KFC Without The Colonel? Say It Isn’t So!
I just finished reading a food news & gossip article in The San Francisco Weekly that made my blood turn cold.
KFC–more formally known in my childhood days as KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN–launched a new public outreach campaign this week that could very well do away with the visage of Colonel Sanders!
That seems unheard of! Unlike Ronald McDonald and the Burger King, Colonel Harland Sanders was a real man with a real story that should never fail to inspire the masses–whether they eat his fried chicken or not.
Harland Sanders became the man of the house at age 6 when his father died. He learned to cook.
He worked a variety of jobs, from farm hand to fireman to soldier and many others in between.
At around the age of 40, Sanders began tinkering with his secret recipe. You know, the 11 secret herbs and spices?
By 1950, he was 60 years old and still had not made his fortune and fame. A highway cut across his restaurant and Sanders retired on $100 a week.
But not one to be deterred, Harland Sanders got in his car and drove around the country trying to sell his dream of the perfect fried chicken.
He asked for little in return, offering to cook for owners on the spot and if they liked what they tasted, a handshake agreement was good enough for him.
The story is that Sanders heard over 1,000 “No’s” before he got his first yes.
ONE THOUSAND!
How many of US would continue doing ANYTHING after 20 No’s? 100 No’s? How many kids today are being raised with the level of determination and guts and perseverance to handle ONE THOUSAND REJECTIONS??
Answer: not nearly enough.
Colonel Harland Sanders realized his dream and was supposedly the second most recognizable celebrity in the mid 1970s.
If KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN were to actually update their image and move on from the visage of Colonel Sanders, something special will have been lost.
Not just the smiling face of a gentle old man. But the story of courage and self reliance that people here and abroad need more than EVER before.
