Soundbite: Rachel Maddow Has Heard That Hooters Has “Awesome” Wings

by Robert Quigley | 1:03 pm, December 18th, 2009

» 5 comments

“Yesterday, we reported an unexpected political role for the American family dining chain that’s famous for its wings. That chain, of course, is Hooters. They’re famous for their … wings. Right?” …
… “I have heard that their wings are awesome.”

– Rachel Maddow, pontificating on Chamber of Commerce fraud and Hooters

On her show last night, Rachel Maddow reported on the too-weird-to-be-made-up link between Hooters, the Chamber of Commerce, and the health care debate. Yesterday morning, TPMMuckraker noted a tacky, wacky, and true campaign by what appeared to be the Chamber of Commerce, which baited and switched an offer of a $150 gift card to Hooters with a page that outlined an anti-government healthcare platform:

Online ads have popped up lately, telling readers that they can win a $150 Amex Gift Card for use at Hooters, if they complete a survey about other offers. One of those urges them to sign up for “free emails” from the Chamber of Commerce, which will explain “how to protect your family’s future and bring common sense solutions to the health-care debate.”

Maddow picked up on TPM’s reporting on both the controversy and the counterclaim of a Chamber of Commerce PR firm, which said that the campaign was actually orchestrated by someone else to make the Chamber look bad. But she also had a lot of fun making Hooters jokes.

Counterpoint: Chris Rock’s 1999 novelty single “No Sex in the Champagne Room:” “Nobody goes to Hooters for the wings.”

(via TPMMuckraker)

Chamber of Commerce, Health Care, Hooters, Hooters Wings, Justin Elliott, Rachel Maddow, Talking Points Memo, TPM, TPMMuckraker

http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

I have to say that this was the first that I’ve heard about this story, but my second reaction to the Maddow clip was that “could win” doesn’t mean that anybody was actually giving away anything, it could’ve all been a scam that only cost a few Google clicks.

But then I followed a couple of the above links and learned that it was actually a somewhat different type of scam and quite possibly, whomever put it together included the Chamber petition because of their own political position and once again, it’s not like anybody actually ever received anything for their response.

Of course, my first reaction to the Maddow piece was a flashback to the half hour or so that I watched a “Best Damn: Hooters” swimsuit competition on one of the Fox channels (I believe) and the reminder, it served about how many young women are paying for their education by wearing a tiny tank-top.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

OK – After a few more minutes of thought about a subject I only heard about through this post.

One assumes that the scammer was using Adwords to troll for prey… Earlier I guessed that the CoC petition could reflect the scammer’s political bent, but a more logical reason for the subject to be included is because Google scans a target page for an automated “relevancy score”.

There’s a lot of political blogs and by having something topical, Google would let the scammer to buy a lot of words the other polls wouldn’t allow, thus opening his ad up to a lot more pages.
hkyplayer

Ill tell you, I would believe the Chamber of Commerce above anyone else out there with Health care … They think of the small business first.
LNSmithee

Even if this turns out to be true, it’s less scandalous than the President having a Job Summit without Chambers of Commerce participation, seeing that they are the groups of people who actually, y’know, provide the jobs — jobs he said the stimulus would create (or “save”)…and didn’t.
ireenawagner

I’m not a fan of chicken wings in general, but I have to admit, the folks at Hooters can cook up a pretty mean burger with all the fixings! First time I ever had real bleu cheese on one, and it was awesome.
vitamin d