A group of local churches is spearheading the effort to raise awareness and show how KFC’s actions disproportionately affect poor and African-American communities.
 
According to a "Fact Sheet" which is being passed out at this weekend’s African Festival of the Arts in Chicago, KFC has shown an ugly side of itself in its attempts to market its new grilled "chicken" product.

As has been widely reported, KFC offered its free grilled chicken promotion on the 'Oprah Winfrey Show,' but ultimately reneged on its promise and left millions of people in the lurch. 

The Fact Sheet (http://www.boycottthecolonel.com) notes that KFC's promotion included ads featuring African Americans dancing around and clucking like chickens for their “finger-lickin’ chicken.” 

The same ad agency that was behind the Oprah Chicken Giveaway fiasco and the ill-advised ad mentioned previously, also used the song “Sweet Home Alabama” – a song defending the Confederacy and Alabama’s racist history – to promote KFC, as reported by 'Business Week.' The Fact Sheet further noted that Oprah has been the subject of racist ridicule, including an image of the famous talk show host with a photo-shopped bucket of KFC chicken on her head, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.
 
KFC's President has bragged that the failed giveaway has been "transformational" for the company and brought in "a lot of new customers." 

Eaton has been widely quoted as explaining that:“The critical thing for us was to get people to eat the chicken, whatever it took,” and brags that sales are up since the fiasco, calling it "transformational" and bragging that "clearly, we're bringing in a lot of new customers."  The Fact Sheet notes that Eaton is a native of South Africa, and left just as apartheid was ending.
 
A website -- boycottthecolonel.com -- has also been set up to provide more details of the boycott.

A separate boycott already underway is sponsored by the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative (CWC) and the Workers’ Rights Center (WRC) in Madison, Wisconsin. These groups sponsored a National Day of Protest against YUM Brands for its firings of long-time minority workers from positions in its restaurants, and have separately filed lawsuits on behalf of those employees.
 
Commenting on the boycotts, Edelson said that “both in the way it treats its employees and especially in the way it treats its customers, KFC is an example of much of what’s wrong with the way companies treat people in this country. We support these boycotts and will continue to do whatever we can to support the plight of consumers and workers against corporate behemoths like YUM Brands and KFC. KFC and YUM Brands act as if they are not accountable; we are doing everything we can to hold KFC accountable to its customers in our lawsuits.”
 
To download a copy of the Fact Sheet go to www.boycottthecolonel.com.

About Jay Edelson:  Jay Edelson (http://www.kamberedelson.com/Edelson.html) has a reputation for bringing, and winning, high profile class action lawsuits. Just last year, Edelson settled a nationwide case involving lead paint contamination with Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends Wooden Railway children’s toys that was valued at over $30 million. Edelson’s firm also was lead counsel in the lawsuits coming out of the 2008 contaminated pet food recall, which resulted in a settlement of over $24 million. Edelson testified before the U.S. Senate in connection with that case.

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