Savannah Templeton Section 1- 7:30
Persuasive Speech January 2022
Hello, My Name Is: Fried Lumps of Chicken
Topic: Boneless “Boneless Wings” is false advertising.
General Purpose: to persuade
Proposition: the term“boneless wings” is false advertising
Fact, Value, or Policy (circle or identify one) fact
INTRODUCTION
I.
Attention-getting material: Is a hotdog a sandwich? Or maybe a taco? Is cheesecake a
cake as its name suggests? Despite being in a pie crust? Is a cupcake just an iced muffin?
Are boneless wings just chicken nuggets? These age-old food debates will continue to be the
topic of discussion for years to come, but today I will put one to rest.
II.
Statement of proposition: Boneless wings are in fact chicken nuggets, but still calling
them wings is a crime of false advertising.
III.
Audience relevance statement: As consumers, we rely on the producer’s advertising to
know what we are buying. If chicken nuggets can be called chicken wings, can we be sure
anything that we are receiving is really what it’s being called?
IV.
Important background information or definition of terms (if needed): False advertising is
defined by the FTC as a producer’s responsibility to “ tell the truth and not mislead
consumers.”
V.
Preview of points: Advertising two different chicken foods under the same name
causes confusion for the labeling and description of the rest of chicken based food which
creates an umbrella of false advertising for all fried chicken products and can cost
consumers greatly.
BODY
I. Calling boneless wings “wings” is misleading to consumers of what the term “wings” means in
the food industry
A. The need and use of the term “nuggets” becomes irrelevant since all small fried chicken
is considered “wings.” At that point, what is a nugget?
i. This also applies to chicken like that on Chinese food like General Tso’s
chicken and Orange chicken. Would you call those wings? Should ChikFilA be
categorized as a wing restaurant?
II. If false advertising is okay for wings, it leaves a lot of interpretation up for all fried chicken.
A. All small fried chicken then becomes marketable as wings (which is false advertising;
calling a food product something that it isn’t is misleading: servings non-wing, wings)
B. If we define small bits of fried chicken as “wings,” then the logic behind that says
nuggets should be advertised as sauceless wings too
Savannah Templeton Section 1- 7:30
Persuasive Speech January 2022
i. Chicken tenders can be advertised as “jumbo boneless chicken wings”,
traditional wings can be advertised as “bone-in nuggets,” boneless wings can be
advertised as “mini chicken breasts,” etc.
III. The manipulative effects of false advertising.
A. Companies use false advertising to elicit more sales under exaggerated or fake pretenses.
a. This is most often seen in nutritional labeling using words such as “organic, “low
fat,” and “all natural.” These types of products can be marketed at a higher price,
and produce a larger revenue for the companies at the consumers’ expense.
According to research published at Rutgers University on false advertising and its
effect on society, some Walmarts in 2006 were caught selling regular beef under
an organic label. These stores made almost $500,000 in extra profit from this
label switch.
i. Marketing chicken nuggets as chicken wings lets restaurants price them at
a much higher range since the cost of actual chicken wings is more and
they are in higher demand (with there being only two wings per chicken).
We as consumers pay this higher price for mere chicken nuggets because
of the way they are being advertised to us: as wings, when the product we
are receiving is marginally a step up from fast food nuggets pre-dipped in
sauce.
CONCLUSION
I.
Conclusion: With all the gray area created by mislabeling one product, a chain
reaction is caused and now one can never be sure what it is they’re ordering when it comes
to fried chicken- putting consumers like us at risk of falling victim to false advertising.
II.
Closing remarks: Even though the restaurants will probably forever continue to call
nuggets, “boneless wings” just to get a few extra dollars from us, we know that they’re
serving nothing more than a sauced 10 piece McNugget.
Savannah Templeton Section 1- 7:30
Persuasive Speech January 2022
WORKS CITED
False Advertising Study
Borrelli, Amanda, et al. “False Advertisement in Nutrition and Its Effects on Society.” Welcome
to RUcore - Rutgers University Community Repository,
https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/42871/.
FTC False Advertising
Staff, the Premerger Notification Office, and DPIP and CTO Staff. “Advertising and Marketing
on the Internet: Rules of the Road.” Federal Trade Commission, Office of Inspector General, 28
Jan. 2022,
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/advertising-marketing-internet-rules-road.