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Holographic french fry packet scares away seagulls

Who's your fry daddy? Australian fast-food franchise Hungry Jack's shows off its new wrappers intended to freak out hungry birds.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper

If you live in a landlocked city or state, you may never have been required to defend your al fresco lunch from a pack of hungry and determined seagulls. But it's enough of a problem in some areas of Australia, apparently, that technology has come to the rescue.

Hungry Jack's, the company that franchises and oversees Burger King's presence in Australia, decided it was time to do something about bird burglars who were snatching french fries (chips, to Australians). In a video in which seagulls are dubbed "pincer-mouthed, chip-addicted feather reptiles," the company presents its solution: A fry container that scares gulls.

"Printed on holographic paper, the glittering surface reflects light, and protects our new thick-cut chips," the company promises, noting that the new wrappers have been released in "gull-infested areas around the country."

"Finally, Aussies can enjoy their thick-cut chips in peace," the ad claims, showing a gull faced with fries in two cartons, and choosing to steal from the non-holographic one.

Not all Aussies are buying it. "I thought shiny things attracted birds?" wrote one YouTube viewer. "This is such a bad idea."

And one viewer questioned the timing, considering the season in Australia at the moment. "GREAT IDEA! Now no pesky seagulls are gonna steal chips from my warmed-up house because it's winter."