Beef? Tastes like chicken.
Which is the more authentic chicken: crazy, or Kentucky fried?
Crazy, says the California fast food chain El Pollo Loco, which has launched an ad campaign ridiculing its southern fried competitor for, gulp, using “beef powder and rendered beef fat” in its new grilled chicken marinade. El Pollo Loco has even set up a website — beefychicken.com — and posted more attack ads here.
The Los Angeles Times investigated, finding that KFC does indeed boast a “new secret blend of herbs and spices.” But to learn what the heck’s in the secret sauce, “consumers have to turn to Page 14 of a 37-page ingredient document posted by KFC on its website.”
The Times continues:
| That disclosure is “more than adequate,” said Rick Maynard, a spokesman for the Louisville, Ky., chain, which has 5,200 restaurants nationally.
“Small amounts of beef flavors are commonly used in seasonings for many food products, for both restaurant and retail use,” Maynard said. “For Kentucky Grilled Chicken’s topical seasoning, beef flavors account for only 0.2% of the total seasoning,” he added. El Pollo Loco, with 418 stores, thinks many chicken lovers won’t like that. Starting Monday, it plans to spend several hundred thousand dollars advertising KFC’s ingredients in 13 television markets, including Southern California. |
Misguided? This isn’t India, where cow-revering Hindus who consider eating beef a major no-no skewered McDonald’s several years ago over allegations that the obesity-encouraging Big Mac pusher used beef fat to make its french fries.
You’ve gotta know your audience. Americans love beef. Heck, rendered beef fat may be the best thing to happen to chicken since General Tso.
(Photo: dragonaria/stock.xchng)
