Thursday, November 06, 2003

Colonel Sanders Says Don't Try This At Home

There's this television commercial for KFC where a group of kids is dropping chicken poppers, little chunks of breaded chicken, from a rooftop. Then there's this other kid, who I think I can assume is an acquaintance of the small social gathering amassed on the roof above him, and he's on the ground successfully catching the poppers in his mouth. Everyone's laughing and smiling, having a good time dropping pieces of fried poultry a couple of stories into the mouth of kid who has his own circus act. Sounds like fun. But at one point during the commercial a disclaimer flashes up on the screen, "Do not try this."

Hey, KFC is telling me not to try this. And you know, I really had no inclination to do so. The thought never entered my mind. I mean, where am I going to find a group of friends willing to scale a building for me and drop pieces of food into my mouth. So initially, I thought that the disclaimer was unecessary. Who's actually going to do this? But now, as I think about the reason why KFC felt the need to show that disclaimer during the commercial, I started to feel like I was missing out on something. If there was a remote chance that someone was actually willing to try this stunt until the disclaimer in the TV commercial stopped them dead in their tracks from planning this daredevil of a death defying act, then dang it, I want to try this!

So the irony is I originally had no interest in risking my life trying this stunt until the tv commercial told me I couldn't. And now I want to play rooftop russian roulette with KFC chicken poppers.