WikimediaIn a bold new promotional campaign a restaurant is offering to give away free ice cream if customers can go screen-free for the entirety of their meal.
U.S chicken restaurant Chick-Fil-A are hoping the offer will bring their diners ‘closer together’ and have said that customers at more than 150 locally-owned Chick-Fil-A locations across the country will have the opportunity to win a free Chick-Fil-A Icedream provided they can make it through their meals without looking at their phones, reports Fortune.
Chick-Fil-AThe company said in its announcement:
Although our phones were meant to bring us closer together, they can sometimes have the opposite effect.
The promotion is the brainchild of Brad Williams – a Chick-Fil-A operator in Georgia – who has been offering dining families a cardboard box he calls a ‘cell phone coop’ where they can place their phones – in silent mode – for the duration of their meals.
In a statement Brad said:
As we all know, technology increasingly demands more of our time and can be a big distraction, even while we’re eating. This got me thinking about what we could do to reduce this distraction during meals.
Chick-Fil-AUnfortunately the phone-free ice cream giveaway is not available at every Chick-Fil-A location, so the company advises potential customers to contact their local operator to inquire about availability.
Chick-Fil-A is well known in the States for its chicken sandwiches and the company has recently expanded into New York City. It sounds like it’s been a hit too, as they have now announced they will open a second Big Apple location.
That’s assuming they don’t go broke from all the free ice cream they’re about to have to hand out – if people can resist reaching for their phones to Instagram a photograph of their dinner that is.
