Entertainment / Pop Culture

Chick-fil-A Continues to Serve Up Bad Publicity

By: Chris O'Shea

Chick-fil-A recently turned a corner when Dan Cathy, its president and Chief Operating Officer, spoke out against gay marriage, claiming that "We are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.'" The fallout has been swift, and as it escalates, we're seeing that Chick-fil-A might be great at producing tasty chicken, but it has no idea how to handle controversy.

Last week, Jim Henson Company, producer of the lovable Muppets, decided it wouldn't be partnering with Chick-fil-A any longer, now that the company had taken its anti-gay stance. It posted on its official Facebook page a statement indicating that maybe Chick-fil-A should do some research before calling out same-sex marriage. 

"The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors," read the Henson statement. "Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-fil-A to GLAAD."

First memo to Cathy: Check to make sure your business partners agree with your controversial stance before taking said controversial stance.

In a nonsensical response to this, one Chick-fil-A franchise in Plano, Texas, posted a notice saying that the company had to pull Henson toys because of a "safety issue." "We apologize for any inconvenience but as of 7/19/2012 Chick-fil-A has voluntarily recalled all of the Jim Henson's Creature Shop Puppet Kids Meal Toys due to a possible safety issue," read the notice. "Please be advised that there have not been any cases in which a child has actually been injured, however there have been some reports of children getting their fingers stuck in the holes of the puppets."

Of course the absurd note went viral instantly, prompting a reply from Chick-fil-A. A spokesperson told The Huffington Post that the company had indeed pulled the Henson toys "for the protection of our customers," and that it was unrelated to the Henson company severing ties with the chain.

Second memo to Cathy: People are not stupid. If you're going to take a harsh stance, don't try and cover it up with fake safety issue declarations. No one is going to believe you, first of all. Secondly, it only makes you look worse to the idiots who did side with your disgusting anti-gay statements.

We'd hoped Chick-fil-A's poor PR skills would stop there, but apparently it doesn't. A Facebook user commented on the chain's Facebook page, calling them out for their fake safety issue, and was disputed by another Facebook user. Well, turns out that user who sided with Chick-fil-A is fake, created mere days ago and using a stock photo as its profile picture.

Third memo to Cathy: Please, just stop.

[Pic via Flickr - Collin Harvey]