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Each week, WFAE's "Morning Edition" hosts get a rundown of the biggest business and development stories from The Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter.

Charlotte's midtown Bojangles is blue, against city regulations. But is any publicity good PR?

Zoning ordinances prohibit wrapping restaurants in vinyl, as Bojangles has been doing lately to attract buzz. Code enforcement officials in Charlotte and in South Carolina are threatening fines.
Courtesy of The Charlotte Ledger
Zoning ordinances prohibit wrapping restaurants in vinyl, as Bojangles has been doing lately to attract buzz. Code enforcement officials in Charlotte and in South Carolina are threatening fines.

If you’ve been in midtown Charlotte lately, just east of uptown, you might have seen something striking. The Bojangles there has been wrapped in Carolina Panthers colors of bright blue and black. Back in May, Bojangles redecorated an Independence Boulevard location in vibrant yellow to make it resemble a Bo Box.

And the city of Charlotte wasn’t happy with either new color scheme.

A Bojangles on East Independence Boulevard in Charlotte is painted bright yellow.
Tony Mecia
/
The Charlotte Ledger
A Bojangles on East Independence Boulevard in Charlotte is painted bright yellow.

In this week’s BizWorthy, the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter’s Tony Mecia talks to WFAE’s “Morning Edition” host Marshall Terry about why.

To listen to the full conversation, click the audio above.

“What we have here is the city is saying that Bojangles is in violation of the sign ordinance, which is intended to make it so that parts of Charlotte, that they're not cluttered visually, that drivers aren't distracted, that sort of thing,” Mecia said. “And there are very specific requirements.”

This has been a regular promotion Bojangles has done with its restaurants across the Carolinas. In Columbia, it redecorated one in South Carolina Gamecocks’ red and black; in Pendleton, South Carolina, one is Clemson's school colors of orange and purple.

And Bojangles isn’t backing down on doing it in Charlotte, Mecia said, especially when the penalty is simply a $500 fine.

“I think Bojangles is sort of taking the attitude that these things attract a lot of publicity,” Mecia said. “People sort of mention them on Twitter, mention them online. There are occasionally news stories saying, 'Wow, look at this, they wrap them up as the football team's colors,' you know, so they they reap a lot of publicity on it."

Other topics discussed in BizWorthy:

  • The Charlotte Ledger looked into medical billing and why it can be so complex. Specifically, it investigated one case of a Lake Norman man who was told his colonoscopy would cost $1,500 ... but then was billed for $10,000.
  • An update on what's happening with the old United Way building uptown.
  • And why the North Carolina Department of Transportation was trash-talking Ohio last week about its license plate.

    "It was sort of a sick burn to all those Ohioans who come down to our beaches in the summer," Mecia said.

To hear the full conversation, listen to the audio above.

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Marshall came to WFAE after graduating from Appalachian State University, where he worked at the campus radio station and earned a degree in communication. Outside of radio, he loves listening to music and going to see bands - preferably in small, dingy clubs.