Bad economy?  What bad economy?

At a time when sports league fear the loss of sponsorship revenues due to the ongoing global financial meltdown, the fine folks at Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC have become the official wing sponsors of the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl XLIII.

The partnership was first reported on Monday by SportsBusiness Journal.  We received a press release announcing the relationship a little while ago.

It’s really not all that newsworthy, but for the fact that my first ”real” job, way back in 1981, involved wearing a paper hat with an old man’s face drawn on it and repeatedly dropping raw chicken parts into buckets of flour and preparing them for subsequent immersion into 360-degree grease shortening.  (But first the thigh parts had to be individually cracked by hand.  Otherwise, the pieces wouldn’t fully cook, and someone digging around the lower spine area with a spork could get squirted in the eyes by kidney contents.  And that would be a shame.  So I was always sure to crack every single piece, without ever missing one, inadvertently or otherwise.  And I’m sticking to that story, even though all applicable statutes of limitations have expired.)

The move also merits a mention because KFC ruffled the NFL’s feathers earlier this year by offering to donate $260,000 to charity in the name of any player who flapped his wings like a chicken after scoring a touchdown during Super Bowl XLII. 

The NFL decried the move as “Ambush Marketing 101.”  In the nine intervening months, the two sides have found a way to mend fences. 

The writing of a large check by one of the parties often tends to do that.

UPDATE:  Taco Bill already has gotten an exclusive look at one of the NFL-themed buckets that KFC will be using.

SECOND UPDATE:  And what’s a marketing campaign without the NFL’s most recognizable marketing tool?