If you live in one of the 38 states blessed with the wonder that is Chick-fil-A, take your sack lunch and windmill dunk that sucker in the garbage, because you’re dressing like a cow and getting a free value meal today.
Yes, it’s Chick-fil-A’s annual Cow Appreciation Day, which means you’ll get free food if you don a bovine costume — a tribute to the chain’s Eat Mor Chikin campaign. Don’t worry about making a fool of yourself, because almost everyone else in line will be looking just as ridiculous as you.
You can download this PDF cow costume kit or just do what I do: tape cow-spot-shaped notebook pages to yourself and moo on demand.
If you don’t hit this promotion up at least twice today then you’re not trying hard enough.
Cow Appreciation Day [Chick-fil-A]
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It’s July 9. The east is in the grips of a heat wave. Better have the paramedics on hand.
Remember, though, that Chick-Fil-A is run by an ultraconservative evangelical Christian, and make your buying (or in this case, not buying) decision accordingly.
Personally, they couldn’t pay ME to eat there, as a result.
You beat me to it. I love their food but refuse to eat there. I was happy that I got to eat there during the free spicy chicken sammich promo. I justified being able to eat there because I was actually costing them money. All I got was the sammich too. No drink, no nuthin’ else.
So you went and took advantage of a loss leader that they had designed around building brand awareness and publicity. By partaking of the sandwich, you promoted every cause to which TPTB at CFA subscribe. Well done, hypocrite.
Me? A good sandwich is a good sandwich.
How exactly did I promote everything they stand for? I quietly went in, got my free sandwich, ate it in my car and left. They had a limited amount of free sandwich coupons per location. I took an opportunity away from someone else who may have been someone who would have frequented them more often. The free sandwich promo assumes people will buy at least a drink and maybe a side with it. I did neither. Nor did I bring anyone else with me who paid for anything. So again, how exactly did I promote ANYthing for them?
Perhaps someone else would have gotten the sandwich, perhaps not. However, by requesting and consuming the sandwich, you were another tick mark in their “get the attention for the sandwich” checklist. If the response had been a failure, then they would have had all the buildup for no benefit.
Additionally, that person you took the free sandwich from? They probably came and got a sandwich anyway. Therefore, you helped the CFA increase revenue by driving one free sandwicher to the purchase line.
Ergo, therefore, such that, you have contributed to the expansion of CFA publicity and therefore are contributing to their causes.
Also, please refrain from watching the CFA Bowl.
No, I didn’t drive someone to the purchase line. You had to sign up in advance and even tell them what hour you were going to be there, then print out the coupon that contained your name and email address, and bring it to them during that time slot. So no one was going there hoping for a free sandwich and didn’t get one, so decided to buy one instead. Ergo, therefore, such that, blah, blah, blah, I did not benefit them in any way. I took their sammich, costing them money and skewing their results, and went on my merry way.
Way to strike a blow against the mean ole Christians!! You seem to be very proud.
I am indeed. Its the simple things like this that make life worth living.
Proud of hatred. Wow.
I can’t seem to find the hatred you mentioned here.
In fact, you seem to jump quite far to ridiculous conclusions based on little to no evidence very often.
Every Christian is also proud of hatred too.
“Men having sexing is gay lolololol” – Some random section of the bible.
So if you believe what the bible says you believe men having sex is indeed, gay.
I wouldn’t spend money at Chick-Fil-A because of that. But I will happily cost them something by getting free fried chicken.
Personally, I like Popeye’s better.
I eat there when I can, But Having a child with a peanut alergy makes going there rare.
One of the reasons I like going there is because of the company views. This place actually gives a MANDITORY day off to the employees. When I was younger and worked fast food, I would of loved to work there, knowing that no matter what, Sundays were a day off.
FYI, my boyfriend has a peanut allergy, but he is able to eat Chick-fil-a. Something about how when you heat peanut oil to a high enough temperature it’s okay to eat. But his allergy is not as serious as others’, so YMMV.
it actually has to do with the refining process not how high you heat it. Pure peanut oil should be fine for most people, cold press is not.
