Thursday, January 07, 2010

Racist KFC ad.




So I'm reading about the alleged "racist" KFC ad this morning.

I'm not surprised.

Let me paint the picture.  Our bogan hero sits down amongst a rabid bunch of West Indian cricket fans, all of whom happen to be black skinned.  They are raucously cheering some event and our white bogan hero is feeling a little intimidated, at which point he produces a huge bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken which instantly silences the crowd as they start hoeing down on tasty chicklets.

When I first saw this ad I was, like, OMFG!  Did I just see that?  I'm three parts Australian - four parts Australian, and even I know that the stereotype of coloured folks chowing down on KFC is a despicable racial slur - even if that's primarily in the good ol' USA.

But, after a little thought, I figure it's kinda like the Hey Hey blackface skit controversy.  We in Australia (and possibly even the West Indies for that matter) don't have that same cultural reference, so could hardly be considered racist in that context.

But THEN I thought, no WAI!!  Every ad guy worth their salt spends pretty much every spare waking hour trawling through the interwebs.  If there is an ad guy out there who is unfamiliar with the "n*gg'r/KFC" meme then they are just not doing their job.  Of course they knew about it.  And, QED, that makes it racist.

These KFC ads are not sitting easily with me.  The first, I recall, had a spectator being knocked unconscious by a stray cricket ball after which our bogan hero steals his fried chicken product.  Inspirational stuff.  The next I recall was our bogan hero cracking the shits because his housemates dared have a conversation about, you know, stuff, whilst his beloved cricket was on (oh, my hero). Another suggests you can get free tickets to the cricket by impersonating a police officer, and yet another suggests you can get the best seat in the house by wearing a fluoro vest and impersonating a security guard.  Brilliant stuff that.

Usually I'm pretty forgiving with the suspension of disbelief, but this series has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and the quicker it is off the screen the better.

One more reason not to eat that shit.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

YEAH, you go girl!!!

Anonymous said...

It's all about targeting the lowest common denominator and dumbing down to the level of your average KFC consumer. Advertising people are sooo overpaid! Loza

Curt said...

The other reason not to eat the shit is it gives kids brain damage. (Genuinely sad link.)