Salon.com > Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A’s latest horror

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:25:00 +0000

As my son enters the so-called Terrible Twos, I've become keenly aware of one thing that makes them so terrible: awareness. After 24 months outside the womb, kids slowly but surely start becoming cognizant of what they have, what they don't have -- and what they want. At this point, too, kids begin more fully processing how the world works -- or at least what the world is telling them about how the world works.

Advertisers obviously know all of this. They not only know that kids will go full-on terrible in annoying their parents into buying stuff they realize they want, but also that two-year-olds are already starting to develop their own future preferences. Hence, when my son hears the discrete piano tune and Ed Harris' soothing voice on the radio and then cheerily shouts "Home Depot," it is a sign that he is already equating home projects with the local-business-crushing orange Godzilla -- just as that Godzilla's marketing team hopes. Same thing for the Happy Meal, whose child-focused marketing equates junk food with emotive joy and cheap toys -- a terrible-yet-irresistible combination for a two-year-old.

Chick-fil-A employee quit because it was “a safe place for people to hate”

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 20:25:00 +0000

Steve Cammett, 60, resigned from a corporate position at Chick-fil-A in August because "It's become a safe place for people to hate and expect to be patted on the back for it." In an interview with Atlanta CBS news affiliate, the former Chick-fil-A "enthusiast" said that his excitement for Chick-fil-A waned after nine years of service due to recent statements by CEO Dan Cathy against marriage equality. Anti-gay comments from customers, and Chick-fil-A's tolerance of it, became an issue for Cammett:

Cammett relayed one story in which a customer put his arm around Cammett's colleague and said we are sure glad your company is taking a stand against those perverts. "And that person was gay and they didn't know it. And I just thought, 'Wow. What has happened here?'" said Cammett.

Will Chick-fil-A stop funding anti-gay groups?

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:41:00 +0000

Chicago advocacy group the Civil Rights Agenda claims that Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain that recently became better known for its politics than its sandwiches, has promised to stop funding anti-gay organizations. The organization wrote via press release that Chicago Alderman Proco Moreno has finalized negotiations with Chick-fil-A and "has confirmed that Chick-fil-A will no longer give money to anti-gay organizations" and that the company "will treat every person equally, regardless of sexual orientation." The press release continues:

In a letter addressed to Alderman Moreno and signed by Chick-fil-A’s Senior Director of Real Estate, it states, “The WinShape Foundations is now taking a much closer look at the organizations it considers helping, and in that process will remain true to its stated philosophy of not supporting organizations with political agendas.” Winshape, a non-profit funded by Chick-fil-a, has donated millions of dollars to anti-LGBT groups, including some classified as hate groups. In meetings the company executives clarified that they will no longer give to anti-gay organizations.

What the media missed about Chick-fil-A

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 13:00:00 +0000

It’s probably one of the more bizarre manifestations of the U.S. culture wars in recent years: Chick-fil-A president and COO Dan Cathy expresses his support for “traditional marriage,” LGBTQ activists issue calls for a boycott, and conservatives -- including, most notably, Mike Huckabee -- respond with the now infamous Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, which is attended in “droves.” Finally, LGBTQ activists respond with two counter-protests, a Same-Sex Kiss Day (self-explanatory) and Starbucks Appreciation Day, intended to show support for a company that has given money to same-sex marriage causes.

It’s been a busy few weeks for same-sex marriage opponents and detractors alike, not to mention chicken sandwich connoisseurs. Given all the media noise, you might think you’ve heard everything there is to know about the Chick-fil-A controversy. In fact, the media has missed a number of important and interesting aspects of the story.

Five lessons from Chick-fil-A

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:47:00 +0000

There are so many reasons to both uncontrollably laugh at and be intensely disgusted by last week's brouhaha over Chick-fil-A. With droves of American eaters rewarding the company with record sales for its CEO's public rant against gay marriage, you can let out that same chuckle you release when you watch Coen brothers characters -- you guffaw at the paranoia, the sheer stupidity and the irrational animus of a bewildered herd. You can also feel that intestinal-tract pang of nausea you experience during food poisoning -- the feeling that no matter what you look at to try to calm your gut, the image is going to make you simultaneously defecate and puke all over yourself.

GOP: More attitude!

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Welcome to the politics of attitude.

The two big stories on the Republican side of the aisle this week were the big Texas showdown in which Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz easily defeated Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst for the Senate nomination in that state and the Chick-fil-A brouhaha. You rarely get better examples of exactly what movement conservatives really care about, and how little it has to do with the substance of policy.

The Cruz/Dewhurst race was just about the ideal test case for the politics of attitude. Conservatives, both nationally and within Texas, rallied to Cruz. Why? Because Dewhurst was, to them, insufficiently conservative. And yet there was, near as I can tell from the reporting on the contest, absolutely no content to that accusation. This wasn’t the case of someone who had voted for TARP, or had once supported a health care insurance mandate, or had been a squish on immigration. No, the main talking point against Dewhurst was very simple: He had displayed a willingness to cut deals with Democrats. Not bad deals, just compromises of any kind. Republicans, the story goes, lose because their politicians just don’t have the backbone to stand up to the liberals in Washington, and Dewhurst was exactly the kind of politician who would perpetuate that.

