Whenever a corporation donates money and &c. to a good cause there’s one thing that you have to keep in mind. If they are a publicly held corporation they have shareholders who would not take too kindly to their money being given away for no good reason (meaning they expect some sort of return). Therefore, it is good business for a corporation to appear as a good corporate citizen.

With that being said I saw two stories on the website Commercial Alert that I wanted to highlight. The first involves the Yum! Brands owned Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Kentucky Fried Chicken today announced its own urban renewal program. The chicken chain has offered to fill up the potholes in five major U.S. cities to promote its “fresh” brand positioning.

Giving back has become a trend for marketers, including Starbucks, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and others that have centered their message around helping the community.

KFC sent a letter to U.S. mayors today asking them to nominate their cities’ roads to be refreshed. Every pothole filled by the fast feeder will be covered in nonpermanent street chalk with the words “Re-freshed by KFC.”

What’s sad is that in these turbulent economic times we’re in, there are going to be government officials in major cities that will take KFC up on this offer. You could not ask for better advertising! In the age of personal video recorders which let you skip commercials this is the kind of advertising we’re going to see more and more of.

Not everyone is enthused about the publicity stunt. “There is an aggressiveness towards moving into new dimensions of public spaces. This would be another example of this unfortunate incursion of advertising messaging into [consumers’ lives],” said Robert Weissman, director of Commercial Alert. “KFC should fix their menu first.”

Which brings us to McDonalds and their announcement that they want to “move into” school education with a free online math program. With the article in yesterday’s NY Times on the proximity of schools next to a fast food establishment playing a factor in student obesity. Is there any wonder that McDonalds would try and shore up their base?  They want to burn the image of the golden arches into student’s brains so that they’ll keep on coming back for more punishment. Whatever investment they are making in the program is a good one for them considering that these kids will grow up to be McDonalds eating adults too. Like the tobacco corporations fast food aims to get ‘em while they’re young.