Chick-fil-a calendar and video contest

Calendar:
Chick-fil-a's 2008 Cow Calendar will feature "One-Hit Wonder Cows" in 2008.

This will be the 11th year that Chick-fil-a has produced their Cow Calendar. One-Hit Wonder Cow highlights include Junior Double-Cheese Jr. singing “Chicken Ain’t Cheatin’,” Spicy Skirtsteak’s hit “Gimme Chicken One More Time,” and Veal Medallion crooning “Chickens in the Night.”

The calendars will cost $5 and will include more than $30 in Chick-fil-A food coupons. Chick-fil-A is also offering a free calendar to customers who purchase a re-loadable Chick-fil-A Card in the amount of $20 or more. In addition, four plush toy versions of the One-Hit Wonder Cows will be available for purchase at $4.99 each.

Video Contest:

Chick-fil-a has a video contest to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Starting tomorrow (November 13) Chick-fil-A is launching an online video contest to find the brand’s greatest fan in the country. Chick-fil-A fans can submit a video – up to one minute in length – "that creatively pleads their case as to why they believe they are the brand’s most passionate fan."

The prize is 40 months of free Chick-fil-A Combo Meals, a trip for two to Atlanta to visit the corporate headquarters, and Chick-fil-A merchandise.

You can watch Chick-fil-a's President, Dan Cathy, explain the contest here:

Chick-fil-a's new shake for St. Patrick's day

Chick-fil-a will be introducing a new hand-spun Mint Cookies and Cream Milkshake starting on St. Patrick's Day (March 17). It will be available through June 30th.

The new shake includes Oreo cookies and mint flavoring and will be available in a 20 oz. cup and priced at $2.79.

“The Mint Cookies and Cream Milkshake is just plain fun,” said Woody Faulk, Chick-fil-A’s vice president of brand development. “Following last year’s highly successful rollout of Hand-Spun Milkshakes, we wanted to let our customers know that we appreciate their enthusiastic support of the shakes – and that we have a few surprises in store for them!”

Chick-fil-a's Cookies and Cream Milkshake has 790 calories, 300 calories from fat, 33g total fat, 18g saturated fat, .5g trans fat 95mg cholesterol, 660mg sodium, 111g carbohydrates, 1g fiber, and 100g sugars.

2007 Chick-fil-a Cows calendar

The 2007 incarnation of the (in)famous Chick-fil-a Cow Calendar is ready for you to pick up at your local Chick-fil-a restaurant. A perfect stocking stuffer priced at just 5 bucks.

This is the 10th year that Chick-fil-A’s “Eat Mor Chikin” Cows have taken on some entertaining roles as stars of the chain’s annual Cow Calendar – from super heroes to secret agents to television stars. The theme for the 10th edition of the calendar, "The Good, The Bad & The Hairy", has the Cows donning boots, spurs, lassos and 10-gallon hats.

You can get yours at your local Chick-fil-a or at www.chick-fil-a.com

Here's an inside look at the calendar:

Last Taurus to Chick-fil-a founder

Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-a, owes a lot to the workers at Ford Motor Company's plant in Hapeville, GA.

His Dwarf House restaurant was located across the street from the plant an due in part to the workers' heavy patronage of it he was able to start his Chick-fil-a restaurant chain.

The Ford Taurus has been produced at the plant for the past 9 years and now Cathy has purchased the last Taurus to come off the production line at the plant tomorrow.

Cathy long ago pledge exclusivity to Ford products for his business and often rewards employees with Ford cars.

Chick-fil-a's million nugget giveaway

In aid of promoting their party trays, Chick-fil-a currently has a Million Nugget Giveaway promotion.

The promotion is co-branded with the Dr. Pepper and the NCAA conferences: ACC, SEC and the Big 12.

Entering at the Million Nugget web site gives you a chance at a trip for 2 to the ACC, SEC or Big 12 championship game, where you'll compete for a chance to throw for up to $1 million, or one of over 15,000 small Chick-fil-a nugget trays. The first 300,000 entrants will also receive a coupon for a free large Dr. Pepper at Chick-fil-a.

I'm thinking it's an effective promotion because until I entered I wasn't aware that Chick-fil-a had party trays. Actually, they've got 10 different ones: Nuggets Tray, Chick-n-Strips Tray, Cool Wrap Tray, Cool Wrap and Chicken Salad Sandwich Tray, Chicken Salad Sandwich Tray, Fruit Tray, Fudge Nut Brownie Tray, Cheesecake Tray, Chick-n-Minis Tray, Cinnamon Clusters Tray.

Parachuting cows from Chick-fil-a

Chick-fil-a's newest TV ad featuring the "Eat Mor Chickin" cows has them parachuting into an NFL game and attacking the hamburger vendor. Funny stuff. Watch it here:

Chick-fil-a sweetens lemonade with Splenda

Lemonade is one of Chick-fil-a's most frequently ordered beverages; they squeeze over 71 million lemons (freshly, on-site) each year. They have recently changed the recipe for their diet lemonade to include Splenda.

"We have continued to work with our original recipe in order to maintain our high quality throughout the years," said Chick-fil-A Dietitian Jodie Worrell. "Not only are we proud to start a relationship with the SPLENDA® Brand, but we feel our customers will appreciate our continued commitment to using premium sugar substitutes in our Diet Lemonade recipe."