It’s okay. You might not agree with his beliefs, but I agree with them more than I don’t. I also don’t mind that his company gives underprivileged students college scholarships, encourages franchise owners to be entrepreneurs, include financial advice books in their kids’ meals, and give all of their workers a day off to spend time with family regardless of whether they ascribe to the company’s beliefs.
There are three types of religious folks who really bother me: people who use religion as a selling point (like Jesus fish in ads), people who don’t follow the teachings of the religion they subscribe to, and people who proselytize.
I’ve never been preached to at CFA (though an employee at my local store calls *everything* “blessed”), the service is wonderful and friendly, and the only thing outright religious there is the music and I usually can’t even hear it. In fact, I didn’t even know about the company’s religious connections until I looked up the WinShape Foundation out of curiosity (and even that seems like a pretty worthwhile organization).
My general rule when it comes to religion is “to each his own, just don’t bother me with it” and so I have no problem patronizing Chick-Fil-A.
So, you hate pretty much all Christians, you say?
What, do they actively berate you about your sins as you place your order? Do they offer a children’s “Guilt Meal?” Using that line of reasoning, I hope you also boycott Church’s Fried Chicken and Caribou Coffee.
That’s not really the point. I don’t share the CEO’s political or religious convictions and I’m not going to indirectly support the causes to which he provides financing.
Chick-Fil-A is only one of a number of companies I don’t do business with because of their financial support of causes I feel strong antipathy for.
You have the time to track down the CEO of every product or service you might use and determine his or her political, religious, or philosophical convictions? And then read their financial statements in order to ascertain which causes the company is financially supporting?
I just go and buy a chicken sandwich when I’m hungry at the closest store which happens to be selling sandwiches. Makes my life easier.
Yeah, it’s *way* easier to go through life without thinking at all about the consequences of your actions!
Depends on the context. My chicken sandwich purchases will have little to no effect on the world at large. Do you honestly think that the evangelical Christian world will stop oppressing women, gays and intelligent thinkers everywhere if I, or anyone else boycotts a chicken restaurant? You may call it “willful ignorance”, I call it “rational arbitration”; I can make a difference in far more effective ways than taking a personal stand against a sandwich joint.
Also, if given the choice of two extremes, I’d rather *never* think about the consequences of my actions than to *constantly* think about the consequences of my actions. I don’t need that sort of unnecessary stress and anxiety in my life.
there’s little stress or anxiety involved in becoming aware, I never understood where people got this idea that knowledge breeds mental anguish
just cross the street and go to Chipotle
Knowledge *does* breed anguish – if you knew the intent, motives, and background of every company, person, group, or institution you came in contact with, you’d either never stop crying, or go mad with frustration.
It’s not that I don’t know. It’s that I just don’t care. Apathy, not ignorance; I have a lot of other things on my mind. I worry about my health, my economic outlook, my family, my friends, my surrounding environment, and if I have a few spare moments, the Mets. I just don’t have the time, energy, or inclination to care that a guy who owns a chicken restaurant gives money to people who hate gays. People are always going to hate gays, because the world is filled with terrible fucking people. If I buy a sandwich somewhere else, I may be inadvertently financially supporting a different company that does other, more unspeakable things to some other group.
Boycotts, protests – all worthless. For every person who says “no” to Chick-fil-a, there are 10 who say “yes.” It won’t change. If it makes you feel better about yourself for 11 minutes that you passively “made a difference,” then hooray for you. But when you go to sleep at night, realize that you did nothing.
