Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Chatter > General Discussion


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 03-30-2009, 08:29 AM   #1 (permalink)
Fireball
 
Randerolf's Avatar
 
Location: ~
The Colonel Wants to Fix Your Potholes

Thanks Consumerist.
[hide]Will the tire-eating pothole on your street get filled by the same company that made your lunch?

KFC, the fried chicken franchise, is offering itself as a corporate sponsor for pothole repair. An actor dressed as KFC founder Colonel Sanders and a road repair group got started this week in the franchise’s hometown of Louisville, Ky., filling up hundreds of holes.


Many of the repairs are decorated with a white stencil saying the spot was “Re-freshed by KFC” — a play on KFC’s ad campaign stressing the freshness of their chickens. KFC spokesman Russell Dyer said the crew is using “regular asphalt,” not day-old biscuits.

The franchise has issued an offer to mayors of cities nationwide, asking them to describe their street’s state of disrepair, with the intent of doing repairs in five cities.

Chicago certainly has its pothole problems — the Transportation Department has filled more than 250,000 street craters this winter. Department spokesman Brian Steele said the city has a lot of questions about KFC’s program, like what type of asphalt is used. The city also doesn’t allow ads in the public way, because they could create a distraction and safety hazard.

But Steele said the city doesn’t reject the idea out of hand — Commissioner Thomas Byrne has already been looking into possible corporate sponsorship for pothole repair — and one unnamed company is a possibility.

“Our hope is to launch it sometime this year,” Steele said. “Our reason for considering programs like this is in an era of dwindling resources, we feel it’s prudent to look at public-private partnerships.”

The Illinois Department of Transportation was also open to the idea of KFC-filled holes.

“We are open to a variety of public-private opportunities and we’d be glad to discuss this one with the firm and see if it fits with Illinois requirements for quality, safety, timeliness and cost-effectiveness,” said IDOT spokesman Marisa Kollias.[/hide]

Public private partnerships can create some really interesting solutions to problems, but this is just a big shame upon cities who cannot keep their streets repaired. Isn't this one of the core things that a city is responsible for -- and yet the job simply isn't getting done.

My hometown passed a bond measure a number of years ago to repave roads, build libraries/ arenas/ courthouses, and provide me with a bag o' chips. After some of the roads were repaved, I noticed that my drive to work was rougher than before: they hadn't taken the time to even the asphalt with the manholes among other things.

Would this be a good deal for KFC? Would it be a black eye for politicians or a fixed problem that they could point to?

Sexy posting note: Can someone help me with a vBulletin question?
I want to make a post with an article, but I want the article to only be displayed if a user clicks on the name of the article. How can I do this?

Last edited by Randerolf; 03-31-2009 at 03:03 AM.. Reason: All hail guccilvr for vbulletin help.
Randerolf is offline  
Old 03-30-2009, 11:40 AM   #2 (permalink)
Registered User
 
vbulletin answer

[hide] [/hide]

Glory's Sun is offline  
Old 03-30-2009, 11:56 AM   #3 (permalink)
Eat your vegetables
 
genuinegirly's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: Arabidopsis-ville
Fascinating!
There was a local radio show in the LA area that was highlighting a pothole every day - listeners would call in to report their pothole and the radio station kept track of how long it took the city to fix each pothole.

Smart advertising on KFC's part.
__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy
genuinegirly is offline  
Old 03-30-2009, 12:01 PM   #4 (permalink)
Junkie
 
SabrinaFair's Avatar
 
Location: Louisville, KY
Ah, home sweet home....I actually had no idea that this was going on. I'll have to keep my eye out for the stenciled pavement. That being said, if they're fixing the massive potholes on this city's roads, more power to 'em.
__________________
"With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
-Desiderata
SabrinaFair is offline  
Old 03-30-2009, 04:34 PM   #5 (permalink)
Delicious
 
Reese's Avatar
 
I don't know about this. I want to say, how nice KFC is picking up the bill for a measly advertisement. But things like quality of repair come into question and if more partnerships like this continue, the intrusiveness of advertisements could get out of hand.
__________________
“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry
Reese is offline  
Old 03-30-2009, 07:23 PM   #6 (permalink)
warrior bodhisattva
 
Baraka_Guru's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: East-central Canada
I'm not as appalled about this as I am with McDonald's creeping into grade school textbooks and report cards. But it's still pretty bad, if you ask me.

Call me Chicken Little, but it seems we're slowly moving towards a corporatocracy.
__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
Baraka_Guru is offline  
Old 03-30-2009, 11:07 PM   #7 (permalink)
follower of the child's crusade?
 
Its a pretty sorry state of affairs if a man dresses as Colonel Saunders is required to fix the roads of the world's only superpower.
__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas
Strange Famous is offline  
Old 03-31-2009, 03:54 PM   #8 (permalink)
President Rick
 
mrklixx's Avatar
 
Location: location location
Do they fill the holes with the unused chicken carcass parts? No wait, those go into the pot pies.
__________________
This post is content. If you don't like it then you are not content. Or perhaps just incontinent.

This is not a link - Do not click here

I hate animated avatars.
mrklixx is offline  
Old 03-31-2009, 04:20 PM   #9 (permalink)
Living in a Warmer Insanity
 
Tully Mars's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: Yucatan, Mexico
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru View Post
I'm not as appalled about this as I am with McDonald's creeping into grade school textbooks and report cards. But it's still pretty bad, if you ask me.

Call me Chicken Little, but it seems we're slowly moving towards a corporatocracy.

I think you're onto something.

I also find it odd that a food (it is food, right?) outlet would want it's name associated with the stuff we fill our pot holes with. The connection seems surreal to me. Would have liked to been a fly on the wall in the meeting when this idea was hatched.
__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club
Tully Mars is offline  
Old 04-01-2009, 10:56 PM   #10 (permalink)
Junkie
 
biznatch's Avatar
 
Location: France
Wait... This isn't an April fools day prank, is it?
__________________
Check it out: The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread
biznatch is offline  
 

Tags
chicago, government, kfc

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 04:19 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360