"massive awareness"" for its then-new ""Nothing Ordinary About It"" ad campaign. From the other side, activist Paul Rogat Loeb lamented that the hoax ""felt too real for comfort"" in an era ""when every value, ideal, and public symbol has a profit-seeking sponsor"". Taco Liberty Bell The Taco Liberty Bell was an April Fool's Day joke played by fast food restaurant chain Taco Bell. On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in seven leading U.S. newspapers announcing that the company had purchased the Liberty Bell to ""reduce the country's debt"" and renamed it the ""Taco Liberty Bell""."
"Fisher/Fazio's/Costa, Thorofare, and Safeway, depending on the market. National's logo was Loblaw's logo turned upside down to look like an ""n"" instead of an ""L"". At the height of their market share in the late 1960s, National Supermarkets' slogans used in television advertising included ""Super National-Market"" and ""The Underpricer"". In their final years in the 1980s and early 1990s, the National slogan in the St. Louis market was, ""You Are Important to Us!"" As a condition of buying National from Loblaws, Schnucks had to sell off 24 stores for anti-trust reasons. In 1996, Family Company of America, a group led"
"parks in the United States, uses ""FUN"" as its symbol. Harley-Davidson uses ""HOG"" for its Harley Owners Group. Yamana Gold uses ""AUY"", because on the periodic table of elements, ""Au"" is the symbol for gold. Sotheby's (the famous auction house) uses the symbol ""BID"". While most symbols come from the company's name, sometimes it happens the other way around. Tricon Global, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, adopted the symbol ""YUM"" to represent its corporate mission when the company was spun out of PepsiCo in 1997. In 2002, the company changed its name to match its symbol, adopting"
"is illuminated whenever one of their players hits a home run. This bell outline replaced one at the Phillies' former home, Veterans Stadium. On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell announced via ads and press releases that it had purchased the Liberty Bell and changed its name to the Taco Liberty Bell. The bell, the ads related, would henceforth spend half the year at Taco Bell corporate headquarters in Irvine, California. Outraged calls flooded Independence National Historical Park, and Park Service officials hastily called a press conference to deny that the bell had been sold. After several hours, Taco Bell admitted"
"had put into practice more than two decades earlier. The original mascot of McDonald's was a chef hat on top of a hamburger who was referred to as ""Speedee"". In 1962 the Golden Arches replaced Speedee as the universal mascot. The symbol, Ronald McDonald, was introduced in 1965. The clown, Ronald McDonald, appeared in advertising to target their audience of children. On May 4, 1961, McDonald's first filed for a U.S. trademark on the name ""McDonald's"" with the description ""Drive-In Restaurant Services"", which continues to be renewed. By September 13, McDonald's, under the guidance of Ray Kroc, filed for a"
"the name of a gang in Florida and Colorado. The phrase ""Got Rice?"" is a term that was coined by Asian American youth in the 1990s shortly after the original ""Got Milk?"" advertising campaign for the California Milk Board in 1993. The phrase has since come to be used as a symbol for the cohesiveness of Asian American cultural identity and cultural pride, especially on the Internet. It's usually mentioned close to the Asian Pride slogan. The humor is derived from the fact that rice is a staple food in many Asian cultures. The slogan can thus be viewed as"
"a successful trademark infringement lawsuit against a ""Rosscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles"" that had opened in Chicago. The infringing store was forced to drop its infringing logo and name. A previous ""Rosscoe's"" had opened in New York City, but the LA-based chain opted to not sue that location because it had no plans to enter the New York market; however, Roscoe's did plan to enter the Chicago market. On March 30, 2016, Calvin Broadus (Snoop Dogg) was reported to purchase the famed soul food restaurant chain Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles out of bankruptcy. The chain has been"
"logo and would spawn the ""Frownie"" brownie from rival Kings Family Restaurants, which would be controversially discontinued in 2015 after Kings was sold to a private equity firm. Eat'n Park filed several lawsuits against companies outside the restaurants' operating area to enforce its trademark on the Smiley Cookie. In 2011, Eat'n Park was awarded the Achievement of Excellence award from the American Culinary Federation. Despite accepting debit & credit card transactions, Eat'n Park is unusual in the restaurant business by having an ATM at each location. The ATMs were originally owned by SkyBank, and later Huntington Bank after the latter"
"have appeared on radio and TV stations, newspapers, websites, and have been performed by large corporations. In one famous prank from 1957, the BBC broadcast a film in their ""Panorama"" current affairs series purporting to show Swiss farmers picking freshly-grown spaghetti, in what they called the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest. The BBC were later flooded with requests to purchase a spaghetti plant, forcing them to declare the film a hoax on the news the next day. With the advent of the Internet and readily available global news services, April Fools' pranks can catch and embarrass a wider audience than ever before."
"filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of three employees who alleged they had been sexually harassed by a co-worker at a Dee's location in Midvale. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to revamp its sexual harassment policy and employee training procedures. Dee's Drive-In was famous for the large clown marquee outside each drive-in with the title Dee's Hamburgers. The clown was brightly colored and had a large round belly, and would hold four large balloons, each one spelling out a fast food item for sale inside the restaurant. The original clown was designed by Paul"
"heritage from the Pacific Northwest and to celebrate 35 years of business. The vintage logo sparked some controversy due in part to the siren's bare breasts, but the temporary switch garnered little attention from the media. Starbucks had drawn similar criticism when they reintroduced the vintage logo in 2006. The logo was altered when Starbucks entered the Saudi Arabian market in 2000 to remove the siren, leaving only her crown, as reported in a Pulitzer Prize-winning column by Colbert I. King in ""The Washington Post"" in 2002. The company announced three months later that it would be using the international"
"like in late 1800s and early 1900s in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1997, ""Forbes"" reported on a series of issues about Fry's customer service and unorthodox business practices. Among the allegations was that the company had an internal policy, identified as ""the double H"" or ""hoops and hurdles"", to delay or prevent customers from obtaining refunds. In 1998, ""USA Today"" reported that many customers had become frustrated with poor customer service at Fry's stores. Fry's advertising methods have also gone under heavy fire. In 2003, actors Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sued Fry's for $10 million"
"introduced in October, called the ""roller coaster logo"" to replace the ""canoe logo"". However, this did not last long, as there were even bigger and unexpected changes coming within the next few months. On January 9, 2006, Mall of America management announced that talks between MOA and Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. (which owns the national rights to amusement-park branding of the Peanuts license) had broken down, primarily over the mall's rights to effectively market its park within and outside the United States, and effective January 19, the park's Peanuts branding would end, the park being temporarily renamed ""The Park at"
"and Buddhist, successfully sued McDonald's for misrepresenting its French fries as vegetarian, when they contained beef broth. Morgan Spurlock's 2004 documentary film ""Super Size Me"" claimed that McDonald's food was contributing to the increase of obesity in society and that the company was failing to provide nutritional information about its food for its customers. Six weeks after the film premiered, McDonald's announced that it was eliminating the super size option, and was creating the adult Happy Meal. In 2006, an unsanctioned ""McDonald's Video Game"" by Italian group Molleindustria was released online. It is parody of the business practices of the"
"toys in a move to curb obesity. Happy Meal A Happy Meal is a form of kids' meal sold at the fast food restaurant chain McDonald's since June 1979. A small toy is included with the food, both of which are usually contained in a red box with a yellow smiley face and the McDonald's logo. The packaging and toy are frequently part of a marketing tie-in to an existing television show, film, or toy brand. The Happy Meal contains a main item (typically a hamburger, cheeseburger, or small serving of Chicken McNuggets), a side item (french fries, apple slices,"
"the United Kingdom to Symington's, a food manufacturer in Leeds, who would drop the Knorr Branding. Symington's later acquired the Oceania rights to Raguletto and Chicken Tonight; they have since been acquired by Simplot. The slogan was parodied in a skit on the Australian television series ""The Late Show"" in 1993 with ""Dickhead Tonight"", where people danced while singing ""I Feel Like a Dickhead Tonight"". The dance and song of the advertisement were parodied by ""The Simpsons"" family in the episode ""Lady Bouvier's Lover."" A segment on an old ""America's Funniest Home Videos"" episode parodied the brand as ""Iguana Tonight."""
