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Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/KFC/archive6

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was not promoted by User:GrahamColm 11:30, 30 November 2013 [1].

KFC

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Nominator(s): Farrtj (talk) 16:55, 11 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I am nominating this for featured article because I have been working on it since July 2012 and I believe it is ready. Advertising and operations sections have been worked on since the last nomination, and the references have been tidied up. Farrtj (talk) 16:55, 11 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It would be helpful to reviewers if you summarized the changes that have been made since the previous archived nomination. Graham Colm (talk) 22:35, 11 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Squeamish Ossifrage

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I had frankly intended to avoid making a very large detailed list of problems, because in the case of this article, that's time consuming and perhaps not particularly pleasant. But since you've also dropped by my talk page to note, in italics, that my specific objections were corrected, I suppose it's only fair for me to do so.

  • Reference 1: DLA Piper is a specific law firm. Although they provide legal news and insight as part of their website, and are likely a reliable source, I would not consider them a high-quality source for the purposes of FAC, at least where others exist. Consider instead scholarly publications on legal topics:
  • Thimmesch, Adam B. (2011–2012). "The Fading Bright Line of Physical Presence: Did KFC Corporation v. Iowa Department of Revenue Give States the Secret Recipe for Repudiating Quill?". Kentucky Law Journal. 100: 339–389.
  • Murtha, James F. "Taxing Colonel Sanders: Re-examining Constitutional Nexus Through the Lens of KFC v. Iowa". Western New England Law Review. 35 (1): 55.
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 18:38, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 9 is not an independent source, referencing claims that are surely documented in reliable, third-party source. This is a recurring problem with this article, regardless of how many specific instances I do or don't catch on any given review pass.
Where are these third party sources getting their information from? Likely Sanders. This is hardly a contentious statement anyway.Farrtj (talk) 18:38, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Well, sure, that's how secondary sources work. But it's those sources we're encouraged to draw upon, when possible. In this case, sure, the claim's probably not contentious (and while KFC has not done so to my knowledge, you could imagine a company engaging in revisionist history to make its origins more "homestyle" than they really were). But on the other hand, I cannot imagine that Sanders's autobiography is the only reference to this. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 21:06, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, I have replaced Reference 9 with a third party source. Farrtj (talk) 16:43, 14 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 11 is not an independent source. Where it is used to identify Sanders's personal opinions, that's fine, but it's also used to reference claims that should be citable to better material.
Okay I've replaced the non-opinion facts with an independent source.Farrtj (talk) 19:06, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 22 et al.: Article editors are given substantial latitude in their citation formats so long as they are consistent. However, you cite various pages of this same Robert Darden book as something like four different reference entries. There are several ways to handle this sort of thing to make it clearer to the reader that the same source is being used multiple times. This probably isn't strictly actionable, and you dismissed my concerns over it at the last FAC, but it's frankly annoying from the perspective of someone examining how the article is sourced, so I'm going to keep bringing it up. On the other hand, what probably is actionable is that you don't have a consistent approach to when you make the book's title an external link. Doing so every time would be fine; doing so on the first use only would be fine. But the link is there in #21, gone in #22, back in #27...
Sorted. You make a fair point.Farrtj (talk) 19:18, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 36 is not independent. In this case, the claim's not controversial in any way, so it's probably not actionable that this isn't sourced to something independent, but it could be.
Sorted. Farrtj (talk) 12:54, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 42 is a perfect example of the problems I have with your source quality. You are using the company's own Form 10-K filings to reference such easily-sourced claims as the presence of drive-throughs in many KFCs, or the co-location of some KFCs with Yum!'s other brands. There should be no problem finding third-party sources for these sorts of things.
Replaced with a third party source where I could find one.Farrtj (talk) 20:11, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 49 is a non-independent Youtube video. This is CEO David Novak speaking at the University of Missouri, not a publication of the University of Missouri. Is this the best source available for this claim?
I can't find the claim elsewhere. But where else would such a claim originate than from the company, especially the CEO, who should be most expected to know? And he's hardly going to lie about such a relatively mundane fact.Farrtj (talk) 18:46, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 53 does not have WARC material formatted in the same manner as later sources. I'm still not thrilled with this source in general, but I'll concede its use isn't actionable unless I'm able to give more concrete justifications for my concerns.
  • Reference 71, 72, and 75 are not a third-party source, but serve as the sole citations for nearly two paragraphs of history about KFC's operations in Japan. At least some of this really needs better-quality sourcing.
Where else would one find such detailed insider knowledge about the operations of KFC Japan than from the company itself?Farrtj (talk) 18:52, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 74 is not independent, but more to the point here, I'm not sure that Sanders's visits to Japan are anything more that trivia.
Where else are we going to get that information from other than KFC or Sanders? And you argue that it's trivia, but I'd argue otherwise: Sanders visiting the Japanese operations three times in 8 years demonstrates the importance of the division to the company: it wasn't some forgotten about regional offshoot. Bear in mind he was in his eighties at the time: quite a trip for an elderly gentleman! Farrtj (talk) 18:55, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
We, as editors, aren't intended to make those sorts of decisions, however. Our role is to summarize what other sources have said about topics. If no independent sources are willing to address the topic, it's not important. I couldn't find anything, but admittedly didn't look very hard. Maybe the Japanese media covered this at the time? Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 21:06, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I don't, as far as I'm aware, have access to Japanese media articles from the 1970s, either in English language editions, or in translation. Sanders also mentions visiting Japan in his autobiography, so the claim that he visited clearly isn't a complete fabrication. Farrtj (talk) 12:11, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 80: I'm not sure why this one has the (subscription required) tag in a different place than the other references using it.
