Showing posts with label KFC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KFC. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
4194. Lickitung
Lickitung, known in Japan as Beroringa (ベロリンガ?), is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Lickitung first appeared in the video games Pokémon Red and Blue and subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise, spinoff titles and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise. In animated appearances, Lickitung is voiced in Japanese by Chinami Nishimura and in English localizations by Eric Stuart. Lickitung was one of many different designs conceived by Game Freak's character development team and finalized by Ken Sugimori for the first generation of Pocket Monsters games Red and Green, which were localized outside of Japan as Pokémon Red and Blue. Originally called "Beroringa" in Japanese, Nintendo decided to give the various Pokémon species "clever and descriptive names" related to their appearance or features when translating the game for western audiences as a means to make the characters more relatable to American children. Lickitung's English name comes from a combination of "lick" and "tongue". Lickitung, known as the Licking Pokémon, has soft, pink skin with semicircular yellow markings on its belly, fully circular markings on its knees, and a thick, powerful tail. It has small, beady eyes, and its hands have thumb-claws and circular yellow markings on the underside. The most famous feature Lickitung possesses is a long prehensile tongue, which it uses to manipulate objects and possibly to consume them. The tongue is very likely connected to its huge tail, as when it is extended, the tail quivers. Licks from its 6' 6" long tongue can paralyze foes. Its saliva is gooey and sticks to everything. They also like to lick unfamiliar things they come across, but get put-off by some sour substances. Lickitung also uses its tongue to lick its body clean.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
3995. Chuckie in Rocket KFC
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is a global chain of fried chicken fast food restaurants with its operational headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky in the United States. It was developed and built by Colonel Harland Sanders, who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in 1930. Sanders was an early pioneer of the restaurant franchise concept, with the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opening in Utah in 1952. Sanders sold the company to a group of investors in 1964, although he continued to act as its goodwill ambassador until his death in 1980. His image remains an important part of the company's branding and advertisements, and he is often referred to simply as "The Colonel". KFC primarily sells fried chicken pieces and variations such as chicken burgers and wraps, as well as side dishes such as french fries and coleslaw, desserts and soft drinks, predominantly from PepsiCo. In 1971, Kentucky Fried Chicken was sold to Heublein for $285 million who were taken over by R.J. Reynolds in 1982, who sold the chain to PepsiCo for $850 million in 1986. PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997, which subsequently changed its name to Yum! Brands in 2002. As a Yum! subsidiary KFC is a core component of one of the largest restaurant companies in the world. As of 2011, there were over 17,000 KFC outlets in 105 countries and territories, making it the second largest restaurant chain in the world after McDonald's. Half of its total outlets are situated in either the United States or China. Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation (2002) and Morgan Spurlock's film Super Size Me (2004) were two prominent critiques of fast food and its consequences. KFC has been especially hard hit by negative publicity as the target for much of PETA's anti animal cruelty campaigning, and has been criticised for alleged environmental damage. Health campaigners influenced a change to a healthier frying oil in many regions.
