Would you eat at a place called "Sweaty Granny"?
Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 8:18 am
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/...le%2FQuote »KFC protests 'Sweaty Granny' similarity to Colonel, we giggleSarah GilbertSarah Gilbert RSS FeedAug 12th 2009 at 8:00AMA chain of fried chicken restaurants launched in 2007 in China, called Ji'a'po or, according to The Sun, "Sweaty Granny," have earned the nickname by Chinese onlookers as the "long-lost sister" of the KFC Colonel. The woman's navy blue, pink and white image appears on signs that are, indeed, the same shade of red as KFC's iconic signs; she too is shaded on the left, as if the light source is coming from the chain's name. She even has an identical Southern "welcome-home" smile as Colonel Sanders. Her glasses are the same style; her hair swoops up and to the left, like the Colonel's. Maybe she's a long lost sister? In the U.S., it's fairly certain Granny would have been fined and forced to change her looks.Not so in China, where evidently the differences -- she's a woman, after all, and she's wearing a red striped apron, not a bow tie, and, hey! no mustache or goatee -- are enough to differentiate the two fast food icons. China's State Administration for Industry & Commerce in China told KFC Ji'a'po isn't infringing on the American chain's intellectual property.And certainly, it would be hard to argue that customers truly become confused when faced with the competing brands (though it is of course fun to see photos like this of the two signs side by side in the "wild"). One is a dead American guy who is actually not a Colonel, selling unhealthy fried chicken. The other is an imaginary American grandma who, it seems, is working in a hot kitchen and may be a bit stinky.You know, upon further introspection, I pick neither.
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