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 12:14, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 94 has more history that could be sourced to better references. There are plenty of books about the fast-food industry in Australia and New Zealand that can get you year and location of first-in-franchise stores and the like.
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 20:37, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Same goes for Reference 95 and Bob Lapointe.
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 20:37, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 97 is the same article cited in reference 91. I understand that you're taking facts from different page numbers here, but with journal articles, even more than books, convention is to cite the article's page range in the source in the first place.
Well spotted. Sorted now.Farrtj (talk) 21:13, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 107 is not an independent source (it's a KFC franchise operator), and it's being used for at least one important historical claim (that KFC withdrew from India).
Removed statement and source.Farrtj (talk) 21:13, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 109: You italicize Financial Times most places, but not here.
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 21:28, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 110: You italicize Bloomberg here, but I know I've seen it differently earlier somewhere, not going to chase it down right now. Also, you should check whether or not the company still officially considers its news service to be called Bloomberg News or not; I'm not sure offhand.
Sorted. Farrtj (talk) 12:19, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 111: By now, you know what my complaint is about history cited to these in-house web pages.
Couldn't find a third party source so removed the claim.Farrtj (talk) 21:43, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • I've got the same problem with the multiple entries for the Stephens Balakrishnan work that I did with the Darden book. That's especially true here, in fact, where a claim sourced to pages 126–127 gets a difference reference entry (#124) than one cited to just page 127 (#127)!
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 22:01, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • You've got a bunch of sources from 129 to 134 or so, and then again from 138 onward for a bit, documenting the sort of food that KFC serves. Most of them aren't independent -- and I note with some irony that one of the few independent sources in the bunch is USA Today, which you told me you found unacceptable in the previous FAC review when I suggested it was a source for the claim that the bucket is a "longtime icon" of the chain!. As an example of why this is a problem, by basing the article's description of the Streetwise Menu off KFC's corporate sourcing, it's described here as "value dishes", which is surely not a neutral POV.
Well I trust USA Today for a relatively neutral and trivial reference for something like Kentucky Nuggets. I need a better source for a claim that the bucket is "an icon" or whatever. I have changed the wording of "value dish" to "value menu", a pretty standard term used among management and business types. We're going to struggle to find third party sources for a lot of these menu items. Farrtj (talk) 22:07, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 148 is a corporate earnings conference call turned into basically a press release by an entity that looks like, but isn't really, a traditional news wire.
I don't think it's basically a press release. It's a transcript of a earnings conference call. Farrtj (talk) 12:22, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 162 and 163. You have two entries here for the same source, one for page 95, and one for pages 95–96. I realize that you're trying to be precise here, and that's laudable, but there really are better ways to do this that don't give the impression that the sourcing is broader than it really is.
I can only find one of these.Farrtj (talk) 23:48, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 164 is to the website of Louisville Magazine. Web citations that are just styled with the URL are a pet peeve of mine at FAC.
Sorted. Farrtj (talk) 12:25, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 168 is a dead link.
Removed dead link.Farrtj (talk) 23:53, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 172: Brandweek is a print publication; if you're not citing online content, do you have page numbers for this article?
No. My source for the reference is LexisNexis, which does not always give page numbers.Farrtj (talk) 23:53, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 173: PR Newswire isn't a traditional news service, its a rebroadcaster of press releases (hence the name, actually), and so this source should be labeled as such (this one's actually not problematic to use, since it's providing a direct quote rather than supplying background).
Now labelled.Farrtj (talk) 03:45, 18 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 174: I believe this publication should simply be styled Campaign, but you may want to confirm that.
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 03:46, 18 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 175: We can probably quibble about whether this is an acceptable use of Youtube content or not, but at the very least, this isn't a properly formatted reference.
  • Reference 207 is not a neutral, third-party reference for the KFC/PETA conflict. I suppose it's okay to use reference 209 for KFC's response to the situation, but, really, this was well-reported. Rather than cite primary sources from either side directly, the article should be sourced to neutral, third-party material. Consider, as an example:
  • Yaziji, Michael; Doh, Jonathan (2009). "Case illustration: PETA and KFC". NGOs and Corporations: Conflict and Collaboration. Business, Value Creation, and Society. Cambridge University Press. pp. 112–114. ISBN 978-0-521-86684-2.
You're right about ref 207, and I've replaced it with the source you give. Farrtj (talk) 12:32, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Similarly, there are probably even better sources for the KFC/Greenpeace issue that are currently being used. The news media citations are absolutely a step above citing Greenpeace directly, but there are books and reviews written with at least a little historical perspective, that would be higher quality still.
I could only find two book sources on Google Books [2][3], but they only deal with the Greenpeace KFC issue in passing, and the newspaper articles offer more depth. Farrtj (talk) 12:08, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Reference 218: I believe this website styles itself Scoop, but feel free to double-check. Regardless, this is a press release, and is even clearly marked as such.
That source has been removed as part of a deletion of that paragraph, for reasons detailed in the edit summary, but essentially regarding recentism. Farrtj (talk) 12:49, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

