UPDATE: KFC has stopped the free meal promotion. Read the press release here explaining its offer of "rainchecks."

In early February, Denny’s scored a big public relations coup by touting free Grand Slam breakfast entrees in a Super Bowl ad, no strings attached. At many locations, lines were long, but most locations kept cheerfully doling out the free meals, an event chronicled in newspapers and on TV stations nationwide.
So how did KFC manage to screw up its free chicken meal promotion? Announced on Oprah, the offer required people to print out a coupon that was available on the the show's web site Tuesday and Wednesday only.
Many people immediately reported difficulty printing the coupon. But the real problem came when people began showing up in large numbers at KFC restaurants to redeem the coupon, which is good for the next week or so. Some locations were overwhelmed and turned people away. Customers got angry.
Sampling is a great strategy to get people to try a new product, but only if the company doing it is prepared and has all its locations and employees committed to making the effort a success.
You would think that KFC would have learned from the Quiznos sub sandwich debacle just a few weeks ago, when the chain distributed coupons for a million free subs but many individual locations didn't want to redeem those coupons.
KFC not only ran out of chicken at some locations, but customers at a number of stores say they were treated badly when they came in with the coupons. In one case, customers who requested the free meal were put in separate lines and made to wait longer than paying customers. In another case, a customer said a KFC employee was screaming at them. Ouch.
I can only imagine how many customers they lost yesterday — and the challenge they now face getting them back.