Last week, KFC (the company formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken) donated $3,000 to the city of Louisville, where KFC is based, to fill some of the city’s potholes and offered to do the same in four more American cities. Just one string was attached.

As the final paragraph of the company’s press release explained:

KFC-refreshed potholes will be branded via a large stencil that reads “Re-Freshed by KFC” in eye-catching, but non-permanent street chalk.

Here is a sample of a stenciled pothole catching the eye of an actor playing the company’s icon, Colonel Sanders, on a Louisville street:

While some people might question the wisdom, or safety, of letting corporations cover the nation’s roads with advertising slogans — particularly in return for such a small amount of money — the chain’s hometown leapt at the offer to fill 350 potholes.

“Budgets are tight for cities across the country, and finding funding for needed road repairs is a continuing challenge,” Louisville’s Mayor Jerry Abramson said in a joint statement with the company. “It’s great to have a concerned corporation like KFC create innovative private/public partnerships like this pothole refresh program.”

As Louisville’s WAVE 3 TV reported on Monday, the KFC program has already led to another offer to fill potholes in return for ad space on Louisville streets. According to WAVE’s Lindsay English, the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants in on the act:

In a letter to Mayor Jerry Abramson, PETA proposed giving Metro Louisville $6,000 to repair potholes, twice as much as KFC gave the city just last week. The restaurant made the repairs and stamped their logo on the patched asphalt. PETA wants to do the same, but they want to add their own rendition of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, Col. Harland Sanders. PETA depicts him as an evil Colonel Sanders, complete with horns, next to the tagline “KFC Tortures Animals”.

PETA blogger Jeff Mackey (no relation to your Leder) posted an image of the stencil the group would like to see on Louisville’s streets, along with this explanation:

KFC might concentrate instead on improving conditions for the chickens it abuses, but it won’t, so we’re offering to double the money that KFC offered the City of Louisville — if the city will use our ads against KFC cruelty on its potholes instead. After all, drivers have a right to hear the chickens’ side of the story — and it isn’t pretty.

Chris Poynter, a spokesman for Louisville’s mayor, said the city would “pass” on PETA’s offer, explaining to WAVE:

KFC is a great corporate citizen of ours. They employ lots of people in our town. They do great things for our hometown and we’re glad to work with them on this pothole program. But PETA, ummm … not so much.

KFC is continuing to look for other places to spread its asphalt love.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Tuesday that the city of Chicago is considering the offer — sort of. While the newspaper says that one Chicago official “raised questions about the quality of asphalt KFC intends to use,” the city’s mayor, Richard Daley — whose car hit a giant pothole and got a flat tire last week — said he would consider the offer if KFC would consider a somewhat larger donation:

“If they give us $25 million or $30 million, we’d be glad to look at it. . . . I want the money up front. I’ll take $50 million if you give me $50 million.” Asked whether he was opposed to putting corporate logos on Chicago streets, Mayor Daley said, “It all depends if they’re ready to give 50, 60, 70, 80 million. There’s a lot of potholes out here.”

To give a sense of the scale of the problem caused by potholes in cities, transportation crews in Washington repair more than 220,000 potholes annually, at an average total cost of $900,000. On Monday, half way through a month-long “potholepalooza,” the city’s March campaign to clear winter potholes, road crews there had filled more than 3,300 craters, working at a pace of about 280 a day.