Doubling down

KFC brings the Double Down to New Zealand on Tuesday.

And anticipating the healthists' tut-tutting, the folks at ACT On Campus will be footing the bill for a few of those burgers.

I'm also looking forward to trying the Double Down. But I'm even more impressed with the ACT On Campus social media play. The Double Down was always going to get a fair bit of press, the healthists have helped make sure of that. National gave up fighting nanny state once it got to play nanny. And so, from the ACT folks' FaceBook campaign:

The KFC Double Down has 1939 kilojoules, 32g of fat and 540 calories. It has been slammed by all the usual suspects: healthists, busy-bodies and nanny-staters. Fight the Obesity Epidemic spokeswoman Robyn Toomath, said the burger was a recipe for obesity.

"If this is promoted the people who are going to be targeted by this food are the people who are particularly prone to obesity. We need to start thinking in terms of protecting the vulnerable and putting restraints in."

Frankly, we don't give a damn. Everyone should be free to buy food they enjoy. Equally, everyone should take responsibility for their own health and excersise. We in ACT on Campus welcome the Double Down's arrival as a symbol of the freedom of choice all New Zealanders should enjoy.

So, to celebrate the burger's release in New Zealand, ACT on Campus will be offering FREE Double Downs at selected KFC restaurants.

Here's how it will work:

On Tuesday, ACT on Campus members will visit a KFC store in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin at a random time, different in each city, wearing their bright yellow ACT on Campus t-shirts. When they arrive, they will update the ACT on Campus Facebook and Twitter pages and let you know where they are and how long they'll be there for. The first 5 people in each city to get to the store and find our ACT on Campus member will get a free KFC Double Down, on us.

If health and safety were our only goal as a society, the world would look very different. We would all buy cars made of padded foam rubber and drive very slowly. Instead we measure risk and make trade-offs between our health and our other goals. KFC's Double Down is one trade-off we're looking forward to making on Tuesday!

The last paragraph is apt.

Tons of Twitter traffic tonight on both the Double Down and ACT's free burgers; congrats to McCaffrey. Nicely played.

Update: 3 News's story on it: 600 Calories of Freedom. Awesome.