h a l f b a k e r yNormal isn't your first language, is it?
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
It seems that American Fast food chain KFC has become popular in an unlikely place - Syria.
Google it-
So why not make a middle eastern fast food franchise that sells all sorts of heart stopping American fast food and call it Deathtoamerica - something trendy(middle eastern trendy) and ironic considering
how many of us are dying from obesity - related to our fast food diets perhaps? I am sure it wouldn't be hard to reverse engineer the Colonel's 11 herbs and spices. It's not about their hearts and minds it's about their stomachs.
The name would allow the conflicted middle easterner to get the American experience without feeling like a sell out. Also it might prevent an untimely explosion during the lunch rush.
(?) For [bris]
http://www.stjude.o..._3161_19112,00.html
“Our findings might encourage physicians to consider that at least some of their obese patients might be suffering from a problem that can’t be solved by eating less and exercising more,” [Shz, Jan 27 2006]
could we have Vati-Cola for Catholics?
http://www.mecca-cola.com/
wish I'd thought of this..... [xenzag, Jan 27 2006]
Not Japanese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku
[notmarkflynn, Jan 28 2006]
Profitable turkish film
http://news.bbc.co....ainment/4700154.stm
Money to be made riding the wave of resentment [redsimple, Feb 10 2006]
(?) Fried Chicken Gallery
http://badgas.co.uk/chicken/
If you call your shop Kennedy Fried Chicken, there's a law stating that you must display a picture of the Statue of Liberty (see earlier). If you can draw an idiotic grinning face on it, then so much the better. [LoriZ, Jun 12 2006]
DFC
http://emiratesecon...icken-dubai_19.html
Better than KFC in this country (less fat drips per second) [marklar, Jul 17 2007]
[link]
|
| |
Interesting...sort of like how sudoku is a plot by the Japanese to get Americans completely addicted to a trivial intellectual pursuit, leaving us completely unable to defend in real life against their increasing takeover of American businesses. |
|
| |
I'm not buying that fast food has much to do with the widespread obesity problem. |
|
| |
Really?? I am no expert but every fast food place I've been to is always chock full of fatties...but perhaps it is something else I am sure the food is perfectly healthy - most things fried in oil are..right? |
|
| |
I find the [Syria (arab) = anti american jihadist/terrorist] thang offensive bordering on racist. |
|
| |
//sudoku is a plot by the Japanese// |
|
| |
Sudoku were invented by a british guy. Even the name is 'fake' japanese. |
|
| |
//every fast food place I've been to is always chock full of fatties// |
|
| |
Perhaps it's somehow related to where you live? |
|
| |
As for the idea, we have a chain here in the UK called Chicken Cottage that is a Halal KFC clone. |
|
| |
for a given value of fake, yup. It's translated. |
|
| |
[bris], I recently read a study identifying leaking lymphatic vessels as a cause of weight gain unrelated to food intake or exercise levels. I was going to post something on the last 'calories in / calories out' vs. 'there's something else going on' debate but the idea was deleted. Supposedly more studies are planned. I'll see if I can find something online. |
|
| |
//I find the [Syria (arab) = anti american jihadist/terrorist] thang offensive bordering on racist.//
Borderline racist?
Syria is a country like others in the region who's socio-economic condition have allowed political leaders to blame America for lots of things and thereby stay in power without doing anything for the vast majority of poor people who support them...I am sure they have some valid points in terms of America's foreign policies...However, the fact remains that there are Anti-American sentiments in the Middle east and yet the same idealistic arab teenager who burns an American flag in protest also has pirate copies of the latest hollywood blockbuster and has an obsession with western pop culture in general...this is not a uncommon paradox according to reuters - DAMASCUS, Syria (Reuters) - The U.S. flag serves as a doormat to an office and nearby merchants announce "we boycott American goods," but some Syrians can't seem to keep away from American fast food at the new KFC fried chicken restaurant. |
|
| |
I am simply suggesting capitalizing on it with a tongue and cheek name. Serve fried chicken, "Freedom" frys, burgers - and instead of doing it from Macdonalds or KFC which being american might be objectionable , do it from a Deathtoamerica Franchise . |
|
| |
//Perhaps it's somehow related to where you live?//
Well in Los Angeles, fast food places seem to concentrate obese Americans better than any place except maybe Theme parks. |
|
| |
I'm with your arguments on this for the most part
(redsimple), especially in relation to irony of idea. |
|
| |
(yamahito) I think you have extracted racism from the
