Randerolf

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?

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Glory's Sun

vbulletin answer

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genuinegirly

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.

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SabrinaFair

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.

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Reese

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.

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Baraka_Guru

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.

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Strange Famous

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.

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mrklixx

Do they fill the holes with the unused chicken carcass parts? No wait, those go into the pot pies.

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Tully Mars

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.

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biznatch

Wait... This isn't an April fools day prank, is it?

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