Happy Vader?

The kids were off school today and I ended up staying home with them. So I did what any good Dad does on a day like that, we went to McDonalds!

I was thrilled to see that there were "Star Wars" toys in the Happy Meals. A kindly Mc-employee even gave me one which will soon take up residence in my office. I was struck though when I looked at one of the Happy Meal boxes my kids got. It featured the head of Darth Vader and in big letters the words "Happy Meal." It just seemed a bit strange seeing Vader and the word "Happy" in such close proximity. I mean, Darth Vader just isn't a happy guy. But I suppose the folks in the Mc-marketing department figured that calling it the "Burned to a crisp and stuffed into a walking iron lung meal" just didn't have the same ring to it.

McChick-Fil-A

In the world of fast food, Chik-Fil-A has the greatest chicken sandwich. They're slogan says, "We didn't invent the chicken, just the chicken sandwich." I don't know if that's true, but if not it might as well be.

In most parts of the nation Chick-Fil-A's are primarily in mall food courts. In Georgia, their home base, you can find stand-alone stores all over the place. One of the first markets they launched stand-alone Chick-Fil-A's in outside of the south was right here in Denver. Many of the folks at my office are somewhat fanatical about Chick-Fil-A. We buy the cow calendars every year and some of us even took a pilgrimage to the first Chick-Fil-A (known as the Dwarf House) in Atlanta, where you can actually buy a hamburger.

So have you seen what McDonalds has just launched in their stores? They are calling it the "Southern Style Chicken Sandwich." When I saw a picture of it I thought, "it's a Chick-Fil-A sandwich!" OK, there is a difference, Chick-Fil-A puts the pickles on the bottom, McDonalds has them on top. I take the pickles off so who cares.

A coupon for a free one made it's way to me today, so I decided to give it a try. As I suspected, the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich is a rip-off of the Chick-Fil-A Sandwich.