Burger King's Chicken Fries won't be flying the coop.
The No. 2 burger chain today announced that its on-again, off-again Chicken Fries have been added to the permanent menu and should now be as safely ingrained in Burger King's menu as the Whopper.
Chicken Fries — which are basically chicken strips shaped like giant french fries — have been playing a game of marketing hide-and-seek on Burger King's menu for the last several years. It's an increasingly common fast-food tactic to bring certain buzz-worthy items on and off the menu to generate social media chatter and draw traffic to the stores.
"I'm not sure there's anything similar to Chicken Fries with regards to a pop cultural following," overstates Eric Hirschhorn, chief marketing officer of Burger King North America, in a phone interview. "The passion for this is like the launch of the iPhone."
Well, hardly. But that's not to say that Chicken Fries don't have some rather outspoken fans. The chicken strips, which come in a carton that resembles a giant french fries carton, were first rolled out in 2005, and remained on the menu until 2012. That's the year Burger King made mass menu changes, adding all kinds of items, including additional chicken strips, new salads and even smoothies.
"Certain menu items had to be removed," says Hirschhorn. "We needed to make room on the menu and in the kitchen." So, even though Chicken Fries sales were still OK, they were junked from the menu.
Then, in early 2014, a BuzzFeed article about certain products consumers can no longer get — that many wish they could — included a reference to Chicken Fries. "The conversation went through the roof," says Hirschhorn. A petition to bring back Chicken Fries showed up on Change.org, and the buzz picked up on Facebook and Twitter.
So, Chicken Fries came back in August 2014 for a limited time, and were removed, again, last October.
Then, Hirschhorn says, Burger King started hearing about it all over again. "After we removed them, the demand started to grow, again. Burger King was even advised that some consumers wrote President Obama asking for his intervention to bring back Chicken Fries, says Hirschhorn.
So, Burger King made the decision to make them permanent. But this time, says Hirschhorn, they also will be launched in 30 countries globally.
Chicken Fries, which sell for $2.89 for a nine-piece order, also come with a choice of dipping sauces, including BBQ, Honey Mustard, Ranch, Zesty, Buffalo and Sweet & Sour.
To promote the permanent menu addition to Chicken Fries fans, Burger King has even created a Chicken Fries emoji keyboard available in the iTunes App Store and Google Play store. Stickers of these same emojis also are available for folks to customize their Chicken Fries packaging.
"The conviction of Chicken Fries fans never ceases to amaze us," says Hirschhorn. "Chicken Fries have hijacked their brains, not to mention their appetites."
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