WE’VE ALL been there: freshly full after consuming more than your fair share of crispy chicken goodness for lunch, trying to assimilate back into normal work life. Your fingers leave an ugly, oily trail of your meal across your phone and tablet keyboards.
A first-world solution to a first-world problem: a super-thin, rechargeable Bluetooth keyboard that arrives with your tray of fast food, connects to your smartphone, and lets you text with sticky fingers without messing up your screen. The KFC Tray Typer—part of an advertising campaign for the fast food chain in Germany—is a high-tech replacement for the usual grease-absorbing paper slip that’s served up on fast food trays. Presumably, it’s durable enough to get wiped down and re-used—although the advert’s creator, Serviceplan, claims the smart paper trays were so popular when handed out during the opening week of new restaurants that “every single one was taken home”.
Despite the oddball implementation, the 0.4-mm-thick Tray Typer is undoubtedly impressive technology. This is a flat, wireless keyboard that can be charged, and even rolled up.
The upper part of the keyboard is made up of KFC logos and promotion. On the lower half, you’ll find a fully crafted keyboard of the kind you’re used to seeing at your desk. By pressing the on/off switch to the side and holding for two seconds, the keyboard will turn on. From there, all you have to do is connect with the Bluetooth option and you’re ready to message your friends while you eat.
“KFC is fingerlickin’ good. But using your smartphone while enjoying KFC will leave a not-so-good fingerprint on your touchscreen,” Regis Watrisse, digital marketing director at Serviceplan, the company behind the marketing promotion, was quoted as saying in the media.
“That’s why we invented the KFC Tray Typer—a durable paper tray that transforms into a super-thin, rechargeable wireless keyboard when you connect your smartphone via Bluetooth,” Watrisse said.
Cool as they are, the promotional keyboards only solve one of the screen-greasing aspects of working while you eat. It doesn’t include a trackpad, so users still have to swipe their screens with greasy hands. Despite this, nobody has complained about the innovative tray promotion.
The Tray Typer may sound far-fetched, but technologically it is cutting-edge—not science fiction. In 2013, a UK-based electronics company named CSR showed off a Bluetooth keyboard that was just as thin and flexible as the Tray Typer. It wouldn’t be the craziest electronic peripheral the fast food chain has come up with either: last year in Japan, KFC launched a keyboard, mouse, and USB stick combo—all in the shape of pieces of fried chicken.
Last year, KFC Japan gave away iPhone cases shaped like massive fried chicken drumsticks through a promo on Twitter. The company also gave away giant plush drumsticks, which had openings where customers could stick their heads into. This aimed to attract confused looks from people who passed by, but as long as the person was sleeping soundly inside the drumstick, then he would not notice the judging stares.
This also isn’t the first time that we’ve seen fast food companies using technology to better peddle their products. Domino’s may be the reigning champion in this area: the company introduced the ability to order pizza using Twitter this month, and has previously live-streamed the pizza-making process and allowed customers to pay with Bitcoins.
Actually creating a product as useful as the Tray Typer—even if it’s just part of an advertising campaign—looks pretty sane by comparison.
KFC fans in India need not rejoice as yet. There are currently no plans to roll out the Tray Typer in other countries, as per KFC.
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