...and I'm done for now. That's just the concerns I have from looking at the reference in the article. I didn't try to see whether the article is a comprehensive review of available literature (as criterion 1c requires), but I guarantee that it's not. I didn't look at the quality of the prose (criterion 1a, and I know there's work needed there, too), nor did I try to determine if the article provides adequate coverage of all aspects of the topic (criterion 1b). I understand that a lot of work has been put into this article. I understand that its editor is passionate about that work. I understand that FAC is not a very forgiving or enjoyable process, and that I play the "mean cop" here a lot of the time. Please understand that I do this because I believe strongly in the Wikipedia project, the FA program, and the criteria; I criticize because I want articles to be better. But I don't think this met the criteria two months ago, I don't think this meets the criteria now, and I don't think it's going to meet the criteria two months from now without a fairly substantial amount of resourcing and revision. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 17:44, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose. While it was an interesting read, I noticed some inconsistencies, some issues, and some comprehensive issues that can't let me support it. I stumbled here from an FAC of my own, and I hope my comments in no way dissuade you from bettering this article. It's an important topic, and I applaud you for attempting it!

  • In the opening sentence, it should be "that", not "which", since it's a restrictive clause.
Okay done.Farrtj (talk) 05:56, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "with over 18,000 outlets in 120 countries and territories as of December 2012" - do you have a more recent update, since that's almost a year ago? Similarly, in the infobox, any estimate more recent than 2011?
No. Taken from the 2013 10-K, which counts 2012 figures.Farrtj (talk) 05:56, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "by Harland Sanders, a colorful figure" - ehh, doesn't sound that encyclopediac by saying "colorful"
Okay, changed.Farrtj (talk) 05:56, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "The chain has since expanded rapidly in China, and the country is now the company's most profitable market." - easy way to cut down on redundancy
Yep, done.Farrtj (talk) 05:56, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • There's a bit too much corporate history in the "history" section (like who bought what entity when), and too little about the chain itself. There is nothing about any changes during that time, such as when certain items were added (popcorn chicken anyone?), or any changes to the product.
You're right. I've added a line to the History section detailing a few successful new product launches (including popcorn chicken).Farrtj (talk) 15:53, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Tricon was renamed Yum! Brands in May 2002." - unsourced
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 14:47, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Sam Su is chairman and CEO of Yum!'s Chinese operations.[45] Richard T. Carucci is president of Yum!.[45] John Cywinski is president of KFC in the US.[45] The Yum! COO is Roger Eaton.[45] Muktesh Pant is CEO of Yum! Brands International." - plenty of short sentences here, and I think some could be merged.
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 14:53, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "KFC was the first Western fast food company in China with an outlet opening in Qianmen, Beijing, in November 1987" - another comma would be helpful after China. Also, you shouldn't use "with" as a phrase constructor. You could say "after an outlet opened" instead.
Done.Farrtj (talk) 13:28, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "In 1989 KFC had three outlets in Beijing; by 1994 this had risen to 28 across the country, including 7 in Beijing" - this should be before the preceding sentence.
Done.Farrtj (talk) 13:33, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "and two new products are released each month" - is this an average or actual practice that persists?
