There are tons of things I love about Chick-fil-a - good food, great service, blah, blah, blah… but when it comes to the cows, I just can’t take it anymore.
I remember when the Chick-fil-a Cows first popped on the scene years back and I was thinking, “Weird.” From then on the Chick-fil-a Cows have become progressively more militant and conspicuous. The damn things are everywhere.
The Cows can’t spell. Ha-ha, funny. For about a minute.
Things are bad when I drive down the road and have to use more brain power to decipher horribly misspelled words on a billboard ad campaign than I do trying to figure out some oh so clever vanity license plate.
The Cows are as awkward in depiction as they are in real life. Cows just hang around and eat all day because they can’t exactly run, jump and frolic in the meadow. I guess “awkward” sometimes translates to “ugly” and that’s what I’m feeling with the Chick-fil-a Cows. Sometimes they even look sickly in their party hats as they hold up their sandwich board placard of quaint misspelled pleas for mercy from the meat eating public.
But my biggest complaint about the Chick-fil-a Cows is, as I said earlier, their increasing militancy. It’s one thing for a cute, fat pig to advertise a bar-b-que sandwich shop or to have a cartoonish, smiling lobster in a bib greet you at a seafood restaurant. It’s an entirely different thing for one species of animal to encourage the consumption of another, as is the case with the Chick-fil-a Cows.
“Don’t eat us, eat them” wears on you.
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We don’t have Chick-fil-a up here in NY. But we do have Chicks-Full-Of-BS. Oh man, I am funny.
Anyhow, I looked up the ads you were talking about. While I haven’t seen enough to support your militancy theory, I do have a problem with the purposely misspelled words.
Yes: Cows would not have gone to school to learn to spell.
Yes: They’re busy saving themselves from consumption and may not have time to look in a dictionary.
However fast food is a bad enough problem in America, do we also have to buttress the poisonous modern pseudo-culture with bastardized spellings?
From a marketing perspective, I can see a boardroom filled with lame suits trying to woo the Chick-Fil-A demographic:
“Our customers don’t have to time for edumacation. They want chicken, they want cute animals that speak to them, they want cute misspelled words, and they want funny clothes on the animals.”
Boom, Anthropomorphic cow in human clothing with broken written English. $$$
It makes me respect McDonald’s more when Mickey D’s comes out with more nutritional items for their menu rather than resorting to lame played-out marketing tactics.
They’re cute & kids love them! I just know… you’re the type that goes coasting down the interstate and all of a sudden one of those cow billboards pops right up… you know, cows on ladders, cows on fences, cows kicking like Rockettes. You start to drool… just thinking about those tastey, deep fried chicken sandwiches with that golden toasted bun and single slice of pickle… see it works… THE COWS ROCK!
I’m sitting here watching a football game and all of a sudden these damn cows are parachuting into a football stadium. The announcer even says, “I’m not sure if this is a protest stunt…”.
There’s your “increasing militancy”. Now the cows are staging protests parachute landings at major sporting events.
As if the protest stunt wasn’t bad enough, one of the paratrooper bovines lands on the burger vendor in the stadium and knocks over all the burgers.
DO NOT MESS WITH THE BEER GUY, THE BRAT GUY, THE DOG GUY OR THE BURGER GUY… in that order.
I think the cows ROCK!!! They’re cute, with signs, yes, the food is bad for you, but the advertisement is good for your sense of humor - but I can tell you don’t have a sense of humor - Usually I don’t call names, but your a big, fat, mean, cow hater!!!!! Don’t cuss, by the way, it might make people mad.
Questions? Contact me at NoneOfYourBussiness.com
u don't know my name!!! on April 28th, 2008 at 5:15 pm | Link
Get a life, Man gas prices are out of sight, people are loosing
jobs, there are a lot of negatives to complain about…but a little
fun with the cow thing, are you for real?
Randy on July 17th, 2008 at 11:57 am | Link
Oh my gosh you guys…if you don’t like the cows, don’t look at them. If you’re to dumb and it takes you eight years to read there signs then you probably shouldn’t be driving in the first place. I work at a Chick-fil-a and this is honestly not me standing up for the cows, this is me letting y’all know that they really are just for the kids. If you’re an adult and you’re looking at them and you read their signs and are amused by them, you have the mental compasity of the 7 year olds who they are aimed after. And to the guy who says that Mickey D’s comes out with healthy food…BS…From my experince working in a fast food restaurant, I would NEVER set foot into a McDonalds…Chick-fil-a has probably the most healthy food out there anymore in a fast food restaurant and that’s how we advertise to the adults with a little mention of the cows at the end with a “moo”. It makes sence. The cows are in protest so that people will stop eating beef and start coming to Chick-fil-a…better then a pig saying “eat me”.
Chrissy on August 29th, 2008 at 6:22 am | Link
I THINK CHICK-FIL-A SHOULD MAKE IT WELL KNOWN, THAT THEY COOK WITH PEANUT OIL, PEOPLE WHO ARE SENSATIVE TO PEANUTS AND THEIR BY-PRODUCTS MAY GET INTO REAL TROUBLE, WITHOUT KNOWING IT.