I'm a fan of Splenda and have been using it to make my own lemonade at home for a couple years now. You'll find some folks that complain that Splenda isn't natural and contains dangerous chemicals (much like the complaints about the most used artificial sweetener Aspartame, aka Nutrasweet), but I haven't read any convincing scientific proof. What I do know is that Splenda tastes a lot more like sugar than Aspartame.

Chick-fil-a's diet lemonade is a good alternative for anyone that wants to spare themselves excess calories from soft drinks loaded with high fructose corn syrup, but still enjoy something that tastes sweet.

Chick-fil-a's diet lemonade contains Freshly-squeezed lemon juice, water, Splenda® (dextrose, maltodextrin, sucralose). The 21 oz. large diet lemonade has only 50 calories, 10 mg sodium, 12 g carbs, and 6 g sugars. Their regular (non-diet) large lemonade has 390 calories and 93 g sugars.

Astros get 'fowl poles' from Chick-fil-a

Chick-fil-a and the Houston Astros baseball club will unveil new 'fowl poles' (aka foul poles) at Minute Maid Park in Houston tomorrow and the first 30,000 Astros fans at tomorrow's game (July 25) will receive a coupon for a free Chick-fil-a sandwich.

The yellow right and left field poles at the ballpark feature three cows wearing Astros hats. The baseball-themed Cows are hanging off both poles in fair territory and carrying their message of “Eat Mor Fowl.”

The Chick-fil-A signage will also serve as a target for Astro players. When an Astro hits a ball that touches any portion of the poles, including the Cows, Chick-fil-A will award free chicken sandwiches to all fans in attendance for that game.

“The Astros are excited about this new partnership,” said Astros President of Business Operations Pam Gardner. “Activation is so integral in a sports sponsorship, and this is a unique and successful way to brand Chick-fil-A at Minute Maid Park.”

“The greater Houston-area Chick-fil-A Operators are excited to partner with such an outstanding organization as the Astros,” said Bryan Bullington, Owner/Operator of Chick-fil-A Pearland. “The Cows on the ‘Fowl Poles’ are just waiting to give away free chicken sandwiches to Astros fans. We hope that there are several players who will hit the signs this season.”

Chick-fil-a not pleased with ad imitation

The Lawrence Journal-World reports:

Doug Holiday — an owner of Lawrence’s Bigg’s Bar & Grill...received a letter from the company’s law firm asking him to “cease and forever desist” using an advertising campaign that plays off Chick-fil-A’s popular spots: a cow carrying a sign that reads, “Eat Mor Chikin.”

Holiday had put his own spin on the marketing gimmick by hiring employees of his barbecue restaurant to dress in a chicken suit and carry a sign that read, “Eat Mor Pork, the other white meat.”

Cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a

Chick-fil-a's 2nd annual Cow Appreciation Day promotion will take place next week. Chick-fil-a is offering a free combo meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) to any customer who visits one of its restaurants fully dressed as a cow on Friday, July 14.

So go ahead... dress up like an cow and chow down for free.

Despite Cow Appreciation Day being an 'unofficial' national holiday for years, last year was the first time Chick-fil-a tied the holiday to their “Eat Mor Chikin” Cows marketing campaign.

“Cow Appreciation Day turned out to be a huge success,” said Steve Robinson, Chick-fil-A’s senior vice president of marketing. “Although we really didn’t know what to expect when we planned the promotion last year, it was clear that our customers were looking for a fun way to celebrate and help the cows, and for a free Chick-fil-A meal, of course. I guess you could say it was ‘udder insanity.’”

Chick-fil-a's remote drive-thru

A new Chick-fil-a store in Houston has the city's first fully manned, double drive-through. The fascinating feature of this drive-through is the second, or 'remote' lane.

In the 'remote' lane you pull up to the window of a booth that is not part of the main building. There is a person to greet you at this drive-through window, but how does the food get to this booth you ask? The food is transported in a basket on a conveyor belt along the roof from the main restaurant to the booth; the food & drinks are kept upright by a gyroscopic mechanism.

This new Chick-fil-A is huge, with 165 seats inside and patio seating for 32.

An article in the Houston Chronicle also tells of the restaurant's "breathtaking design...bold, sweeping lines and risk-taking use of windows."

Chick-fil-A tests new spicy sandwich

Chick-fil-a is test marketing a grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, pepper jack cheese, habanera peppers and smoky chipotle sauce. The sandwich also comes with a lime wedge, which Chick-fil-A claims is a "first for any quick-service restaurant chain." The test marketing of the new spicy chargrilled chicken sandwich is limited to Southwest Florida. [R&I]

Chick-fil-a introduces gourmet coffee

Chick-fil-a is following its breakfast menu expansion of earlier in the year with the introduction of the Cafe Blends Coffee line; fast food's first premium coffee program to offer three blends of coffee. Cafe Blends Coffee is available in three specialty blends, Coffeehouse Light, Bistro Dark and Expressly Decaf. Chick-fil-a is also introducing the Cinnamon Cluster, a fresh-baked mini swirl, filled with sweet cinnamon, cream butter and whole eggs, with creamy vanilla icing.