My Secret Pet Peeve

I consider myself a pretty easy-going person. Oh sure, I have occasional bouts of road-rage and homicidal thoughts, but for the most part, nothing really gets to me. (okay - that was a joke, so don't go getting your undies in a bundle - which reminds me of another pet peeve involving thong underwear - but I digress) My beef is with our society's obsession and over-use of acronyms and abbreviations. Have we become so lazy as a nation that we can't even take the time to fully pronounce words?

The biggest culprit of this is fast-food restaurants. It's like, "Hey, look at us! We're so efficient at swiftly handing out crappy food that it even reflects in our name! Who has time to say Burger King? That's so slow! We're BK! We'll serve you ASAP and we're open 24/7, 365 - even on X-MAS!"

Sometimes advertisers use acronyms to disguise the politically incorrect message of their product. Case-in-point - KFC. Now we all know full well that that stands for "Kentucky Fried Chicken" That's right - FRIED. Made with the colonel's secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices, dipped in a big ol' vat of grease that would make your arteries clog just looking at it -FRIED! But if consumers were reminded of that, they may not buy the product so instead, KFC comes up with one of the dumbest advertising campaigns ever - "We'll pretend it stands for 'Kitchen-Fresh Chicken'!" This commercial, I must admit, almost fooled me. I was listening to the TV when I heard the people on the ad raving, "Hey, someone brought Kitchen Fresh Chicken into the office!" I was thinking to myself, "Kitchen Fresh Chicken? Where can I find one of those....HEY!" Come on people - changing the name of the restaurant isn't going to magically change the heart-stopping qualities of your chicken. I imagine some good ol' boys from Kentucky with a very convincing gun-rack thought the same thing because these ads were quickly pulled.

I say, if you're going to sell a product that sets you up for a triple by-pass surgery, then own it.
Say it loud and say it proud - WE ARE KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN! AND WE SERVE MASH POTATOES AND GRAVY TOO! Give the public a choice in whether or not they want to risk their health for a few fantastically yummy moments of fried chicken heaven, but don't treat us like idiots. Personally, what keeps me away from Kentucky Fried Chicken is an image that has been burned into my brain of a 500 lb., bed-ridden man on the Geraldo Show that was eating his greasy KFC dinner from his bedside table..."I wash myself with a rag on a stick." (Bart Simpson envisioning himself as a fat man in one of the funniest Simpsons episodes ever)

So now that I have ranted on and on about acronyms and abbreviations, I must be on my way...
T.T.F.N! and TGIF! (LOL!)