+10 pantheonoutcast
I would rather spend my charitable energy on actually doing things that benefit real people in my community, instead of wasting it investigating companies so I can make pointless “gestures” that will have minimal effect on some perceived injustice. If a company’s owners are devoted to some cause, the teeny tiny impact on their bottom line of my failure to make a $5 purchase is probably not going to change that devotion, or even have much effect on the amount they donate. The only way to stop them from financial supporting their cause is to put them out of business (which, again, my $5 non-purchase is not going to do). If you hate a given cause SO much that you actively try to financially destroy every business that supports it…well, like I said, I have better ways to spend my energy.
There’s a difference between trying to “actively destroy” and choosing not to support.
Tell us about the things you do to benefit the people of your community!
There will always be pollution, so let’s not recycle.
Politicians are all the same, so let’s not vote.
We’re ok, so let’s not worry about anyone else.
Maybe boycotts don’t accomplish much…but “apathy” accomplishes less.
Wow, these comments are way too heavy to be had in an article about wearing a cow suit for a free chicken sandwich. This is why I don’t like religion, it’s mere mention can drive the humor out of any situation. Come on, dress up like a cow and get free chicken… let the humor ensue.
There is a middle ground to be found in making informed choices wherever you can. Setting things up in terms of a false choice between those two extremes is just a cop-out to rationalize intellectual laziness.
if you want to practice willful ignorance, you have the right to do so
but its not that hard to find out which corporations support which causes, what with the internet
There are plenty of websites which track political and charitable contributions. I hardly have to spend any time at all to vote with my wallet.
No, but the CEO of Chik-fil-a is REKNOWN for his funding or uber right-wing fundamentalists who DO preach the in-your-face brand of born again christianity. He openly preaches his beliefs and has his company follow christian policy. He even keeps his business doors closed on Sundays. Good for him that he’s following his beliefs, but good for me for following mine. I don’t care WHAT religion you are, but actively, militantly preaching in people’s faces and funding others with the proceeds from Chik-fil-a, well, I can’t support that.
And the arguments about “spreading the good word” is bunk. Christians are reknown for their acceptance of other religions, right? Uh-huh.
The word is renowned not reknown. Look, Truett Cathy is a Christian. He is steadfast in his religious beliefs, and he closes the doors on Sunday because he wants employees to get time off and spend it with their families – whether you sit on your couch drinking beer on Sunday or go to church is not something that Truett Cathy knows, obviously, and is not something that is of particular importance because he just mandates that his company’s doors be closed on Sunday, not what you do on Sunday. How is being able to get a day off so bad? He has his company follow Christian policies – fact check, it’s his company. He gets to set his company’s policies.
And how about that, you making generalizations about all Christians. I know people who are very tolerant of other beliefs, though I’m not sure they’d be so tolerant of someone who makes idiotic generalizations about an entire group of people.
Damn. I can’t believe I spelled renown wrong. Twice. *sigh* That aside, my comments may be a generalization of christians, but you can’t deny that historically, christians are not tolerant of non-christians. They may have a better PR campaign in this regard over the last century, but their bible tells them to evangelize and convert/save others. By definition, any other religion or belief, to them, is inferior. There are a lot of christian-lite believers out there who just follow the teachings and beliefs that suit their needs. Whether or not these people can even truly be considered Christians is debatable.
I admit, I haven’t been the greatest Christian, and I haven’t been to church in about a year. But my belief is rooted in salvation and faith, which is what the Bible teaches. What’s interesting to me is that even people who don’t believe in God live tenants similar to the ones Christians have, like being kind to your neighbor, being financially prudent, understanding the problems with debt, and not coveting what you don’t have. My religious cornerstones are not so different from those of decent people who don’t share my religious preferences. I’m never going to go door to door handing out pamphlets, but I think that I am a generally positive person who tries hard to live a decent life according to my belief system, and what effect that has on other people, I don’t know. But despite what you or other people may believe about Christians, I can say that I try to be a positive influence on everyone I meet because I want to be helpful, and I want to be kind, and if that means that I can show people that stereotypes are false, great.
