A Great Big "Oops" for KFC

It must have seemed initially at KFC's headquarters like they'd scored a major coup -- getting a free plug from Oprah for a promotion around KFC's newly introduced grilled chicken. But this is one promotion that truly blew up in the company's face, as KFC was forced to cancel the promotion.

On his blog, Sean Aune explains:

. . . why this whole thing was done prior to Mother’s Day makes no sense. It is one of the biggest days of the year for the chain, and to put extra strain on their supply chain at such a critical time of the year for them just made no sense. And to top all of this off, there are rumors circulating that the franchise locations were not warned of the pending promotion, and they are also supposedly not being reimbursed for the redeemed coupons.

. . . How can two companies of this size and reach have gotten this whole thing so horribly wrong? Was no one aware that Oprah’s legions of fans will do anything this woman says?

. . . Did they not think it might be a good idea to coordinate with their franchise locations? Did they not think that perhaps they should launch it after Mother’s Day? No, apparently they just totally did this thing by the seat of their pants and now they have egg all over their face.