Popular Culture Symbol

A place that I feel represents a significant part of popular culture is KFC. In 1930 in the midst of the depression, Harland Sanders opened his first restaurant in the small front room of a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky. Harland Sanders served as station operator, chief cook and cashier and he named the dining area "Sanders Court & CafÐ"©." In 1936 Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon makes Sanders an honorary Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his contributions to the state's cuisine. In 1952 Colonel Sanders actively began franchising his chicken business by traveling from town to town to town and cooking batches of chicken for restaurant owners and employees. An interstate highway was built in 1955 to bypass Corbin, Kentucky. Colonel Sanders sold his service station on the same day that he received his first social security check. After he paid his debts, he was virtually broke. Sanders decided to go on the road to sell his Secret Recipe to restaurants. In 2006 more than a billion of the Colonel's "finger licken' good" chicken dinners are served annually in more than 80 countries and territories around the world.

KFC represents popular culture because it includes the daily interactions, needs and desires and cultural 'moments' that make up the everyday lives of the mainstream. In today's culture people expect efficiency, quantity, predictability and control. KFC is a good example of popular culture because it is fast and easy to have a "home cooked" meal in today's fast society. I selected KFC because I had a tough time trying to pick out an item that I could write a paper on about popular culture that is in the United States and that is at least in one other country. I remembered that when I was in Mexico I saw ancient looking fire trucks rushing to a fire. I smelled chicken burning and

Skettle 2looked at the sign and it was a KFC. Therefore, I at least knew that KFC was in one other country. After doing some research I found out that KFC is in over 80 countries. Some countries that have at least one KFC are China, Australia, Bermuda, Hungry, France, Germany, India, and Israel.

KFC at one time stood for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Right up until 1991, when they ditched all the actual words and just went with a monogram. Dieting trends had made "fried" a dirty word, and the plan was to banish it from sight because of today's culture and society. However, in French-speaking Quebec, Canada, KFC is known as PFK (Poulet Frit Kentucky). This is one of the few instances in which the KFC initialism is changed for the local language. In some Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, KFC is known as PFK (Pollo Frito Kentucky).

KFC is different in other cultures. For example Kentucky Fried Chicken has been one of the most household international brands in urban China since it opened its first Western-style quick service restaurant in Beijing in 1987. As the present largest fried chicken restaurant company in the world, KFC aims China as the most promising market and succeeds in its localization strategies in the huge China market. The most prominent success of KFC in China is not only the outcome of KFC's persistent tenets "quality, service and cleanliness" but also the achievements of its keen perception of cross-cultural marketing and its understanding of Chinese culture. KFC benefited from the curiosity of citizens about all things Western. Its clean, brightly lit restaurants, fast service and smiling counter help were so unusual that people held wedding parties there.

Though KFC still offers its mainstay "original recipe" fried chicken, the company has tweaked just about every other menu item to suit mainland tastes. For example, KFC in China recently switched from white meat to dark in its chicken burgers. "Foreign visitors have complained," admits Qun Wang Jamieson, KFC public-affairs director of greater China. But sales of