KFC Free Chicken Lawsuits – Let’s do Chicken Right

July 13th, 2010. By LucyC

KFC and Yum! Brands Inc got hit with some bad news this week—a judge in Chicago has ruled that four lawsuits filed against them can proceed. What’s the beef? A bunch of crow. (Be warned, this could get worse…I’m on a roll). 

In fact, it’s all about chicken—free chicken—KFC grilled chicken meals with two sides and a biscuit, in fact. Cast your mind back to May 2009, when Oprah Winfrey announced that KFC was making coupons available across the country for the free meal. Well, no surprise—KFC was inundated. I recall this making the national news—people lining up for their free meals—with coupons in hand—only to be provided with a ‘rain check’ coupon when they got the counter. 

It should be noted that KFC printed more than 10 million coupons, according to a story in BusinessWeek. A spokeswoman for KFC is quoted in the BusinessWeek article, saying “Due to the overwhelming response, we distributed millions of rain check coupons for the holders of valid coupons who we were unable to serve during the offer period.” 

The promotion was supposed to run for two weeks and instead got shut down after two days. Some 5.7 million people were allegedly denied their free meals, which apparently retail for $3.99. 

So, a class action lawsuit has been filed. The judge in Chicago believes the allegations have grounds for common law fraud. 

Well. I’m in two minds about this. First of all, it was a nice gesture of KFC to offer these meals because it happened during the economic meltdown when a lot of people were really hurting. While it was a promotion, there are other ways of getting your product in front of people and KFC simply could have provided a reduced price, instead of making the meal completely free. In fact, there is any number of possible marketing gambits the fast food retailer could have used. But free is a guaranteed draw. So free it was. And they were blown out of the water by the response. 

I suppose it is possible that they ran out of product, but if so, that begs the question—if you print 10 million coupons, an estimated retail value of $22 million (Businessweek), you should be able to honor those coupons. How do you run out of product two days into an event that’s planned to run two weeks? How did KFC get to be the presence it is, if it makes those kinds of errors in basic math? 

And that’s the point that makes me think that maybe KFC may have been a bit crafty on this one. And, what the heck good is a raincheck coupon? Raincheck for when? For what? I’ve personally issued my own rainchecks, to family and friends admittedly, and never made good on them, partly due to faulty short term memory-both mine and theirs. And partly because I just can’t damn well be bothered. But that’s different. Isn’t it? 

I don’t know. And that’s what the court will decide. But I’m willing to bet, no matter what the outcome, the KFC chicken and sides promotion will be the last free meal promotion we see for a while, or at least until the economy is out of the toilet.

Tags: Free Chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC, Oprah

This was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Consumer Fraud . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.