In case you didn’t catch it, Kentucky Fried Chicken is offering a $20,000 scholarship to a high school senior to send a tweet with the hashtag #KFCScholar about how they exemplify the Col’s commitment to education, or something. From their release:

“KFC is asking college hopefuls to tweet why they exemplify Colonel Sanders’ commitment to education and enriching their communities, and why they are deserving of a college scholarship."

For those of us unable to apply, you can now follow the action on Slurp140! 

Do you think this latest marketing promotion will succeed? 

Will this promo / others like it be more successful than traditional TV advertising or product placement?

As of this writing at 2:15pm EST, we have tracked a total of 958 tweets by 785 users, which is a little lower than I would expect given that this promotion has been reported on by CNN and USA Today. For some background on KFC’s traditional marketing and product placement on NBC, check out this article by Willa Paskin on NYMAG.com (Note, I respectfully disagree with the analysis about NBC’s “Community,” the show is absolutely hilarious in the Arrested Development sense of things!)