This is a good question but slightly problematic, as the Harvard Business Press source (normally reliable) simply says "two new products are unveiled every month". I assume this means that they try to launch two new products as a practice.Farrtj (talk) 13:38, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • " can be largely credited to Yum! chief executive David Novak, who expanded 100 stores in 1997 to 4,400 in 2013" - the wording could be clearer. Was it his initiative to expand the number of stores? And the writing suggests that literally 100 stores grew literally into 4,300 more. I'd add "from" before 100, and maybe clarify by "who helped expand the franchise from 100 stores..." something like that.
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 13:57, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "the chain was hit by allegations" - that sounds kinda vernacular
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 13:57, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "In May 2013, Businessweek speculated that KFC may be "losing its touch" in China." - any update?! This is the most interesting part of the China section so far :)
Updated with more! Farrtj (talk) 13:57, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "By April 2007, trans fat-free soybean oil had been introduced in all KFC restaurants in the US." - introduced, yes, but were the trans-fat oil still being used? Or did the new trans fat-free oil replaced the other ones?
Clarified.Farrtj (talk) 14:04, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Novak blamed low US sales" - blamed seems a bit inappropriate here, since it carries some emotional weight. Perhaps "credited"?
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 14:04, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Why use the spelling of "début"?
It's the only version of the word accepted by the OED.Farrtj (talk) 14:04, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • The end of the Japan section seems to indicate a decline during the 1990s, but nothing since then.
I've added a line about 2000 that I think indicates that the decline was shortlived.Farrtj (talk) 14:23, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "there were 840 KFC restaurants in the UK and Ireland, the fourth largest number of KFC outlets in any country" - UK and Ireland are two separate countries though.
Sorted.Farrtj (talk) 14:26, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • How come there weren't protests when KFC went back into India the second time around?
It's a very good question, and I'm sure I would have added the reason(s) if I'd come across them. I'm not sure if anyone has been able to reliably say (it's always going to be an educated guess/opinion rather than an objective fact, much like the reasons for KFC's success in China, of which entire books and academic articles have been written). I'll look into this anyway, but it may take some time.Farrtj (talk) 14:53, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Shelton's company, Winston Industries, continue to supply KFC with pressure fryers." - ref?
Unable to find a reference for this, so I've removed the assertion.Farrtj (talk) 14:33, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "In 2012, a UK advertisement entitled "4000 cooks" featured an actor made up to look like Sanders." - ref?
I can only find Youtube videos as a source for this... Farrtj (talk) 14:34, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "In September 2013, a KFC franchise in New Zealand was criticized by unions and disability advocacy groups for enforcing a policy that fired disabled KFC employees unable to perform all duties in their branch" - on one hand, this seems a bit like recentism, but on the other hand, I gotta wonder, where is there info on employees and such before two months ago?
Do you mean there should be an "Employees" section in the article? I'm a little confused.Farrtj (talk) 14:39, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • How come there is no indication on why they changed the name to just KFC? If anything, I'd love to see info on the hoax that they changed it because they didn't use real chicken anymore. That's encyclopediac, both the hoax and the reason for the name change.
Although this is addressed in more depth in the History of KFC page, it is an important change, so I have added the reasoning behind the change to the article.Farrtj (talk) 14:58, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In all, I have to oppose, but generally a decent job. --♫ Hurricanehink (talk) 04:59, 13 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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