KFC Pays College Women To Wear Double Down Pants

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Just make sure the young ladies have the right proportions. You don't want people confusing this with flat-bread sandwiches.
KFC wants folks to watch its backside.
Or, more precisely, the backsides of female college students it's recruiting to promote its hot new bunless Double Down sandwiches.
Women on college campuses are being paid $500 each to hand out coupons while wearing fitted sweatpants with "Double Down" in large letters across their rear ends.
The promo comes as KFC is in the doldrums domestically. The world's largest chicken chain's U.S. same-store sales fell 7% in the second quarter. Nearly all its growth now is in international expansion.
Last week, the chain confessed that more than six in 10 Americans ages 18 to 25 — the chain's key demographic — couldn't identify who Colonel Sanders was in the KFC logo.
Now, it's turning to cute women parading around campus with "Double Down" emblazoned across their fannies.
Naturally, those charming ladies from the Nationals Association of Gals have a problem with these coeds making a quick buck.
The nation's largest women's group doesn't like it one bit. "It's so obnoxious to once again be using women's bodies to sell fundamentally unhealthy products," says Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. What's more, she says, KFC has forgotten something important: Women make more than half the decisions about what to eat for dinner.
But KFC marketing chief John Cywinski says it's an effective way to catch the attention of young men — KFC's key customers and the biggest fans of Double Down.
Six months after the debut of KFC's Double Down marketers are focusing less on the sodium-laced sandwich's culinary assets and more on those of its consumers.

In an attempt to reach out to the 18-to 25-year-old demographic, KFC is offering female college students at Spalding University $500 to wear sweatpants with "double down" emblazoned across the rear, USA Today reports.

According to the fried chicken giant's Chief Marketing and Food Innovation Officer John Cywinski, the ad is "fitting of the Double Down's head turning history," and is "an effort to reach consumers coast-to-coast, and especially our key target of young men."

The National Organization for Women is not having this explanation. As its president Terry O'Neill told USA Today, "It's so obnoxious to once again be using women's bodies to sell fundamentally unhealthy products," adding that KFC should really be focusing on marketing to women, who make more than half the decisions regarding food for dinner.

Although Spalding, a Catholic institution in Louisville, is currently the only participating school, KFC hopes to run the campaign across at least three more campuses.

Would you be an ambassador for KFC? How do you feel about this campaign, and about advertising on campus in general? Weigh in below.

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