Chick-fil-A Offers FREE Meals to Cow-Dressed Customers on July 8

ATLANTA, June 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Holy Cow! It's time to break out your cow-spotted apparel and leave your wallet out to pasture. On Friday, July 8, Chick-fil-A® restaurants nationwide will celebrate the annual Cow Appreciation Day event by offering a free meal to any customer who visits one of the chain's mall or stand-alone restaurants fully dressed as a cow.

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This year, customers who aren't too chicken to dress completely as a cow will again be rewarded with a free Chick-fil-A Meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner), which includes an entree of choice, a side item and a medium Dr Pepper® (or other beverage). For those too chicken to wear full cow costumes, Chick-fil-A will award a complimentary entree to customers partially dressed in cow attire, such as a cow-spotted scarf, purse, tie, hat or other accessory.

Chick-fil-A recently launched a special website dedicated to the occasion www.CowAppreciationDay.com.  In addition to providing further details about the event, the site offers cow costume ideas, downloadable cow spots, masks and other bovine-themed accessories for customers to use in creating their costumes. Chick-fil-A is also organizing a photo contest that will be co-hosted on the Cow Appreciation Day site and the chain's Facebook page. Chick-fil-A will offer a number of categories where the best cow-dressed customers will have the chance to win various prizes. Customers can upload photos for the contest from July 8 – 31.

Now in its seventh year, Chick-fil-A's Cow Appreciation Day continues to build momentum. Last year's event – and the resulting turnout – confirmed that Chick-fil-A has a strong following of customers willing to go to great lengths to show their appreciation for their cows. More than 450,000 cow-clad customers stampeded Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country. Costumes ranged from simple cow-spotted T-shirts to full cow suits complete with furry ears, cow bells and homemade sandwich boards with personalized renditions of the "Eat Mor Chikin®" Cows' quirky messages.  

"Cow Appreciation Day is a great barometer of how passionate our customers are for our brand," said Steve Robinson, Chick-fil-A's senior vice president of marketing. "If you're willing to dress up like a cow for a free meal, you're obviously a loyal and even 'raving' Chick-fil-A fan. While the event is a natural tie with our cow-themed marketing campaign, Cow Appreciation Day is intended to be a fun day to reward some of our most loyal customers with free food."

For the past 16 years, the renegade "Eat Mor Chikin" Cows have entertained consumers with their desperate, self-preserving antics in an effort to convert beef eaters into chicken fans. The Chick-fil-A Cows and the "Eat Mor Chikin" campaign have enjoyed such widespread public success that the chain has evolved both into a fully integrated marketing program. In addition to clever roadside billboards, the "Eat Mor Chikin" Cows are the focal point of Chick-fil-A's in-store point-of-purchase materials, promotions, radio and TV advertising, billboards, and clothing and merchandise sales.

In 2010, Chick-fil-A was recognized as one of the top "Marketers of the Year" by Advertising Age, and as one of J.D. Power and Associates' "Top Restaurant Brands in Customer Satisfaction." In 2007, the Cows were selected as America's most popular advertising icons in a public vote sponsored by Advertising Week, and became the newest members of New York's Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame. A permanent banner to recognize this achievement was unveiled on Madison Avenue in 2008.

Appreciation for Cows Fueling Sales Volume

Thanks in part to the successful "Eat Mor Chikin" Cow campaign, Chick-fil-A continues to experience record setting growth. The Atlanta-based chain finished strong in 2010, reporting system-wide sales of more than $3.5 billion, an 11.37 percent increase over the chain's 2009 overall sales performance and a same-store sales increase of 5.92 percent. The company's record sales performance in 2010 continues a trend of year-over-year growth the chain has sustained since its inception in 1967.

Chick-fil-A will add 90 new locations to its restaurant portfolio in 2011, including 71 stand-alone locations, four mall/in-line restaurants and 15 licensed outlets.

About Chick-fil-A, Inc.

Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A, Inc. is the nation's second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain (based on sales), with more than 1,550 restaurants in 39 states and Washington D.C. In 2010, Chick-fil-A reached record sales of $3.58 billion – an 11.37 percent overall increase and a 5.92 percent same-store sales gain that helped extend the chain's streak of consecutive sales gains to 43 years.   

Credited with inventing the boneless breast of chicken sandwich and first introducing the chicken nugget concept, Chick-fil-A serves nutritious and freshly prepared food products in mall locations, stand-alone restaurants, drive-thru-only restaurants, Chick-fil-A Dwarf House® and Truett's Grill® full-service restaurants, and through licensed outlets in college campuses, hospitals, airports, businesses and industrial sites. More information about Chick-fil-A is available here.

Satellite Media Tour with Chick-fil-A President and COO Dan Cathy on Thursday, July 7, 2011 – To book, call (404) 605-0009 ext 342 OR [email protected]

Additional media materials, photography and b-roll is available here.

SOURCE Chick-fil-A