Social media influences menu offering
By Candice Choi, Food Industry Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Fans of Burger King's chicken fries may have the boy band One Direction and the website Buzzfeed to thank for the return of the skinny fried sticks.
At an event to hype a spicy version of the chicken fries coming out this week, Burger King said it decided to resurrect the fries last year after seeing the enthusiasm they generated on social media.
Eric Hirschhorn, chief marketing officer for Burger King North America, said the company noticed a spike in chicken fry mentions in January 2014 that was traced to a Buzzfeed post titled "35 Foods From Your Childhood That Are Extinct Now."
One of the items on the list was chicken fries, which Burger King sold between 2005 and 2012.
A few months later, Hirschhorn says there was an even bigger surge when a One Direction member mentioned them. The company pointed to tweet by Liam Payne that reads, "I'm so fulllllll!!! Think I just ate my body weight in chicken fries and sides owwwwww."
The tweet – which has more than 94,000 retweets – is confusing because Burger King hadn't yet brought back chicken fries. That raises the possibility that Payne just left out a comma, and meant to say he ate chicken and fries – not chicken fries.
A preceding tweet also made it appear that Payne was eating at KFC, noted business news outlet Entrepreneur. That tweet included an image of Colonel Sanders and the words "the kernel god bless you and your original recipe."
A representative for Payne said the singer wasn't available for comment. A Burger King representative said in an email: "Whatever he meant, it certainly helped catapult 'Chicken Fries' into pop culture consciousness as a follow up to the Buzzfeed story."
Even if Burger King misinterpreted Payne's tweet, it worked out for the company. The return of chicken fries as a limited-time offer last summer was successful enough that Burger King added them to its permanent menu this March. A nine-piece box costs around $3.
Hirschhorn said people tend to get them as an extra, which drives up the amount people spend. Last month, Burger King's parent company Restaurant Brands International said sales rose 7.9 percent at established stores in the U.S. and Canada for the latest quarter.
Burger King may have brought back chicken fries even without the social media encouragement.
Since being taken over by investment firm 3G Capital, the chain has leaned heavily on its past for ideas. In addition the King and Subservient Chicken characters, it has resurrected its Big King sandwich and Yumbo ham sandwich.
Sean “Diddy” Combs seeks bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence
Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a new request for bail on Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed to prepare for a May trial from outside jail.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous requests for bail have been rejected by two judges since his September arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He has been awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
In their new court filing, lawyers for Combs say they are proposing a "far more robust" bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they proposed before.
They also cite new evidence that they say "makes clear that the government's case is thin." That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government's claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced "freak off," a sexually driven event described in the indictment against Combs.
They wrote that the encounter was instead "a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship" between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
The lawyers argued that the jail conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional... Read More