"official mascot. He used the slogans ""It ain't easy bein' cheesy"" and ""The cheese that goes crunch!"" from 1986 to 1997, until it became ""Dangerously cheesy!"" from 1997 onward. From the mid-1980s to early 2000s, television adverts often featured Chester's desperate attempts to eat other people's Cheetos. The self-described ""hip kitty"" was often seen sneaking up on an unsuspecting stranger at a beach or public park. The result would always involve cartoon violence in the vein of ""Looney Tunes"", such as Chester riding a motorcycle off a bridge, getting thrown to the top of a coliseum, or plunging miles through"
"Screwy—and pitted him not against Meathead, but a pair of typical Hanna-Barbera authority figures, human park attendant Dweeble and his oafish dog Rumply. ""Screwball"" himself wore a T-shirt and, much of the time, a Napoleon hat. On April Fools' Day, 1997, Cartoon Network ran an edited version (minus one blackface gag) of the 1944 Screwy Squirrel cartoon ""Happy-Go-Nutty"" repeatedly from 6 AM to 6 PM, as part of an April Fool's joke that the cartoon character had taken over the channel. In 2013, both Meathead and Screwy Squirrel make appearances as residents of ""Fairy Land"" in ""Tom and Jerry's Giant"
"owner became a regional potato chip mogul. He decided on an owl as a company mascot, a creature reputed to be ""wise,"" the stylized eye of which remains the corporate logo. He had his first delivery truck by 1922, and opened his first production plant in 1925. The snack industry and the fortunes of the Wise Potato Chip Company improved dramatically after World War II. Per capita consumption of potato chips in the United States increased from 1.91 pounds in 1945 to 2.56 pounds a decade later. Corn chips, pretzels, popcorn, peanut butter sandwich crackers, crackers with cheese, and fried"
"he does not recall being in any commercials in the past, and then eats a Butterfinger just as he did in the commercials. In the November 2014 episode ""Simpsorama"", a crossover with ""Futurama"", Butterfingers are used to lure the Bart creatures into Madison Cube Garden. On April 1, 2008, Nestlé launched an April Fool's Day prank in which they claimed that they had changed the name of the candy bar to ""The Finger"", citing consumer research that indicated that the original brand was ""clumsy"" and ""awkward"". The prank included a fake Web site promoting the change that featured a video"
"a rainbow-haired Troll as their mascot. In 1986, to expand its market and lower its shipping costs, Mederer began producing Trolli-branded gummies in a plant located in the U.S. in Creston, Iowa. Favorite Brands purchased the Trolli U.S. manufacturing facility in 1997 and licensed the ""Trolli"" name from Mederer for use in the United States. The license applies only to North American sales. An example of a different Trolli license holder is TREXCO. In 1995, Favorite Brands was formed to purchase the largest United States manufacturer of marshmallow products. Then, in 1996, it purchased the second-largest manufacturer of marshmallow products."
"names mentioned in the movie for candy bars. In 1991, Quaker Oats spun off its Fisher-Price division. In August 2001, PepsiCo acquired Quaker Oats, primarily for its Gatorade brand of soft drink. The merger created the fourth-largest consumer goods company in the world. Though the main prize of PepsiCo was Gatorade non-carbonated sports drink, Quaker's cereal and snack food division complemented the existing Frito-Lay salty-snacks division. Since the late 1980s, actor Wilford Brimley has appeared in television commercials extolling the virtues of oat consumption, typically to a young child, as to introduce the concept of oatmeal consumption as a long"
"parents reported that they had no preference for any particular fast food restaurant and simply let their children choose. As a result, KFC worked harder to figure out how to appeal to the kids even further. One of the first things KFC found was that children were not at all interested in its logo. In 1995, the bearded, elderly white man that Chinese children found so off-putting was exchanged for a playful cartoon character dubbed 'Chicky.' Other efforts to entice children included play areas, child-height sinks, smaller furniture, and settings for birthday parties, which are a very recent phenomenon in"
"were used in the franchise's commercials: ""Hamburger Hungry"" (a humanoid figure with a hamburger in bun for a head); ""Chicken Hungry"" (a chicken leg); and ""Big Fish Hungry"" (a blue fish). In Australia, the appearance of Red Barney was common on ""Cartoon Corner"" with Daryl Somers. He was an affable clown who gave away prizes and preceded Ronald McDonald. In the spring of 1970, the chain found itself at the center of controversy when a franchisee wanted to erect a store in Dinkytown, a neighborhood adjacent to the University of Minnesota-East Bank campus in Minneapolis MN. Protestors, who were already"
