More Heraldry in the News!

So here I was, all set to move on to the next place we visited in England and its heraldry, when this news item popped up on my feed.

This article in Varsity student independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, by Meg Byrom, dated May 21, 2023, had the headline:

Cock up? KFC branch told to remove spoof Cambridge logo

and was subtitled:

The ‘chicken crest’ poster kicked the bargain bucket after a trademark complaint was made by the University

"Spoof logo"? "Chicken crest"? So of course I had to go and see what it was about.

It turns out that a local Cambridge, England KFC branch had created and placed in their store a number of Cambridge-themed posters, with such things as chickens punting on the River Cam or cycling through the city.

The trouble arose when one of the prominently placed posters consisted of a modified version of the arms of Cambridge University. (The University's arms can be seen in a prior post on this blog, dated September 12, 2022, at http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2022/09/and-then-of-course.html) The University, not unnaturally, wishing to protect its reputation and its copyright of the arms, and asked KFC to remove the poster.

You can see why they may have made that request by comparing the image below with the arms of the University at the blog post linked above.

Basically, it's the arms of the University with golden chickens replacing the lions and a KFC bucket replacing the book on the cross, which cross is no longer ermine but rather argent semy of string ties sable.

A University spokesperson commented that: “The University appreciated the retail strategy’s creativity, but like all organisations we need to ensure our trademark is used correctly so that it means as much to future generations as it does today. KFC gladly complied with our request to use alternative decorative elements.”

If you'd like to read more, the full article can be found on the website of Varsity at https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/25685?fbclid=IwAR1yVqzitrhSLjPoLeY009Cm7X3n_cZQQpFfklUoU6XLtaVQNum_vjPzj_o