I’ve been reading your posts for a long time an I’ve always found you to be rational and not at all preachy. You’re one of the best contributors to this site. However, I’ve know too many people who’ve asked me if I’ve accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into my heart. I’ve seen my relatives brainwashed and turned into mindless, born-again zombies. Far more christians, in my experience, have been of that sort, or what’s possibly even worse, claim to be a Christian and know very little about what they believe or why they believe it. They “believe” it because they were raised to be that way and can’t take the time to bother thinking for themselves. I have several friends who are Christians and can explain why they believe what they do. Those are capital C Christians.
I know way too many far-left liberals who think that anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their ideology is “inferior.” In fact, I recently missed out on a job promotion because my “ideology” isn’t radically left-wing enough to suit my uber-leftwing superiors. So trotting out the tired old sins of intolerant Christians (who are *far* from being the only “fundamentalists” in the history of the world) just doesn’t impress me. Extremism is extremism. Most of the far-left liberals I know have a *much* scarier attitude toward those who disagree with them than any of the far-right Christians I know.
You’re correct. Far left wackos are just as crazy as far right wackos. If there’s a far left wacko establishment in my area, I wouldn’t eat their sandwich either. Chances are it would be vegan anyway.
LOL.
Not just Christians but “uber right-wing fundamentalists”.
Not just preaching but “actively, militantly preaching in people’s faces”.
You must have different experiences in Chik-Fil-A than I do. And I am a man of much REKNOWN.
Actually, their kids meals regularly include a book of some sort that includees scripture.
Wow, I guess it isn’t just right-wing nut jobs who boycott businesses for bigoted reasons. If a business treats its employees and customers well, the owners can believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster for all I care.
Thank you, Evil_Otto, Daverson, and Osiris73 (and doubtless many more), for giving me yet another reason to hate left-wing extremists as much as I hate right-wing ones.
Christianity doesn’t offend me. I don’t care what fucking bronze-age mythology anyone believes in. I don’t spend my money at companies which support political causes I feel strongly against – and it matters not to me whether the causes are “right wing” or “left wing” because I consider causes on an individual, not a “party line,” basis.
But thanks for jumping to the conclusion that I’m an extremist.
sure but if you have contrasting political beliefs you may want to put your money into a different company, cause you know for a fact corporations like Chick-fil-A put significant profits into political candidates and lobbying efforts that have real-world implications on people’s lives
if Consumerist has taught me one thing its that a dollar isnt just a dollar, it’s also a vote
People certainly have the right to “vote” with their purchasing dollars, if they’re sufficiently obsessed about their ideology for that to be an important factor in their purchasing choices. But it seems profoundly hypocritical when consumers on the right are mocked for making purchasing choices on the basis of not supporting things they disagree with, while consumers on the left get a pass (or are even applauded) for doing so.
Yes, because clearly none of the money spent at Chik-Fil-A will go toward some type of political cause which I don’t support. Oh, wait…
Can you honestly say that of any other business which you patronize? What about your cell phone? Or your ISP?
There’s 2 reason why Christians share what they believe: 1. God tells them to, 2. sharing something good is our nature.
For those that are offended that Christians like to share what they believe with others, think about it this way: if you knew or had something that can change someone else’s life for the positive, wouldn’t you want to share that?
read Things Fall Apart and then tell me how “positive” Christianity can be
some liken spreading it to spreading joy and cheer, some would liken it to spreading herpes
God tells them to? Incorrect. The bible, not written by God, just so you know, tells people to.
And don’t you think we know the “benefits” of Christianity already? I mean the bible has only been around for whoever many years. You aren’t going to change anyone’s ideas now.
Sheesh. Between kids and wives and jobs, I have nowhere near the time or energy to devote to practicing this sort of fundamentalist doctrine.
Good for you. I guess.
Liberal fundamentalism, the new “religious” (or, more accurately, ideological) threat.
Care to back that up?