Dumb tweets of the day

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 23:17:00 +0000

Personal low: Walked into a pole while I was arguing about Chick-Fil-A with a redneck dude on FB.

— molly (@Molly_Kats) August 3, 2012

If my local Chick Fil A knew what I did in their bathroom in 1987 they would close for a week.

— Paula Pell (@perlapell) August 3, 2012

Take that, Chick-fil-A!

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 19:45:00 +0000

Isn't it inconvenient when the holidays fall so closely together? Like Christmas and New Year's. Or Labor Day and Rosh Hashana. Or Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day and Chick-fil-A Same-Sex Kiss Day. And yet, just two days after our great nation declared its allegiance to traditional biblical values and biscuits, a new throng is descending upon the poultry franchise. But … but … America still hasn't even fully digested its brownie sundaes from Wednesday!

Suffice to say, it's been a strange week. How did we all get in this side dish of pickles anyway? It started last month, after Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy came out of the closet as officially "guilty as charged" on the matter of his beliefs about "biblical marriage" (unsurprising from a guy whose WinShape organization has thrown millions at anti-gay groups). After that got out, the company quickly found itself the unlikely center of a storm over either basic human rights or decent American values, depending on how people spin it. Next, cleverly capitalizing on the brouhaha, former presidential contender, Fox News host and carrot-raisin salad aficionado Mike Huckabee decreed via Facebook that August 1 should be a national day of honoring our values and the people who best represent them. A Martin Luther King Jr. Day with nuggets, if you will. And so, Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day was born. On Wednesday, crowds hungry for coleslaw and good old-fashioned heterosexuality lined up in droves to show their support for the chain. Morals were affirmed; tiny packets of fat-free honey mustard dressing were opened. Indoctrination was avoided.

Chick-fil-A: Too “sinful” to fry chicken?

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 14:25:00 +0000

Wealth gives Chick-fil-A’s owners an outsize impact on our politics: As we’ve been reminded this week, the company channels millions of dollars into anti-gay organizations. But its impact on national policy is nothing compared to its influence over the lives of its employees. Comments from the company’s founder suggest that Chick-fil-A embraces its legal right to reward and punish employees’ private behavior. And a series of lawsuits allege that managers have wielded their authority over workers in ways that break the law: firing a Muslim for refusing to pray to Jesus; firing a manager so that she’d become a stay-at-home mom; and punishing workers for objecting to sexual harassment.

It’s now common knowledge that Chick-fil-A wears its brand of Christian conservatism on its sleeve. In a 2007 article, Forbes’ Emily Schmall described how that ethos infused the company’s employment policies. It meant extensive vetting of franchise operators, including interviewing their children and asking about their involvement in “community, civic, social, church and/or professional organizations.” “If a man can’t manage his own life, he can’t manage a business,” Chick-fil-A founder and chairman S. Truett Cathy told Schmall.

Our Chick-fil-A economy

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:45:00 +0000

When ranked up against 20 of the richest, most developed countries in the world, the United States fares abysmally. Our life expectancy at birth is lowest and our infant mortality rate is highest -- and yet our per capita healthcare expenditures top the charts. We have the worst income inequality -- the top 1 percent gobble up by far the biggest chunk of overall income -- and we also have one of the worst rankings for inter-generational mobility. Perhaps most disturbing, on most of these metrics, over the past three decades, the U.S. has generally been moving in the wrong direction. So not only are the rich getting richer, but our chances of moving from poor to rich are worsening.

These distressing facts occupy the heart of a major new liberal manifesto for rebuilding the U.S. economy released earlier this week: "Prosperity Economics: Building an Economics for All." They provide the explicit rationale for why things have to change, why the course of economic policy over the last three decades must shift. As the manifesto points out, America's report cards have gotten steadily worse during a period in which, by and large, government economic policy has favored lowering taxes, cutting regulations on business, and undermining the power of organized labor. One of the most compelling parts of the report is its demonstration of how the "austerity" policies currently in vogue are exactly the wrong prescription for a country struggling with slow economic growth and high unemployment. Instead of curing our woes, we're compounding them.

Romney stocks for sale!

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Shares of presidential candidate Mitt Romney debuted today on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock, trading under the ticker symbol USA, surged nearly 30 percent before selling off and ending the day at $31.20, slightly above its offering price of $31.00. The campaign raised approximately three billion dollars with the offering.

The IPO of Mr. Romney was underwritten by a number of investment banks including, but not limited to: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Citibank, Bank of America, Deutsche Banks, Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley, Nomura Securities, Allen & Company, UBS, Wells Fargo, Cantor Fitzgerald and Bain Capital. Trading activity indicates that all of the banks sold their Romney shares at today’s peak, while simultaneously telling their clients to buy. “Each of the banks probably pocketed close to a billion dollars,” said one veteran Wall Street trader. “I doubt the SEC will investigate because it will just make Obama look anti-business.”

Smith and Wesson, which manufacturers pistols, rifles and semi-automatic machine guns--many of which are popular with street gangs and terrorists--recently purchased millions of pre-IPO shares of Mitt Romney after the candidate, in response to the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, said that "changing the gun laws won’t make all bad things go away.” Smith and Wesson now owns 18 percent of Mr. Romney.