a blog back then and it's worth dredging up again.When the SciFi Channel finally got around to airing the final 10 episodes of the re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica" series earlier this year, KFC decided the time was ripe for a promotional tie-in. It was high time too, because as we all know, when you think grim & gritty outer space drama, you think fried chicken, am I right?
So in an extremely transparent attempt to appeal to the geek crowd, KFC tried to get cutesy and use some of the space-y terminology from BSG, specifically the word "frak." The KFC Marketing Team christened their brilliant promotion the "Frak Pak."
What the marketers and the suits at KFC apparently didn't know is that in the BSG universe, "frak" is the ubiquitous curse word that in no uncertain terms means, well, "f*ck." Every character on the show has said "frak," frakkin'," "fracked up," and the ever popular "frak you" at least 75 times, often in a single sentence.
Obviously no one at the Colonel's headquarters ever bothered to watch even a single episode of the show, or they would have known what they were really saying and this promotion would have never got off the ground.
So congratulations, KFC; you officially endorsed a "F*ck Pak" as a promotional tie-in. If you look closely, the banner even boldly proclaims, "KFC Proudly Salutes BSG And It's Frakkin' Awesome Fans!" Thank you, KFC Marketing Team, for making my day. Well done, sirs, well done. The Colonel would be proud. Frakkin' proud.
What made it even more hilarious is that about a week after the Frak Pak debuted, someone in the KFC marketing department opened their office window and heard the entire country snickering behind their back. Cringing in horror, they apparently called an emergency meeting to discuss damage control. How I wish I could have sat in on that pow-wow. The result? They hurriedly changed the promotion to the KFC "Cant-Say-That-Word-On-TV-Sweepstakes." Brilliant!Sadly, the "Frakkin' Awesome Fans" were now downgraded to merely "Awesome Fans."
This hastily revamped promotion didn't fix things at all, as obviously you can say "frak" on TV, since as mentioned earlier it was uttered on the show dozens of times every week. This made it appear that they were no longer talking about the made up "frak," but the very real "f*ck," or something even worse. Their so-called "fix" was actually worse than the mistake!
So congratulations, KFC Marketing Team. The next time you do a tie in, it might be a good idea to actually familiarize yourself a bit with the show you're promoting. Better yet, just hand out some coupons.
hahaha! Yes this and their Grilled Chicken are both supremely brilliant ideas!
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to felgercarb?
ReplyDeleteActually "felgercarb" made its way into the new series. In one of the final episodes, Starbuck is briefing a Viper flight crew before a mission. She tells them that anyone who spots a Cylon will win the last tube of toothpaste that still exists in the Colonial Fleet. A closeup of the tube shows that it's "Felgercarb" brand toothpaste!
ReplyDeleteThat whole "last tube of toothpaste" thing raises some ugly questions. It makes sense that after 3 or 4 years on the run that the fleet would be running out of manufactured goods, but let's hope they still have some baking soda left so they can brush their teeth with something. Otherwise it's gonna be a very smelly fleet.
I remember the original series also used "microns" for minutes, which was confusing, since in our world microns are a real unit of measurement, not time.
Brad: Do you mean the Oprah chicken giveaway? That was the one where all the stores ran out of chicken and rioting almost ensued, right?
ReplyDeleteEver see or hear of this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybIyzTO4zhU
Apparently there was a different idea and team prepping a hoped-for series a few years ago.