I was constantly harassed in graduate school for being a moderate, instead of wholeheartedly embracing the wacko uber-leftist anti-men, anti-Christian, anti-white-people ideology that most of the professors preached (and yes, preached is an appropriate word) in their classrooms. Note that those same professors were banging on their pulpits at 17-year-old undergrads, too. Last week I missed getting a promotion in my job because I’m a moderate (and quiet about my political beliefs, which are irrelevant to my job) instead of being a publicly raging uber-leftist like my superiors. I’ve been watching the ideological fundamentalism I observed in graduate school spreading to many other aspects of American society. Conservatives and Christians are openly dissed in public as sub-human. I think it’s very noteworthy that the original poster on this thread didn’t express any concern about financially benefiting Chick-fil-A; he didn’t even want to cost them money; he just wasn’t willing to (figuratively) drink at the same drinking fountain as *ewwwwwwwwwww* a Christian.
I doubt that’s enough backup for you, MMD, because it’s obvious where you fall on the ideological spectrum. You would no more likely believe that liberal fundamentalism is becoming dangerous than a right-wing evangelical Christian would believe that Gandhi might have gone to heaven.
That’s funny, all throughout highschool I was made fun of because I am an ultra-leftist atheist. Guess the right isn’t so great either, huh?
I’m gonna have to agree on not eating at Chik-fil-A, not because of the belief of the owner but because of the fact that a even a small fraction of what I pay for food there will end up going to some anti-gay or anti-abortion or anti-* cause.
That, and they aren’t open on my day off.
It comes down to one simple question: Can you separate the art from the artist? I know it may be a stretch to call their sandwiches “art”, but bear with me. The Ender’s Game series of books is widely praised as great science fiction. However, Orson Scott Card, the author of the Ender’s series, is also known as a homophobic bigot. Now, knowing that, does it affect your opinion of the books?
ths bks snd g
Yeah, I felt the same way about OSC as well. I love his books, but as soon as I found out about his beliefs, I stopped buying anything from him. I used to buy extra copies and give them away to friends. I can’t separate the art from the artist I guess. I guess if Hitler made me a chik’n sammich, I wouldn’t eat it. *shrug*
What’s this I hear? The sound of everyone who has ever dressed like a cow for Halloween running to their storage bins.
I only seem to desire Chick-Fil-A on Sundays, which happens to be the day they are closed.
Hit up the promotion twice? What are we, FatWallet?
One assumes this will be popular in Wisconsin.
Maybe. If we had ‘em. There’s apparently one in Racine, but that’s a hell of a commute for me.
Plus, the obligatory udder would probably get in the way of the stick shift. Or something.
Cue nude women in cow body paint.
I did a children’s book reading at a local Chick-Fil-A earlier this week and got free food without having to dress like a cow. I did have to endure two hours of screaming children, though. Also I had to illustrate a children’s book.
Given the number of books we sold, I could have used more free sandwiches.
So you have to publicly humiliate yourself to get heart disease now?
I hear Arby’s is going to try this promo too. All you have to do is dress up like a processed reconstituted beef product source. Participating franchises only.
Some information on Chick-Fil-A’s donation controversies:
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/Food-FAST-religion-Chicken/3/24/2009/id/21532
Focus on the Family, in particular, is virulently anti-abortion and anti-homosexual.
Vote with your wallets.
There are a lot of things Focus on the Family supports that I don’t support, but you know, I am a huge supporter of literacy and education, as well as the rights to teach all topics related to education, but I support both ideals as a whole, even though I know that this means that the support to increase education and literacy extends to books and cirricula that may not be stances I support.
Just because you don’t support a few things, doesn’t mean the organization doesn’t – as a whole – do other things that you think are great. I’m not saying this to mean that I 100% support Focus on the Family (I don’t really know enough about which things they do that I do support), but I’m offering this as an example that no organization is perfect, and there will always be an organization that you only agree with 98% of the time.
Hell, the majority of the population of the US is anti-abortion and anti-homosexual. Should we all move?
Wait…yes.
