KFC seems to specialize in bad taste choices: Now it's advertising on the derrieres of young women.

Now the product offering has two strikes against it.

It's hardly surprising that KFC finds it so easy to make another poor marketing decision.  Last time we considered KFC, they'd decided to create and offer to the world its bunless Double Down sandwich--made up of two slabs of deep-fried chicken wings [see KMOB on It's called porn food by some. Is KFC smart to sell it?].  This time it's how this particular food item gets promoted.  

What KFC is doing, reports Bruce Horowitz in USA Today, is paying female college students $500 to walk around distributing coupons for the Double Down--but here's the important part--wearing fitted sweatpants with "Double Down" emblazoned in large letters on their buns!  As you might surmise, the target for this food item is young men and apparently KFC is entirely comfortable with its promotion in what most everybody else thinks is another bad idea by the company.  

What?  We're just copying other companies!

When questioned by national representatives of women groups, a KFC spokesperson said, "We've taken a page out of the book of some apparel companies and sororities who have promoted in this way for years."

Beyond KFC's apparent inability be socially responsive food- and marketing-wise, there are other reasons for this promotion tactic:  a majority of people polled recently don't know who Colonel Sanders is, or, better yet, was--the brand spokesperson for the firm in an earlier era; in addition, second quarter sales on a same store basis fell 7% this year.  

Let's face it, much of what KFC is deciding to do as a company these days seems to be fairly short-sighted in nature and--to me at least--doesn't seem to be the kind of strategy and tactics that have "Long-term Success Secrets" stamped across the page they're written on in the firm's marketing plan.  

Coed strategy doesn't invite a lot of confidence in KFC.

Call me a quirky marketing guy, but paying coeds to sell a deep-fried meat product with print messages plastered on their buttocks just seems like a plan devoid of both good taste and much genius; it could be just me--but I don't really think so--what I'm seeing recently coming out of KFC doesn't give me much in the way of confidence to invest my money in, buy food from, or encourage my young career-starting friends to take very seriously either as a place to work.  At the same time, though, I must admit, it does make one curious as to what's coming next from these people.  

POST SCRIPT:  I'll post the link for the entire USA Today article on the blogs Facebook Page--there are even more details to take in!  

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