Fulton Liming on November 22nd, 2008 at 12:10 pm | Link
I am strictly against the promotion of misspelled words directed at youth. The cow promoting eating a different animal is a lost cause. The youth now will be your caregivers later. I want them to be able to read; my burger order or medical chart. The AD campaign is working for them now, but when these kids grow up , the kids pay the price, and won’t be able to afford a chicken sandwich.
Kathy on February 16th, 2009 at 4:06 pm | Link
There is one thing you have all in common, whether you like the cow ads or not, You’re All Talking About It! That’s the point. In the business world, attention is attention - be it negative or positive. These ads work. The ads are clever and draw attention to the brand. The local stores even follow up these ads by having days where customers who come into their stores, dressed like cows, receive free food. Every brand has it’s advertising niche, be it Subway with Jared, McD’s with Ronald, Wendy’s with the young Wendy girl, or Burger King with the “Human” Whopper and Jr. Whopper ads and/or “The King”. They are used to draw your attention to their brand so that you will come into their restaurants. The bottom line, they work! If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be a blog about whether or not you like the cows. I don’t believe they’re going away any time soon so accept it, move on to something else, and spend your time doing more productive things then venting about some cows who can’t spell.
Seriously? on June 19th, 2009 at 10:19 pm | Link
Well to the poster from NY, Chick-Fil-A is a LOT healthier than McDonald’s…have you ever compared our menus? I dont’ think you have. I work at Chick-Fil-A, and out of our four salads, only one features fried chicken and one even features fruit. We offer chargrilled sandwhiches on wheat buns, fruit cups as a subsititute for the fries, and we are now experimenting with cooking with canola oil fr the fries to make them healthier. A lot of it is what the customer chooses to eat. You can make anything healthy into something unhealthy. It’s about making smart choices and Chick-Fil-A tries to give as many healthy options as possible.
To the person posting IN ALL CAPS ABOUT THE PEANUT OIL, Chick-Fil-A actually does advertise that they cook with peanut oil. It’s on our website, it’s on our nutritional guide, it’s on our menus….it’s basically everywhere. And besides that, we are possibly about to start cooking our waffle fries in canola oil.
Christy on July 9th, 2009 at 8:09 pm | Link
itz a mascot iz it post to b perfict?
moooomooooomooooomoooomoooo on September 16th, 2009 at 8:53 am | Link
Seriously…… there are bigger issues in the world to worry about and things to be irritated over than the Chick-Fil-A cows. If you think that cows can’t spell, I can assure you that they spell better than the general public.
Kadie on October 12th, 2009 at 12:41 am | Link
I think you are missing the point. The cows aren’t intended to be educated knowing how to spell correctly. They aren’t intended to be real. The truth is it is one of the most successful ad campaingns ever. Most people find them funny and appealing. Try to see it for what it is. A creative way to get our attention, and sell mor chikin.
Sheri on October 15th, 2009 at 10:04 am | Link
omg! are you seriously complaining about he signand the cows. the cows are great. they dont have to be perfect. they are supposed to be mascots for Chick-fil-a. if you dont like them you dont have to go to eat there anymore. no one told you to go there anyway. you are so juvinile. dont be hatin them cows. hey you might be a cow yourself and yess i went there. they make tons of people laugh. if you dont like it then go somewhere else and eat.go to pizza hut and get fat of something but dont be dissin the cows.
kaykay on October 19th, 2009 at 11:35 am | Link
I have to say one thing.
A lot of you say you are marketers and what not.. You all should know that while they might not be the most favorite thing by people Chick-Fil-A has set out and accomplished what they intended. Its memorable and thats the key factor in advertising. Just like Geico ads.. we all hate them.. they are annoying as can be.. but we will never forget what Geico is and just like the cows, we will never forget CFA.
Bill on October 28th, 2009 at 6:44 pm | Link
You people need to get a life!
Kristin on November 20th, 2009 at 10:12 pm | Link
The cow at chick -fil-a is so anoying.Never get near him.
Kate on December 28th, 2009 at 8:03 am | Link
YOU Idiots are stupid, whats wrong with you fools talking about cows. is that not the same thing people do with there lincese plates. IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Karl on December 30th, 2009 at 12:56 am | Link
seriously? the cows are intended to be cute and funny. And that’s what they are. It is a very sucessful advertisement, and i crack up whenever i see one of these signs! I am a teen and i don’t see any problems with misspelled words that the cows use. It’s not like i’m going to spell the word chicken like “chikin” on a spelling test or anything.
get a life! on January 6th, 2010 at 7:24 pm | Link
Are they substituting chicken meat with cow meat?
I Wonder!
I Wonder! on July 13th, 2010 at 3:50 pm | Link
The cows are cute. Leave them alone.
As for the peanut oil, I don’t know how highly processed it is at Chick-Fil-A but Highly processed peanut oil is safe for the vast majority of thoes with peanut allergies.
Susan on August 9th, 2010 at 5:42 am | Link