I’m at a loss to explain what came over normally rational thinking people yesterday.
As you know, Queen Oprah decided to feed the hungry yesterday by allowing anyone with a fast computer connection and a printer to download free coupons from her website for a two-piece grilled chicken dinner at participating Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
I’m sure that somewhere in the fine print it said ‘Participating KFC restaurants only’ — or something to that effect. From my understanding, upwards of a million people tried to redeem those coupons for free greasy chicken yesterday.
Is it any surprise then that most restaurants in and around NYC declined to participate? There were reports of sporadic violence and sit-ins at restaurants that refused to accept Oprah’s coupons. It was reported that some of the protestors were well-dressed in suits and brand name clothing — not a homeless person among them.
All of the violence kinda makes you wonder: did Oprah clear this offer with the restaurant owners beforehand? And how exactly did she plan to pay for all the free chicken?
But the madness didn’t restrict itself to just the New York area. Folks right here in Atlanta — who could well afford to treat the entire restaurant to free chicken — made a mad scramble to download the coupons. That’s the part that gets me. What was it about Oprah’s coupons that made even wealthy people feel the urgency to download them?
Last night I was on the phone with a very well-connected industry insider who informed me that she and some of her well-heeled friends went to someone’s job at 6:30 AM yesterday morning to print out Oprah’s coupons because they couldn’t print them out at home.
Here’s the catch: this chick could afford to buy her own KFC franchise if she wanted one! I asked her to explain her actions to me, but she said she just wanted the free chicken. All of which leads me to believe that Oprah’s coupons represented some type of exclusive status to the coupon holders that separated them from people like me who don’t give a damn about Oprah or her coupons.
I guess there are just some things in life that are simply beyond my understanding.
