You know the difference between Chick-fil-A fried chicken and kale, don't you? One comes from a CHICKEN, is meat, and has light-brown crispy stuff on the outside. The other is a green leaf from a plant (you know, those things that grow out of the ground). One is spelled c-h-i-c-k-e-n (or c-h-i-k-i-n, if you're a literate cow). The other is spelled k-a-l-e. Do you see where I'm going with this?
Because it would appear that someone is afraid we can't tell the difference. Chick-fil-A is suing a harmless granola folk artist in Vermont for riffing on their "Eat Mor Chikin" slogan with his "Eat More Kale" T-shirts. How do you spell "cease and desist"?
All Bo Muller-Moore wanted to do was share his love of kale with the world through the art of T-shirts. He didn't even have the Chick-fil-A slogan in mind. As he tells it, some friends of his came up with the line 10 years ago. They asked him to create the kale-saluting T-shirts, which were a hit with the farmers' market crowd, of course. Bo made himself a little T-shirt business in no time. And then he tried to trademark the name and -- dundundun! Cue lawyers.
Chick-fil-A had been pestering Bo for years, but they got serious this time. They sent Bo a letter saying that expanding his "eat more kale" message "is likely to cause confusion of the public and dilutes the distinctiveness of Chick-fil-A's intellectual property and diminishes its value." Which is where you come in, consumers.
I don't know about you, but the only thing I'm confused about is why Chick-fil-A has the time to bother with the Kale Dude in Vermont.
People who are this stoked over kale -- enough to fork over $25 and walk around with a vegetable name on their chest -- are not the same people who eat fast food! (The only crime I see here is a crime against fashion.) Yes, you may find a few of them frying up their own local, certified humane, organic fried chicken at home. But they see a world of difference between that and a fast food joint at the mall. Not to mention most of the kale T-shirt wearers are probably vegetarian, anyway. And WHO is going to show up at a Chick-fil-A counter saying, "Where's your kale dish? I saw the T-shirts and I'd like to order me some kale here." We all know better than that.
Fried chicken and kale! Kale and fried chicken! Can't we all just get along? And is anyone else suddenly hungry for both?
Image via woodleywonderworks/Flickr