idea, and I can see why, but it's not a racist notion at its
core. The very term Anti-American is simplistic and falls
apart when subjected to any serious scrutiny. You are of
course right about Seduku - now there's a man who
deserves to be stuffed full of junk food, packed inside a
washing machine,and bounced down a steep hill. |
|
| |
You can already get Mecca-Cola and it sells very well - see
link. I think the DeathtoAmerica title could be more
inventive - but giving still giving you a plus for being
suitably perverse. |
|
| |
redsimple, xenzag, I am, of course, aware of the anti-americanism that is common in the middle east (and, in fact, pretty much everywhere in the world, including here in the UK), the fact that it is at times indicative of real issues with america, and at others merely a continuation of hate. I appreciate that the bare bones of the idea may not be racist, but if we pare it back to that level, it is neither halfbaked (arabian owned KFC clones exist) nor particularly innovative. To my mind the only thing that justifies it as an idea is the attempt to be a commentary on the 'irony' you mention. |
|
| |
Whether it's by equating someone of a particular geographical, ethnic or religious backround to a criminal or terrorist, or merely continuing a cycle of hate, close-mindedness and stereotypes of people with a particular view (unreasonable though it might be), I still feel this idea is offensive, and borderline racist. |
|
| |
Having read the annos, I'm rather surprised to find myself in favour. I think the irony is clear. Obviously generalizations about any group of people are going to lead us into trouble, but hey, we all gotta live.A mildly surprised bun. |
|
| |
Well this isnt too far fetched considering that the amount of cigarettes that we send to China and other parts of asia is steadily increasing. I have yet to meet an asian who does not smoke. |
|
| |
Yamahito - DTA isn't equating anyone to anything, it is purely a marketing ploy that is more akin to punk rock marketing, targeting the evergrowing resentment of American foreign policies. Irony and shock value along the lines of "Kill the Poor" by the Dead Kennedys (itself a worthy name) and more recently the Billionaires for Bush protesters.
Cycle of hate?...perhaps...but I haven't seen a middle eastern Ghandi or MLKjr gain any traction. And, while I fully support the methods of Ghandi and Dr. King, I must insist on a bit of comedy in all of humanities struggles. |
|
| |
// I must insist on a bit of comedy in all of humanities struggles // <runs for cover> |
|
| |
I voted for Deathtoamerica!!! |
|
| |
hence the second part of my 'whether it's by... or' statement, redsimple. The marketing ploys you mention differ from this idea in that this idea is supposed to be taken seriously by their punters. I feel that targeting people's resentment is one thing, targeting their hatred is quite another, and I still stand by my earlier statements. |
|
| |
Regardless of the politics involved, surely this falls under [marked–for-deletion] Slogan? |
|
| |
Sudoku was not invented by the Japanese. |
|
| |
Wow, looks like I was wrong about the name, too - turns out it *is* japanese. |
|
| |
I can't edit it out though, after rcarty's superb put-down. ;) |
|
| |
I think 'taken seriously' is bit of an overstatement. DTA is suppose to create a buzz, and obviously in the increasingly competitive world of middle eastern ripoffs of American fast food you've got to do something a little different even go as far as creating a little controversy. Especially now with the O.G. chains like KFC getting in on the action. |
|
| |
MOM: Kids how does fried chicken American style sound. |
|
| |
KIDS:But Mom which place? There are so many to choose from nowadays. |
|
| |
MOM:Well I thought we try that new place. |
|
| |
MOM:That's the one...sounds a lot more exciting than chicken cottage plus I hear irony is good for you. |
|
| |
KIDS:Oh boy! Mom you sure are swell. |
|
| |
The airport in Medan, Indonesia, had a "California Fried Chicken" fast-food place. I thought it was an obvious fake, but the Indonesians loved it. They also are as enamored of American junk culture as tattooed Americans are of Chinese symbols. |
|
| |
Deathtoamerica might sell better if it was marketed as a graphic demonstration of the decadence and wastefulness of America. "Come see how the degenerate Americans eat! Your blood will boil as your arteries harden." |
|
| |
For what it's worth, the Sudoku puzzle in the Japanese Air Lines magazine is labelled as "Latin Squares". |
|
| |
For what it's worth, Leonhard Euler's "Latin Squares" from the late 18th century are attributed in the linked wikipedia article, particularly in the sections which deal with the mathematics and history of Sudoku. |
|
| |
It'll work best as a buffet. We've got lots of buffets around here, and lots of grossly obese people who really love them.
Run the whole thing at a terrible loss, to draw the victims in, and it'll still cost less than a few overpriced missiles.
