Chicago newscast apologizes for airing "PF Chang 2018" Winter Olympics graphic

DJ Dunson
·2 min read
P.F. Chang appreciates the free advertising.
P.F. Chang appreciates the free advertising.

A Chicago-area ABC affiliate station apologized on Monday after accidentally airing legitimate “fake news.” Before introducing a segment, WLS-Channel 7 aired a graphic during Saturday morning’s newscast which replaced Olympics host city Pyeongchang with “P.F. Chang 2018” above the Olympic rings. Their gaffe quickly went viral and introduced a terrible joke into the mainstream zeitgeist.

A spokesman for the ABC affiliate told the Chicago Tribune that the graphic was actually created for a satirical sports piece. However, the weekend anchors somehow used the farcical graphic during a serious piece on the Olympics’ political backdrop.

Via The Chicago Tribune:

Jayme Nicholas, a spokesperson for the ABC affiliate in Chicago, told Inc. that the goof was the result of a mix-up. The graphic was created for a different “satirical piece” put together on Friday by sports anchor Mark Giangreco in which viewers were encouraged to invent their own Olympic sports, but it was mistakenly also used for the serious news story read on Saturday by weekend anchor Mark Rivera, Nicholas said.

The snafu drew a snarky Twitter response from P.F. Chang, an Asian-themed restaurant, with seven locations in South Korea.

It’s not clear if P.F. Chang’s marketing department took advantage of this phonics connection until now, but the free advertising was surely appreciated.

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DJ Dunson is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at dunsnchecksin@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or Facebook.