I walked into my local KFC chain food restaurant looking for a good fulfilling meal. I was romanced by the recent Double Down television commercials and couldn’t resist to have a taste. The Double Down is bascially a sandwich without any bread. It is two pieces of bacon and two pieces of melted monterey jack cheese wrapped in two thick and juicy boneless white chicken filets. Yes, there is absolutely no bread. The nutritional facts for the Double Down is 540 calories, 32 grams of fat and 1380 milligrams of sodium. Except for the calories these are all almost normal daily doses of fat and sodium. The sad thing about marketing is that all of those staggeringly unhealthy facts go out the window once you see that extremely inviting commercial. Consumers eating at a fastfood restaurant especially KFC are not trying to have a healthy meal, so critiquing people for overlooking those health statistics is a little bit of a waste of time. Maybe people believe since it is chicken, so then it must be heatlhy? The jury is still out about why the Double Down phenomenon is continuing to sweep our ariwaves, but I will try to get to the bottom of it as you keep reading.
I walked into the local KFC and immediately was confronted with the overwhelming print adds trying to push their Double Down sandwich. There was a standup cardboard cutout of the sandwich and posters plastered on the walls of the restaurant. I reached the front of the line and instantly the KFC employee asked if I would like to try out the Double Down and I responded, “That’s why I came here.” I got the Double Down sandwich fried because it is indeed Kentucky Fried Chicken, also I got all the fixings on the sandwich as well. This includes everything listed above. I received my order and sat down with a coke at one of the red booths in the corner of the restaurant. I waited for my date to get her food and then dug in. I only got the sandwich because I wanted to get the full effect of the Double Down. I am not going to lie the sandwich was pretty tasty, but I could not bring myself to finish the entire thing. After getting through half of the sandwich the cheese and bacon just sat way too heavy in my stomach. Even though it was good, I would never order the sandwich again. I left the KFC feeling a little queasy, but was able to make it home.
The entire experience was a total marketing plow. It follows trends like the Black Taco at Taco Bell or Shrimp Fajitas at Del Taco. How good can unfresh Shrimp be at a fastfood Mexican restaurant. The products don’t stay in the store for too long because they are only a fad for the consumer. It is such a strange idea to have a sandwich without any bread, but the gimick was able to work on me and probably thousands of others. The Double Down is almost like a challenge for people to conquer. It reminds me of getting your picture on the wall at the famous burrito house or hot wing joint. It becomes a bragging point amongst friends. The Double Down like other gimicky fast food trends like the Black Taco or Shrimp Fajitas still can find a place within our fast food culture. It is what continues to make us stay interested in the latest and greatest even if it is the most unhealthy. Stay away from the Double Down if you can resist, but I won’t blame you if you try it.