Downside: still targeting civvies. |
|
| |
This is a place for causes and comestibles? |
|
| |
For starters, you have to have Freedom Fries on the menu. If the place serves breakfast you'll need Coffee, Cinnewhoppers, and Manglish Muffins. Tex-Mex fare has to change as well, but what to call a square taco, "Faco", "Quad"? |
|
| |
Money's being made hand over fist with anti-american themed stuff...more proof that the Death to America franchise could dominate the middle eastern landscape. - see link |
|
| |
Heh. I'm already laughing at the thought of Gary Busey playing an evil doctor. The guy's out of his skull. |
|
| |
You know, the Americans in that Turkish film don't sound any worse than the [Germans/ Japanese/ Chinese/ Vietnamese/ Italians/ Russians/ Palestinians/ Turks] in most American action cinema... |
|
| |
Shouldn't be Vati-Cola, [xenzag]. Focus group studies lead me to believe that Pope-a-Cola would enjoy better brand recognition. |
|
| |
Either way, it's Catholicious |
|
| |
//Entire nations are systematically digging their own graves, with knives and forks// |
|
| |
Makes me wonder why the CSIRO diet book was a bestseller. |
|
| |
//The name would allow the conflicted middle easterner to get the American experience without feeling like a sell out// |
|
| |
I'm not sure whether to laugh or not at that one. |
|
| |
Please understand that there are millions of regular people in Syria. This is a racist entry. |
|
| |
But are there a lot of really fat Syrians? |
|
| |
There is DFC (Damascus Fried Chicken) here (Dubai). I don't expect you to believe me so linky. |
|
| |
There is also Safestway and Toys 'N Us. There are also others which I've forgotton. |
|
| |
[yamahito] ////every fast food place I've been to is always chock full of fatties// |
|
| |
Perhaps it's somehow related to where you live? // |
|
| |
No, fast food attracks fat people. Its a FACT. I work in 'fast food' (not a major chain) place and get disgusted when fatties order extra meat and extra cheese, and then get cheese wiz on their french fries. It's okay when you get this every once and awhile, but we have regulars that come in and order the same crap over and over again. |
|
| |
BTW, I make Philly cheesesteaks.... |
|
| |
I love America! Unfortunately, that makes me a minority in the world. Geeze, I wish there was a reset button so that we can go back to the old days when the rest of the world admired us for our enginuity. |
|
| |
What is it, is the rest of the world not satisfied by all of the automobiles, planes, tranes, AC/DC power networks, nuclear power, space travel, GPS, telephones, radio, TV, computers, refrigerators, fast food, freedom, and etc that America has brought forth. Geeze, you'd think they'd overlook our 7 year long terror avenging rampage that we've gone on since George W. Bush got into office as a minor inconvenience (especially since they foolishly started it, they completely pissed off the wrong president, this is the oil lovin' death penalty guy from Texas that they pissed off here, not your every day rational dictator like saddam hussuen). |
|
| |
Seriously, the "rest of the world" needs to assume the position, dam ingrates! [-] |
|
| |
How about "Camel-fucker-burger" instead!? |
|
| |
Uh oh, I feel an anno war coming. |
|
| |
[quantum_flux] - nothing on your list was
invented in America, except junk food. |
|
| |
America - home of the free, land of the brave, all eating their way into an early grave! |
|
| |
Does it not bother Americans that your country is raping and pilliaging the worlds resources and causing the collapse of entire countries? |
|
| |
Still as long as you have your oversized 4x4's and fast food Fu*K em 'all!
If we need more oil we can just steal someone else's. Just like when we stole the Red mans land, he moaned about it so we slaughtered them. Ahh the happy days when you just killed the locals and took their belongings...Oh hang on what about Iraq....hhhmmm |
|
| |
Lie: //Nothing on your list was invented in America, except junk food// |
|
| |
Fact: (Benjamen Franklin- freedom), (Henry Ford- automobile assembly lines), (Tomas Edison- lightbulb, dc-current), (Einstien- atomic energy), (N. Tesla- AC current/powerlines/EM-motors), (Von Braun- Apollo Program/space travel), (Bill Gates- microchips), (Richard Feynman- nanotechnology), (Wright Bros- controlled flight), etc, etc, etc.... the point is that everyone of these inventors/geniuses lived in America when the inspiration struck! |
|
| |
Fact: The only way to get ahead in the universe is to expand outward into outer space and to continue doing what America has always been good at doing.... expanding it's technological empire and using up resources, forever, until the big freeze happens at the end of existance! If you snooze, you loose, and the universe doesn't care about you either way. |
|
| |
Fact: Oil is a very earthocentric thing, the methane content on one of Jupiter's or Uranus' moons would provide more energy than a million oil wells in Iraq would, but even beyond our own solar system, if we could capture a brown dwarf or two, omg, jackpot!! We ought to veiw Earth as just an ecosystem or a farm, but we all have got to stop living here eventually (only crazy fast food chompin' Americans are risk takers enough to agree with these statements though, that, and crazy Iraqi terrorist "death-to-america" cells who are also big risk takers too). Someday space-wars will be fought over methane moons, er, over religion (hey, you need some way to recruit people). |
|
| |
[QF] So "Benjamen (sic) Franklin invented
freedom" - that one made me laugh
loudest. The rest are just silly and of
course naively inaccurate. |
|
| |
// (Bill Gates- microchips) |
|
| |
That one's the best, it brings a tear to my eye. I think I'll frame it and put it up on the wall. |
|
| |
I like the way he fails to mention that the space program was kicked off by a load of ex nazis working in the good old US of A.
What utter Bollocks! |
|
| |
Look, no country is perfect. |
|
| |
I'm all about a greener Earth where everyone makes a cooperative effort to bring industry and competitive wages to third world countries so as to drastically increase their quality of life. Yes, America has done wrong, but we do more right than we do wrong, and you can bet that we will work towards greater efficiencies and more technological know-how to better support the rest of the world in the future. |
|
| |
//Look, no country is perfect.//
Except Scotland. We're the business. |
|
| |
"Fact: (Benjamen Franklin- freedom),"
Actually, although old Ben was a prolific inventor, and quite influential politically, he didn't actually "invent" freedom. |
|
| |
"(Henry Ford- automobile assembly lines),"
Again, no, not quite.
Eli Whitney "invented" assembly lines; more importantly he invented interchangeable parts, which made assembly lines practical.
Although Henry was a genius at a lot of things, the first mass-produced, assembly-line (and comparatively affordable) automobile was the 1903 "curved dash" Oldsmobile.
Ford's legendary "brass era" 1908 Model T was not originally an "assembly line" vehicle, being largely hand-built and not cheap- in fact, in 1908 it was an expensive ($850), fast (45 mph for the "production" car, over 100 mph for the stripped-down, souped-up "speedster") car; by the time it was being made in record numbers on the assembly line (1919) at a cheap price (as cheap as $200) it was already, basically, an 11 year old design, and no longer considered a "fast" car. |
|
| |
"(Tomas Edison- lightbulb, dc-current),"
Closer to the truth; Edison was among a dozen or so inventers attempting to come up with an practical electric light bulb. His approach was methodical, painstaking, and ultimately successful. He didn't actually "invent" direct current, but he did devise ("invent") methods of generating it. |
|
| |
(Einstien- atomic energy),
Uh, no. Einstein's theories were instrumental in pointing the way, but if anyone could be said to have "invented" atomic energy, I would nominate Enrico Fermi (there are also a good number of other possible candidates). |
|
| |
"(N. Tesla- AC current/ powerlines/ EM-motors),"
From Wikipedia:
>Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution systems and the AC motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.< |
|
| |
"(Von Braun- Apollo Program/space travel),"
von Braun and a team of German rocket engineers and scientists did make the US space program possible, but they built their rockets based on the work of Robert Goddard- an American. |
|
| |
Arthur C Clarke "invented"the synchronous (geostationary) orbit, btw. I'm sure he kicks himself for not patenting the idea... |
|
| |
(Bill Gates- microchips),
No. No. No. Bill Gates sold an operating system he didn't actually own (yet) to IBM (actually, he bought it just before the sale was actually completed); now, this is strictly mundane business piracy, and hardly worth mentioning, but the real genius was that he sold it AND RETAINED OWNERSHIP!!! Truly, inspired, GENIUS!!! |
|
| |
"(Richard Feynman- nanotechnology),"
Yes. His 1959 speech is still a good read.
If Arthur C Clarke can be said to have "invented" the geostationary orbit, then Feynman invented nanotech. |
|
| |
"(Wright Bros- controlled flight),"
The Wrights may have been the first, but this was another field with dozens of competitors; had the Wrights failed due to mishap (not an unlikely scenario, they had plenty of crashes), one of their competitors would have been able to claim to have been first (actually, some do).
Having documented their first flight with a newspaper photo, the Wrights locked up their invention and neglected to develop it further for some time, during which time the competition surpassed them.
Point is, being the first to succeed doesn't mean they "invented powered, controllable flight." They designed and flew ("invented") a successful, "practical" airplane and did it before anyone else, but they failed to follow through quickly enough. I think their work on designing propellers was far more meaningful. |
|
| |
"etc, etc, etc.... the point is that everyone of these inventors/geniuses lived in America when the inspiration struck!" |
|
| |
The American free-market system of entrepreneurship does reward risk-takers, and not surprisingly, many successful entrepreneurs are immigrants, who see nothing but opportunity, where we "natural-born" Americans see only obstacles. |
|
| |
[calum] I see 6 google results for "Scotland is not perfect" and only two for "Wales is not perfect". Seems a bit odd really. |
|
| |
That would seem odd, if Scotland and Wales were the same size. |
|
| |
I want to put a pork chop restaurant in the middle east after reading this. |
|
| |