Replete with fumbling apologies, Kentucky Fried Chicken officials are scrambling to remove Australian ads that were slammed in America for allegedly “feeding” a traditionally racist stereotype about black people.
Apparently, the high-level executives at Yums! Brand Inc., owner of the KFC restaurant chain, either never thought the commercial, which features an uncomfortable white man calming down blacks in the West Indies by feeding them a bucket of fried chicken, would be seen in America or simply saw nothing wrong with it. While both ideas are completely asinine, what’s worse is that this isn’t the first time such social trash was supported by KFC.
Checkout a recent Korean KFC ad posted on YouTube: a young Korean man escapes the clutches of a menacing black tribe on a remote island after he magically produces multiple boxes of fried chicken. In the tribe’s feverish stampede to devour the fried chicken, looking like a herd of bumbling animals, they forget about their captive Korean as he quietly makes his escape. At the commercial’s end, the once-angry clan has been suddenly transformed into happy-go-lucky inheritors of fried chicken and cheers for KFC.
Presented under KFC’s “Cricket Survival Guide” series, the Australian ad shows a young white Australian sitting in a sea of cheering black people during a cricket match. After the Australian, named Mick, asks, “Need a tip when you’re stuck in an awkward situation?” he takes out a bucket of fried chicken and feeds it to the anxious crowd. The chicken immediately calms everyone. Mick then smiles at the camera and says, “Too easy.”
So, let’s add up the tally. That’s two KFC commercials featuring excitable black people somewhere in the world, and in both ads those two groups of blacks are calmed by consuming fried chicken. Wow.
The Australian ad has been viewed by 200,000 people on YouTube and has generated over 2,000 comments from both sides of the cultural aisle. Some say the ads conveniently leaned on negative stereotypes of African Americans that predate Jim Crow. In contrast, those defending the commercials say African Americans and their sympathizers are super-sensitive. They declare that Australians, Koreans and West Indians have never subscribed to the stereotype, dismissing it as an American social phenomenon.
What do you think? Do you believe KFC and its parent company knew these commercials were tinged with racist themes? –terry shropshire
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Australian Commercial
