Golden Chick’s Mascot Perplexes Me

Posted on July 17th, 2012 2:44pm by Dan Koller
Filed under Animals, Dining

41590_172563287358_3848860_nDespite this being the height of bikini season, I craved fried chicken for dinner last night. I pulled into my neighborhood outpost for the Richardson-based Golden Chick chain, and I was informed that they had run out of yardbird. (The horror!) As I waited in the parking lot for my grub, I had time to stare at the mascot, whose name could not be ascertained through 30 seconds of Googling, and contemplate two questions:

1. Is there another restaurant whose mascot is an anthropomorphized version of the very food it serves?

2. Why the glasses?

17 comments

  1. Cant think of a restaurant, but Mr. Peanut and M&M’s come to mind. The glasses kinda look like safety goggles, the kind one might wear in a slaughterhouse. IJS

    @ 2:51 pm on July 17, 2012

  2. Red Hot and Blue has guitar playing pigs

    @ 2:55 pm on July 17, 2012

  3. What perplexes me is why you’d choose Golden Chick over the clearly superior Chicken Express

    @ 3:21 pm on July 17, 2012

  4. @ Dan: I am not sure if it is a unified theory that would apply to chicken, but my experience with barbecue is that the anthropomorphization of the pig is inversely correlated to the quality of the pulled pork.

    You might also consider http://www.hulu.com/watch/267890. “Hear that sizzle? That’s me!”

    @ 3:40 pm on July 17, 2012

  5. Jack in the Box. Chew on that.

    @ 3:44 pm on July 17, 2012

  6. Wendy’s.

    It’s people. Wendy’s is made out of people. They’re making our food out of people!

    @ 4:03 pm on July 17, 2012

  7. Does the Hamburglar count?

    @ 4:23 pm on July 17, 2012

  8. KFC. No … wait. That’s Col. Sanders.

    In any case, I meant Chicken Express. It has a chicken that is zooming along, but every time I drive by one, the logo looks less like a speeding chicken and more like flattened roadkill. Which may explain why I’ve never eaten there. Haven’t eaten at Golden Chick, either. Afraid I’ll bite into the fry cook’s grease-splattered eye protectors. Not to ruin your future enjoyment of their excellent food-like product.

    On the other hand, I have eaten at Panda Express. Hmmmm. Sweet and sour panda.

    @ 4:27 pm on July 17, 2012

  9. 1) There are tons of examples — I’m always on the look-out for them, to add to my collection on Tumblr called Happy to be Eaten:

    http://happytobeeaten.tumblr.com/

    2) As for the glasses, I suspect its to provide this chick with a clear view of his impending doom. So I guess that would make him Horrified to Be Eaten, which will be my next Tumblr, apparently. I could add the south-of-Hillsboro Up In Smoke BBQ cow to that list.

    @ 4:29 pm on July 17, 2012

  10. There are dozens of barbecue joints across Texas where not only are hogs playing banjos, but some are cooking their own kind. The hogs are usually smiling while basting ribs, and some even go so far as to eat the ribs. Anthropomorphic cannibalism.

    @ 4:30 pm on July 17, 2012

  11. Golden Chick is far superior to Chicken Express. Love the Lotta Zing seasoning too. Now you have me thinking about fried chicken and what is even more superior to Golden Chick is Bush’s Chicken down in Waco. The yeast rolls, the serendipity seasoning…Wow. I need to drive down there.

    @ 5:07 pm on July 17, 2012

  12. Pollo Regio A) has a anthropomorphized version of a chicken as their mascot and B) is way tastier.

    @ 5:34 pm on July 17, 2012

  13. I prefer Los Pollos Hermanos

    @ 6:08 pm on July 17, 2012

  14. That’s a man in a chicken suit, not a real chicken.

    @ 7:00 pm on July 17, 2012

  15. I like that Richardson Golden Chick next to the library because they have a ripoff print of the Andy Warhol Marilyn painting, but with the chick. Trippy.

    @ 7:58 pm on July 17, 2012

  16. I hear ya, Anon. It looks like Gustavo Fring went thru a transporter machine a la “The Fly” and got his atoms mixed up with his Los Pollos Hermanos mascot.

    @ 9:08 am on July 18, 2012

  17. That’s clearly Henry Cabot Henhouse, III.

    @ 11:25 pm on July 19, 2012