Blog

South Philly QSR sends 'a certain unnamed chicken brand' a message

September 8, 2017 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Confidently cocky QSR South Philly Cheesesteaks & Fries said today that its crispy chicken sandwich — now formerly known as the Chick Philly — will indeed remain on its menu, the company said in a press statement, "despite a legal threat from a certain unnamed chicken brand’s legal counsel."

In the ultimate restaurant marketing "touché," the release goes on to say, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, that the brand is now renaming the sandwich to be known from here forward as simply the "Cease and Desist."

The sandwich — made with chicken tenders, pickle chips, mayo and honey on a 10-inch roll — comes wrapped in a copy of the aforementioned letter.

"When we launched the Chick Philly in April, the sandwich became an instant hit with our customers," South Philly Cheessteaks & Fries Brand Manager Andrea Carella said in the release. "A competing chicken empire was not so happy about that and sent us a threatening legal letter.  

"As we did not want to let our loyal guests down, we decided to tweak things a bit so that we would abide by their request and still be able to sell it. During the tweaking process, we came up with the idea to also wrap the Cease and Desist in the legal letter. In the end, we are happy we were able to keep the Cease and Desist on the menu at our restaurants nationwide."

The release goes on to exploit what could have been a truly nasty situation by stating that the newly named sandwich "in all its wonderful, delicious litigiousness, will receive its due process and continue to be available for purchase at participating locations nationwide." 

The 21-year-old chain is a QSR that specializes in what it calls "old school South Philly" cheesesteaks. 

About S.A. Whitehead

---

Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.