Kentucky Fried Liars

I hate when I'm fooled or tricked.

Brands seem to trick us a lot lately. One example is the Sunday Target ad with a $500 flat screen TV on front....after a visit to the store you might find they only had 1 TV to sell and they sold it when the doors opened.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I was recently scammed by KFC as well. Take a look at this commercial.

It's promoting KFC's new Value Menu. At first glance you might not notice in the commercial the very fine print of "starting at" 99cents.

Sometimes it's hard for the average Joe to process the fine print of commercials in just 30 seconds. Even if we see it 3, 4 or 10 times it's likely we will still interpret the commercial in the way we first saw it. I've seen this commercial probably a 100 times and never noticed the most important information: "starting at" 99cents.

When KFC first rolled with this new menu I was looking forward to checking it out as on my last visit I was disappointed when I pulled in the drive thru and they didn't have a 99cent item at all.

We went to KFC yesterday to pick up something from the Value Menu. I was shocked when I arrived and realized that not everything on the Value Menu was 99cents.

I was enraged! I've seen the commercial! I know that all of the choices are 99cents. But, they weren't....I had been fooled by slick advertising. How many items does KFC have that cost 99 cents? Two out of ten.

None of the 99 cent items even looked worth it so we went with something far more appetizing: the Mashed Potato Bowl for $1.99. It was more than I was planning on spending, but it sure sounded good. Who wouldn't like mashed potatoes, corn, deep fried chicken, gravy and cheese all mashed up in a bowl?

All things considered.....it tasted absolutely amazing. All of the ingredients work in harmony for a fantastic bowl that reminded me of traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The corn is sweet, the chicken crispy and the melted cheese tops it all off to make this bowl of mush completely wonderful. Don't even ask how many calories it has.

However, that doesn't change the fact that KFC pulled a quickie and led me to believe that everything was 99cents.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I should stop complaining....after all I did get a bowl of mush for $1.99. (Although two cheeseburgers at Wendy's for the same price would have been better.) When things like this happen though I just can't seem to ignore the fact that I feel like I was lied to.

Maybe you've experienced the same thing.....have you been at a restaurant or store thinking something was one price and then getting there only to discover the price is completely different?

I suppose I can't throw too much of a fit. After all, they do mention it in the fine print. But - don't you think that every company out there should work on being honest, getting our business and keeping it? The strategy of, get as many customers as we can and not care if they ever come back again will eventually lead to disaster. Take me for example - they got my $2 but they didn't get my loyalty.