"among both locals and tourists, and at lunch time and throughout much of the weekend customers could expect to wait in lines sometimes exceeding an hour just to get in the door. The names attached to the permanent menu items were changed frequently but usually maintain a consistent theme: iconic Hollywood sex symbols, legendary comedians, famous Chicago Cubs baseball players, and so on. Hot Doug's was also notable for its duck fat fries, served on Fridays and Saturdays only, in which the potatoes are deep fried in rendered duck fat. Hot Doug's won a 2006 Good Eating award from the"
"political leaders in the quality of their food as they were in the quality of their prose and intelligence"""". The American fast food industry, the world's largest, pioneered the drive-through format in the 1940s. Fast food consumption has sparked health concerns. During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' caloric intake rose 24%; frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what public health officials call the American ""obesity epidemic"". Highly sweetened soft drinks are widely popular, and sugared beverages account for nine percent of American caloric intake. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, American art and literature took most"
"truth of claims regarding their safety had been verified. As a result, thirteen states adopted food libel laws, which offer larger settlement sums than regular trade libel laws and, unlike trade libel laws, often place the burden of proof on a case's defendant, rather than its plaintiff. In 1998, television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey and one of her guests, Howard Lyman, were involved in a lawsuit, commonly referred to as the Amarillo Texas beef trial, surrounding the Texas version of a food libel law known as the ""False Disparagement of Perishable Food Products Act of 1995"", for a 1996 episode"
"failure prompted Burger King to drop JWT in 1987. The Whopper has been at the center of several hoaxes and pranks from the company. In a 1998 April Fool's Day prank, Burger King took out a full page advertisement in several national publications such as ""USA Today"" advertising a new version of the sandwich called the ""Left-Handed Whopper"". The advertisement claimed that the condiments were all rotated 180° to accommodate southpaws. Another prank from 2013 claimed that the company was introducing a ""hands-free Whopper holder"" to allow people to eat the sandwich while doing other activities. The unit, similar to"
"Happy Meal A Happy Meal is a form of kids' meal sold at the fast food restaurant chain McDonald's since June 1979. A small toy is included with the food, both of which are usually contained in a red box with a yellow smiley face and the McDonald's logo. The packaging and toy are frequently part of a marketing tie-in to an existing television show, film, or toy brand. The Happy Meal contains a main item (typically a hamburger, cheeseburger, or small serving of Chicken McNuggets), a side item (french fries, apple slices, a Go-Gurt tube, or a salad in"
"vegetarian tradition. Its hamburgers are made of lamb or chicken, not beef. It adapted local favorites into items such as McAloo Tikki, a breaded potato pancake on a bun. It divided its kitchens in the vegetarian and nonvegetarian zones making sure that food did not cross the line. Its advertising told Indians that its bright, inviting restaurants did not mean high prices. Its strategy was profits through high volume and low prices. Locally it sponsored sports programs and donations to visible charities. In 1996, the British adult comic magazine ""Viz"" accused McDonald's of plagiarizing the name and format of its"
"credited as ""Ronald McDonald as himself"". He won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star for his appearance in the film. Because of his prominence, Ronald McDonald has become a symbol not just of McDonald's but of the fast food industry in the USA as a whole, as well as Corporate America, capitalism, globalization, and other broader topics. As such, the costume and iconography of Ronald McDonald is often appropriated by protestors and artists wishing to subvert the icon and communicate a message that runs counter to the corporate narrative. For example, in 2000, protestors in Hong Kong dressed"
"markets. Beginning in 1995, Snickers ran ads which featured someone making a self-inflicted mistake, with the voice-over saying ""Not going anywhere for a while? Grab a Snickers!"" The tag line at the end of each ad proclaimed, ""Hungry? Why Wait?"" One such ad had a player for a fictional American football team showing off his new tattoo of the team's logo on his back to his teammates. He then shows it to his head coach who, after complimenting the tattoo, immediately tells him that he's been traded to Miami. The player then goes to have his old team's logo replaced"
"of the United Kingdom and France. A Coon Chicken Inn advertisement is a plot device in ""Ghost World"", a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Terry Zwigoff. Coon Chicken Inn Coon Chicken Inn was an American chain of four restaurants founded by Maxon Lester Graham and Adelaide Burt in 1925, which prospered until the late 1950s. The restaurant's name contains the word ""Coon"", considered an ethnic slur, and the trademarks and entrances of the restaurants were designed to look like a smiling blackface caricature of an African-American porter. The smiling capped porter head also appeared on menus, dishes, and promotional"