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The reports are still coming in, but it appears the Michael Jackson ceremony today was watched by more people than the inaugaration of Barack Obama. (Update 7/8/09 12:10am EST: MediaMemo says the Michael Jackson event was the third largest and not bigger than the inaugaration)
I’ll pause for a moment to let you take that one in.
Still with me? Good. So during the ceremony, Magic Johnson shared this story involving him, Michael, and Kentucky Fried Chicken:
KFC then became a trending topic on Twitter, where it remained for most of the day. People using the KFC term were saying they either went to KFC after hearing the story or were planning to go on Tuesday.
A quick Twitter poll only saw one person say they were going to KFC tomorrow because of the mention. Since this is not scientific, and with Twitter you have to repeat yourself, leave a comment below to let me know if you’re going to KFC after watching the video above.
(Special thanks to @pointforwardpro who sent me the Magic Johnson video and it’s associated blog post.)
Update For 7/8/2009:
This is from Rick Maynard, Spokesperson for KFC:
KFC has always brought people together, and we were honored to hear Magic Johnson’s comments during the memorial service. It was a nice story that brought smiles to the faces of millions of Michael Jackson fans during a very difficult time.
I am still waiting on the follow-up answer as to whether or not KFC saw an increase in sales because of the reference. I gurantee you Advertising Age or another outlet will have that story the second the data becomes available.
Also: I touched base with Magic Johnson’s organization to see if they can confirm that the story was not a product placement. I do not believe it is, but I’d like to have another party confirm it for us.
Once we have that data, I’ll share with you a post about why this story is important from a social publishing perspective.
