Chick-fil-A Offers Free Ice-Cream to Those Who Put Their Phone Away While Eating

Fast food chain Chick-Fil-A has started a new promotion in which patrons receive a free ice-cream dessert if they put their phone away while they eat.

Relevant reports that many Americans are addicted to checking their phones, so Chick-Fil-A wants to encourage customers to spend quality time with each other while enjoying a meal.

“Americans now spend an average of 4.7 hours per day on their phone … Although our phones were meant to bring us closer together, they can sometimes have the opposite effect,” said a statement from the restaurant.

One hundred fifty Chick-Fil-A restaurants across the country are participating in the promotion which includes providing “phone coops” to customers who want to participate in the challenge. The “phone coops” are boxes in which to keep your phone until you are finished enjoying your Chick-Fil-A meal.

Customers who successfully complete the challenge of not checking their phone while eating will receive a free “Icedream” dessert.

The idea for this challenge was the brainchild of a Chick-Fil-A restaurant operator in Georgia named Brad Williams. Williams explained the purpose of the challenge:

“We really want our restaurant to provide a sense of community for our customers, where family and friends can come together and share quality time with one another. But 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.”

Relevant reports that this challenge may be more difficult than it sounds, especially for millennials who, according to research, check their phones 43 times a day. Eighty-seven percent of millennials also said their phone never leaves their side.

 If you can refuse to be a part of that statistic, a free ice-cream is waiting for you.

Publication date: March 3, 2016