I actually don’t believe either of those facts to be true, even though you were obviously making a joke.
Pass on the cow costume. But a spicy chicken sandwich with pepper jack sounds pretty good for lunch now that you mention it…
yeah, that’s never going to happen.
Good thing they aren’t giving away free Chikan!
From my experience, Chick-Fil-a tends to be a pretty positive witness for Christianity. They’re consistently rated as one of the best in the fast food industry for service. Their restaurants are always clean, employees are almost always friendly and I’ve never once been preached to at a CFA, just treated like a valuable customer. That sounds like pretty much everything consumerist stands for.
The books or cds included in kids meals are pretty tame, and if you’re offended by being exposed to them, just chunk them in the garbage. No harm done. You don’t have to listen if you don’t want.
As for Christians sharing their faith and the notion of tolerance… Sharing their faith is a command from God, that most tend to carry out pretty respectfully. Sure there are idiots out there, but they are the exception rather than the rule. As for tolerance, believing another religion is wrong is not intolerant. Two conflicting views on the nature of the universe and the nature of the creator cannot both be correct. That’s logic. Tolerance is allowing others to practice their faith without persecution, and most Christians I’ve encountered are pretty tolerant and respectful. Someone esle said it as well, but if you truly believe that Christianity is true and that it changes your life, why is it wrong to share it. I watched a video of Penn Jillette, a hardcore atheist, saying the same thing about a guy that humbly gave him a Bible. Penn seemed to respect the guy for his faith and his concern for someone he knew to be an atheist. That’s the kind of Christians I know.
The Bible is also a “command from God.” In the Bible, it says that anyone who is gay is a sinner. You can’t be a true Christian unless you believe all the words of the Bible, hence, all true Christians believe that being intolerant of people is perfectly acceptable, based on their biological disposition (which of course, comes from that “intelligent design”, no?). Same goes for the Church’s stance on birth control. Since, according to the bible, sex is only supposed to be used to procreate, anyone who has sex without procreation is a sinner. Even if they live in a third world country with no running water and rampant disease. A true Christian believes this is just fine.
All western religions are intolerant. All of them. And all of them are wrong.
So, all of the non-western religions are tolerant, therefore they are correct? The eastern religions are just as mutually exclusive on truth claims as western religions. And it sounds like ‘tolerance’ is your measuring stick for truth, which is completly backwards.
Believing another religion is wrong is not intolerant. If that were the case, you would meet your own definition of intolerant since you think all western religions are wrong.
He didn’t say that all non-Western religions were tolerant, did he? Nope, not once. Way to put words in his mouth to further your argument. *slow clap*
Well, no, he did not say that eastern religions were tolerant or right. He said “All western religions are intolerant” and all of them are wrong. I was seeking clarification since he didn’t say all religions were wrong.
However, my point remains… Believing a religion is wrong is not intolerant. His statment that all western religions are wrong fits his definition of intolerant. Therefore, his religious viewpoint must be wrong. It just seems odd that he holds tolerance in such high esteem, and yet fails to realize he’s guilty of it as well.
So since you said the Church i’m assuming you mean the Catholic church, especially since you referenced birth control. First off the Church isn’t about believing everything the bible says, actually the church has many important documents and writings outside of the bible not all of which completely agree with the bible. And the official stance on sex and birth control is not sex with out the purpose of procreation is sinful, its that sex is a joining before God of man and women in perfect union and anything blocking that union or possible outcome of that union (like a baby) is bad. The Church openly supports natural family planning as birth control, but opposes barrier or hormonal birth controls.
Go ahead an make broad statements about Christians, but when you start getting specific make sure you know what you are talking about.
What happens if you dress like a chicken?
You tear open a rip in the fabric of spacetime.
I’m so sad, we don’t have a Chick-Fil-A where I live. I keep hearing they bought a plot of land and plan on building there eventually… but they’ve been saying that for years. The neared CFA is an hour away. D: