The Colonel’s last stand draws online squawks
If a giant bucket of chicken falls in a parking lot and it’s shared on social media, does it take the internet by storm?
The answer to this age-old riddle (age-old as in, say, Wednesday afternoon) is, apparently, yes.
A picture of a fallen KFC sign — which depicts a takeout bucket of Brobdingnagian proportions lying on the pavement at the corner of King and Dundurn Streets — went viral this week, inspiring ‘egg-cellent’ wisecracks from social media users in Hamilton and beyond.
Once it was confirmed that no one was hurt by the windfall, social media took flight with quips ranging from the punny (“Police suspect fowl play in KFC sign collapse”) to the political (“Trump linked to felled KFC sign”). Some referenced the city planning committee’s recent vote to forbid backyard chickens in urban areas (“Proponents of urban chickens react poorly to council decision”). Others claimed victory for vegetarianism (“Vegans get last laugh”).
By Thursday morning, the photo had been seen by 85,000 Twitter users, had been retweeted 260 times, and had garnered 400 Likes.
Wednesday’s collapse means there’s only one remaining KFC sign adorned with a bucket in Hamilton, at the Main Street East and St. Clair Avenue location. The signs are becoming an increasingly rare breed, said KFC spokesperson Alex Thomas.
“Those very large iconic buckets are very few and far between these days,” he said.
But does this mean the enormous effigy of the famous takeout container has officially kicked the bucket at that corner?
It seems to be too early to tell. City staff said Thursday that most of the sign has been removed, though the bucket portion remains cordoned off in a corner of the parking lot. City building inspectors have met with the store manager, but the next steps regarding the sign will be determined by KFC head office.
For its part, KFC Canada is keeping its beak shut about the sign’s future — requests for a comment about whether the bucket would cluck to see another day went unreturned.