Monday, July 2, 2012
3952. Archer
Small Soldiers is a 1998 American action/science fiction film directed by Joe Dante starring Gregory Smith, Kirsten Dunst and Tommy Lee Jones. The film revolves around two teenagers (played by Smith and Dunst), who get caught in the middle of a war between two factions of sentient action figures, the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite. Critical reception of the film was mixed. Critics complimented the film's special effects, but criticized some of the darker aspects of the film, which had been marketed to a young audience. After multinational conglomerate GloboTech Industries acquires the Heartland toy company, CEO Gil Mars (Denis Leary) tasks toymakers Larry Benson and Irwin Wayfair (Jay Mohr and David Cross) develop actual live-action toys capable of "playing back". Mars selects the military themed action figures the Commando Elite for the project, and educational toys the Gorgonites for their enemies. After Mars forgoes safety testing and sets a short production time, Benson chooses GloboTech's overly powerful intelligent AI munitions integrated circuit to power the toys. Teenager Alan Abernathy signs off for a shipment of the toys at his family's toy store without his father's consent. He and a delivery truck driver named Joe investigate the toys, introducing the Gorgonites' leader Archer, and the Commando Elite's leader Chip Hazard. The daughter of Alan's next door neighbor, Christy Fimple (Kirsten Dunst) buys Chip as a birthday present for her brother Timmy. After Archer sneaks to Alan's home in Alan's backpack, Alan realizes that the toy is a sentient being. The Commando Elite awaken and seeming destroy the Gorgonites in the toy store. Alan calls the company and he fills in the complaint. Later, Larry and Irwin hears about Alan's complaint on the recorder. Larry tries to ignore the problem by counter law suit until he slips up about the AI chips. Irwin realizes that Larry put munitions chips of defense chips on the toys. Larry and Irwin head to the facility that made the munitions chips. They found out that the AI munitions chips can learn and grow based on their programming and they can also overcome their programming, however, the flaw the AI munitions chips had is that they can't stand EMP. This caused the government to shut down the AI munitions chips experiment. Chip and his squad pursue Alan to his home and attempt to kill him and Archer. Alan is attacked by Commando Nick Nitro, whom he mortally wounds using a garbage disposal unit. Alan and Archer find the rest of the Gorgonites in a dumpster outside of the toy store. At home, Alan learns the group seek their homeland Gorgon, which they mistake for Yosemite National Park. The Commando Elite, aware of Alan's interest in Christy upon intercepting a phone call occurring between them, invade the Fimples' house. They drug Christy's parents with sleeping pills, place Timmy in a closet, turn Christy's collection of Gwendy dolls into auxiliaries and finally capture Christy herself. They send a video message to Alan, telling him to surrender the Gorgonites or Christy will die. Alan and Archer distract the Commandos and sneak into the Fimple house to save Christy, who warms up to Alan for his courage. They are then pursued down the street by the Commando Elite in heavily armed kit-bash vehicles, but they are all destroyed during the chase - except Chip, who locates Joe's truck full of recalled Commando toys. At Alan's house, Irwin and Larry seek out Alan after monitoring a phone call from him about the dangerous nature of the toys. Chip attacks the house with an army of Commandos, equipped with large numbers of improvised vehicles and weapons and a battle breaks out between the Commando Elite and the humans inside. During the battle, the humans realize they can fry the toys' chips with an EMP blast. Alan heads out to destroy a nearby powerline to overload it and create such a pulse; Christy, Irwin and Larry head to the Fimples' house to turn on all of the electronic items inside and wedge the power transformers open to reinforce the pulse. The normally peaceful Gorgonites then exit the house and fight back against the Commando Elite. Chip flies to the top of the powerline pole to stop Alan, where he briefly battles and defeats Archer. But just as Chip claims victory, Alan seizes Chip and jams him into the powerline, triggering an EMP blast which kills Chip along with all of the remaining Commando Elite and Gwendy toys. The next day, while the police and firefighters are cleaning up, Gil arrives in his helicopter. He then bribes Joe, the Fimples, and the Abernathys into silence and then orders Larry and Irwin to prepare the Commando Elite for actual military commando missions in South America for their effectiveness. Amidst the craziness of the aftermath, Alan overdramatically kisses Christy. Alan later discovers that the Gorgonites survived the EMP blast by hiding underneath the Fimples' large satellite dish and he accompanies them into Yosemite National Park where he sends them out in a large toy boat from his father's store to find their island home of Gorgon.
