Kansas City Blog

Flickr: Ken-Ichi

In 2004, I spent the Christmas season in St. Louis. The day after the South Asian Tsunami struck I stopped at a generic sit-down chain -- an Applebee's, TGIF Fridays type of place. On the table were some old promo cards advertising several specialty drinks including one called the tsunami.

You could blame the chain's promotion on terrible luck, but it courted bad luck by picking a risky drink name to begin with. This chain wasn't the only one. Nine months later Katrina slammed into new Orleans, and hurricanes weren't fashionable drinks anymore. (Though some lawyers thought differently.) Many restaurants would be forced to quickly change their dessert menus if a truly deadly mudslide ever happens in the United States.

Now it's fast-food chains getting into the game.
Burger King has been promoting its tiny BK Burger Shots like mad. But the top Google News Search for BK Burger Shots is an actual Burger King shooting in Miami that left one person dead and another seriously injured. Instead of learning about the chain's newest menu item you get this: "The bloody event unfolded about 4 p.m... It was a time, employees said, when it is usually crowded with schoolchildren and people getting out of work early."

Steak'n Shake calls its copycat tiny burgers shooters. The top Google search for "Steak'n Shake shooters" turns up a horrific double-murder that happened this past November at a Steak'n Shake in St. Louis.

If both restaurants had just called these small burgers what they really are -- sliders -- they wouldn't be reminding customers about violent incidents in their stores. A Google search for both restaurants plus the word "slider" turns up "Burger King sues Steak'n Shake over sliders." It's about the chains doing the same shot/shooter promotion and how Burger King isn't happy about it.

Steak'n Shake could have saved itself a heap of trouble from the lawsuit if it had just gone with slider.