Eaglie's Aviary

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

I Double-Down on the Awesome Power of Wikipedia #7

All this talk of the KFC Double Down Sandwich got me hungry. Two breaded chicken chunks, two slices of cheese, and bacon. (Side note: where's the lettuce to make this a proper chicken-fried BLT?)

The media and the Internet can't stop talking about it. The advertising is brazen, full of smiling people calling bread dead. I saw news sites looking for reviews of it from average people. And they got plenty of those. It's something like a trolling of America--how many people can KFC fill with rage and inane rambling chatter?

But I'm not thinking about the Double Down anymore. Not me. It's past tense. I buy from my local Harold's Chicken Shack and dump Kraft Cheese and bacon into the Styrafoam box. It works the same while supporting local business. I'm a locavore kind of carnivore.

No, I stopped thinking of the Double Down when my friend Alex reminded me of the sweet, sweet taste of a hamburger meant for the discerning adult who happened to take his or her kids to McDonald's in the 1990s: the Arch Deluxe. (Bonus: I found a whole template devoted to McDonald's!)

Called "one of the most expensive flops of all time" by Wikipedia contributors, the Arch Deluxe wasn't subject to the same fast-food-hating hyperbole as the Double Down. People weren't calling the Arch Deluxe a "salt bomb" or "abomination." Kids didn't get it, and neither did adults. Unlike KFC's Double Down, a creation that will be hailed in the annals of the Internet (by way of the Chicago Tribune) as a "meat-glorb."

And that is the Awesome Power of Wikipedia.

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