Corby Kummer: The Politics Behind The Chicken Sandwich

Last month Popeyes launched their new chicken sandwich at its franchises across the country. Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio *on Tuesday to explain how the sandwich rapidly rose in popularity, unable to keep up with demand.

"This is entirely a social media story," he said. "It's a very cleverly designed launch of a new product saying, 'We have this great sandwich, but you can't get it even though it's the best thing in America we're only having it in a couple of restaurants.'"

Helen Rosner's piece in The New Yorker describes why many people will cheer on a Chik-fil-A chicken sandwich challenger, Kummer said. "It's a way of putting your thumb in the eye of Chik-fil-A which is homophobic, bad, big and specializes in fried chicken. It's fried chicken without the homophobia."

*Kummer is a *senior editor at The Atlantic*, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.