3922. Coke Polar Bear KFC
Coca-Cola’s first polar bear print advertisement appeared in France in 1922, and for the next 70 years, polar bears appeared sporadically in print advertising. In 1993, The Coca-Cola Company made a dramatic shift in its advertising by introducing the "Always Coca-Cola" campaign. The campaign by Creative Artists Agency and later Edge Creative was diverse in nature, with an initial run of 27 commercials designed to appeal to specific audiences. The ads ran around the world and included a variety of innovative technical approaches, such as computer animation. One such commercial, "Northern Lights," introduced what would become one of the most popular symbols of Coca-Cola advertising, the animated polar bear. When asked to develop an innovative commercial for Coca-Cola, creator Ken Stewart thought about drinking Coke at the movies. As a puppy, Mr. Stewart's Labrador Retriever had resembled a polar bear. Mr. Stewart saw his dog, thought about polar bears and how they would go to the movies, and the idea for "Northern Lights" was born. In the commercial, the polar bears watch the aurora borealis (the "movie") and drink from bottles of Coca-Cola. Mr. Stewart enlisted the help of animation company Rhythm & Hues to animate the ads. Using "space-age" computers and state-of-the-art graphic programs, each ad took some 12 weeks to produce from beginning to end. A lengthy, complex process is required to bring the furry, always thirsty Arctic creatures to life. As with all television commercials, the undertaking began with storyboards. With each commercial encompassing only 30 seconds, the animation mirrors scenes taken from previously created storyboards illustrated by Eugene Yelchin, working with Mr. Stewart and CAA. In this way, each second of the action is accounted for. Once the storyboards were completed, Mr. Stewart and Rhythm & Hues created pencil sketches of the polar bears, defining how the bears would appear in each scene. The sketches then were refined to add detail and background. Next, Mr. Stewart and the animators studied films and photos of actual polar bears to get a better idea of how bears move their heads, bodies and limbs, so they could incorporate these movements into the commercials. To get the bear into the computer, Mr. Stewart and Rhythm & Hues employed a sculptor to create a three-dimensional representation of the bear's head in clay. The model then was transferred into three-dimensional images and stored in advanced computer graphics software. The images were constructed by creating a grid of vertical and horizontal lines on the bear model. An animator, using a stylus connected to a computer, actually plotted the points along the body of the model until a schematic of the bear appeared on the computer screen. Once the image was refined and loaded into memory, the bear could be "moved," allowing it to walk, run, ski, luge or ice skate. "Movement" for the bears was created as animators plotted the bear's course on the computer. In addition to manipulating the bear's torso, the head and the limbs had to be moved separately since the computer-generated-bear was not attached in one piece like a real bear. During this step, the fine motor movements also were completed. Additional elements that were not computer-generated - such as a Coca-Cola bottle - were scanned and stored in the computer and were added at this point. Once the basic movements were completed, the rest of the picture was refined. Fur was added, eyes were completed, background was "painted in" and the lighting details - intricate lighting complete with reflection and shadows - were fine tuned. While the animation was in production, Mr. Stewart also worked with Glenn Rueger at Outside Music to compose original music, and created sound effects with Weddington Productions. To maintain the magical and ethereal quality of the world of the bears, Mr. Stewart kept the music to a minimum. He used the synthesized music as a source of punctuation only, and kept the bears dialogue-free, except for the notable "oohs," "ahs" and grunts, which were created by Mr. Stewart on a sound stage using his own voice, which then was altered through a computer to make him sound like the bears. The music and "dialogue," which were minimal by design, required months of work. "That's really what we were trying to do - create a character that's innocent, fun and reflects the best attributes we like to call 'human'," said Mr. Stewart. "The bears are cute, mischievous, playful and filled with fun." Once the final elements - music, sound effects and animation -- were finished, Mr. Stewart brought them together during the final edit and the magic of the bears was born. There have been many polar bear television spots since the 1993 debut, including two commercials for the 1994 Olympic Games in which the bear slid down a luge and soared off a ski jump. Bear cubs also were introduced in a holiday ad in which the bear family selects its Christmas tree.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
3848. Chuckie KFC Mascot
