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Between 2002 and 2011, companies spent a whopping $2.5 billion on Super Bowl advertising; this year, a 30-second commercial cost an average of $3.5 million. But what do you get for all that cash. In the case of these eight major advertisers, not as much as they'd hoped.
You'd think that fast-food restaurants -- with their emphasis on value -- would appeal primarily to those at the lower end of the income scale. But according to a new national study, dining at McDonald's and its quick-serving competitors becomes more common as people make more money.
The market wasn't overly impressed with Yum! Brands' quarterly report on Tuesday night. The company that watches over Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut has seen domestic business fall by 2% to 3% at each of its three chains. But Yum! fared substantially better in China, with its popular KFC scoring a whopping 19% spike in comps.
The Susan G. Komen Foundation's partnerships bring in millions each year for breast cancer research. But one of its partners has brought it an ironic problem: The perfume Promise Me, marketed to benefit the charity, contains a hormone disruptor that studies point to as a contributing cause of breast cancer.
Kentucky Fried Chicken says it is shutting down its fryers for good in Fiji, saying the government compromised its so-called famous blend of 11 herbs and spices by stopping KFC from importing key ingredients. Fiji says that's just an excuse.
Of all the ways a company might become more valuable, this has got to be the most superficial: a simple change of name. And yet a study of corporate name changes shows that it works. From 1-800 Flowers.com to Philip Morris-Altria Group, here are some of the most noteworthy nominal transformations.
America is getting heavier and less healthy every year, and our increasing consumption of fast food is at least partially to blame. 24/7 Wall St. examined the menus of the top 10 quick service restaurants to find the items that were the highest in calories, carbohydrates, sodium and saturated fat. Here's what they found:
Subway tops a Harris Poll of fast-food brand recognition but sandwiches still trail burgers among Americans favorite meals.
A judge in Louisville, Ky., has ruled that KFC must cooperate with franchisees on advertising, but that it can nix campaigns that it believes could hurt the brand. Disagreement over whether KFC should emphasize its fried or grilled chicken sparked the dispute.

Fast-food restaurants appear to have put the worst of the downturn behind them, but new industrywide challenges have emerged for 2011. That got us wondering if there's fast money to be made in fast-food stocks -- or if shares are too hard to swallow at current levels. [Video]

Market Movers

SymbolLastChange / %Volume

Most Actives

BAC
Bank of America Corp
8.07-0.11
-1.34%
254.23M
ALU
Alcatel-Lucent (ADR)
2.19+0.25
+12.89%
122.18M
GE
General Electric Company
18.88-0.26
-1.33%
109.55M
F
Ford
12.44-0.25
-1.97%
52.49M

% Gainers

CIE
Cobalt International Energy
31.68 +7.78
+32.55%
18.42M
LNKD
LinkedIn Corp.
89.96 +13.57
+17.76%
13.27M
ALU
Alcatel-Lucent (ADR)
2.19 +0.25
+12.89%
122.18M
WNS
WNS (Holdings) Limited (ADR)
10.50 +1.10
+11.70%
3.07M

% Losers

NBG-A
National Bank of Greece SA (ADR)
5.72-1.03
-15.26%
188,505
OSG
Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc.
10.18-1.65
-13.95%
1.88M
AB
AllianceBernstein Holding LP
14.35-2.16
-13.08%
1.30M
OC-B
Owens Corning (Warrant) 'B'
2.31-0.34
-12.83%
26,436
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