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is a global chain of fried chicken fast food restaurants with its operational headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky in the United States. It was developed and built by Colonel Harland Sanders, who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in 1930. Sanders was an early pioneer of the restaurant franchise concept, with the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opening in Utah in 1952. Sanders era KFC managers would later go on to found the Wendy's and Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken restaurant chains. Sanders sold the company to a group of investors in 1964, although he continued to act as its goodwill ambassador until his death in 1980. His image remains an important part of the company's branding and advertisements, and he is often referred to simply as "The Colonel". KFC primarily sells fried chicken pieces and variations such as chicken burgers and wraps, as well as side dishes such as french fries and coleslaw, desserts and soft drinks, predominantly from PepsiCo. As of 2011, there were over 17,000 KFC outlets in 105 countries and territories, making it the second largest restaurant chain in the world after McDonald's. Half of its total outlets are situated in either the United States or China. In 1971, Kentucky Fried Chicken was sold to Heublein for $285 million who were taken over by R.J. Reynolds in 1982, who sold the chain to PepsiCo for $850 million in 1986. PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997, which subsequently changed its name to Yum! Brands in 2002. As a Yum! subsidiary KFC is a core component of one of the largest restaurant companies in the world. Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation (2002) and Morgan Spurlock's film Super Size Me (2004) were two prominent critiques of fast food and its consequences. KFC has been especially hard hit by negative publicity as the target for much of PETA's anti animal cruelty campaigning, and has been criticised for alleged environmental damage. Health campaigners influenced a change to a healthier frying oil in many regions. Born and raised in Henryville, Indiana, Sanders passed through several professions in his lifetime. Sanders first served his fried chicken in 1930 in the midst of the Great Depression at a gas station he owned in North Corbin, Kentucky. The dining area was named Sanders Court & Café and was successful enough for Sanders to be given the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel in 1936 by the Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon. The following year Sanders expanded his restaurant to 142 seats, and added a motel he purchased across the street. When Sanders prepared his chicken in his original restaurant in North Corbin, he prepared the chicken in an iron frying pan, which took about 30 minutes to do, too long for a restaurant operation. In 1939, Sanders altered the cooking process for his fried chicken to use a pressure fryer, resulting in a greatly reduced cooking time comparable to that of deep frying. Not only did production speeds increase but the method produced flakier, moister chicken. Between 1939 and 1940 Sanders devised what came to be known as his Original Recipe of 11 herbs and spices. The Sanders Court & Café generally served travelers, often those headed to Florida, so when the route planned in the 1950s for what would become Interstate 75 bypassed Corbin, he sold his properties and traveled the U.S. to sell his chicken to restaurant owners. The first to take him up on the offer was Pete Harman in South Salt Lake, Utah, the operator of one of the city's largest restaurants; together, they opened the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" outlet in 1952. The restaurant's sales in the first year rose from $100,000 ($875,188 in 2012 dollars) to $365,000 ($3,170,597 in 2012 dollars), with 75 per cent of the increase from fried chicken sales. For Harman, the addition of fried chicken was a way of differentiating his restaurant from his competitors; in Utah, a product hailing from Kentucky seemed special and unique. A sign painter hired by Harman coined the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken". Harman produced the company's first training manual and product guide. He also trademarked the phrase that would become the company's slogan, "It's finger lickin' good". It was Harman who in 1957 first bundled 14 pieces of chicken, five rolls and a pint of gravy in a paper bucket to offer families "a complete meal" for $3.50 ($29 in 2012 dollars). He says he took on the project as a favor to Sanders, who had called on behalf of a Denver franchisee who didn't know what to do with the 500 buckets he had bought from a traveling salesman. At the time Harman sold his first bucket meals, the chain was little more than a network of independent restaurants that paid pennies per order for Sanders' "secret blend of herbs and spices" and the right to feature his recipe chicken on their menus and use his name and likeness for promotional purposes. The popularity of the bucket meals ultimately made it feasible to open free-standing KFC restaurants, according to Harman, "by giving you enough volume to justify a manager and pay the overhead". Freestanding stores led to a faster growth rate for the chain because those specialized operations proved easier to sell to would-be franchisees. An early franchisee from 1962 was Dave Thomas, who created the rotating bucket sign that came to be used at most KFC locations in the US. Thomas first suggested that Sanders appear in the KFC television commercials, helped him to simplify the chain's menu of over 100 items to just fried chicken and salads, and was an early advocate of the take-out concept that Pete Harman had pioneered. Thomas sold his shares in 1968, becoming a millionaire in the process, and went on to found the Wendy's restaurant chain.
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