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Re: Racist KFC Ad in Australia
When viewed on itself that way yes it's understandable why this commercial created the reaction that it did, because it is indeed rather poor judgement. Australia of late has copped a lot of embarassing moments with regards to racism and more of it is justified then i like, i am aware that there are a lot of negative stereotypes of the African American community in the U.S. a lot of things that really are offensive such as fried chicken.
However, i would just like to give a bit more insight, not to defend any racism perceived or hurt felt, but to try and display that this ad really had no direct intention to negatively stereotype the African American culture (and yes i know that ignorance isn't a defence, but sometimes reading too much intention into something paints something innocent in a guilty light)
This was just one in a series of ads for the Summer of cricket with which KFC was the major sponsor for the one day series between Australia and the West Indies.
There was no intent of racism in this ad or any of the other ads that were shown, what you had was one Australian supporter who unfortunately had a seat in the visitors section of the grandstand so he was naturally out numbered by West Indian spectators.
Anyone who has ever attended a sporting even where your the only one in the section who was not meant to be there is well aware of the atmosphere of the situation. Imagine sitting in the Boston Garden among a sea of green in a purple Lakers T-shirt, your not going to get people telling you 'hey good luck man, the Lakers have a good shot of winning tonight' no, your going to get a constant chorus of 'Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!'
And honestly, it's an advertisement for Kentucky Fried Chicked, i doubt he is going to offer the supporters around him a burger meal because a burger meal is always more of an individual thing where as a dinner bucket with 20 odd pieces of chicken is always for a larger gathering.
It really was an unfortunate circumstance that the visiting nation taking on Australia this year happened to be the West Indies. Pakistan also came to visit but the West Indies were the first on tour and all promotions begin at least a month before the first match is played, had the schedule been reversed then the advertisement would have featured a sea of Pakistani supporters and unless the advertisement showed KFC handing out curry and papadums then yes this would have received the justified coverage of being racist. But KFC's flagship is based on selling fried chicken.
It was merely a case of to make large amounts of people happy a party bucket is the best way to do it. It was just an unfortunate circumstance that the West Indies were the focus of the Summer of cricket this year.
But in terms of the dancing and rowdiness of the crowd, that's not directed souly at the African American community, again this was the West Indian team, but all nations supporters at cricket are the same, you look at the Indians, the Pakistani's, South Africa, New Zealand and even the English who have the renowned Barmy Army who travel the world watching the English cricket team and singing loud chants aimed directly at the opposing nation usually buzzed up on more then just a few pints of beer.
When the British are in Australia it's not uncommon to see a bunch of British guys draped in the British flag singing 'You all live in a convict colony' to the tune of Yellow Submarine by the beatles. Nations who follow cricket follow it with a real passion, the fields in India and Pakistan are caged off and yet the fans are so intense that they will still climb over the cage barriers and invade the pitches.
The crowds behaviour was not subjective to African Americans it was subjective to the culture of the cricketing fan the world over.
Not trying to generate any hate or hurt any feelings, just trying to say that i'm Australian and sometimes we can get painted with a misunderstood picture because we're in the bottom corner of the globe. So if you step into someone else's culture and grab this thing, viewing it out of the context then you may find it more offensive.
I'm not sure whether this has done anything to change how you view it, it probably hasn't, but i just wanted to try and give some more background to show that this wasn't as blatant as what was claimed. It doesn't make it right, but at the same time is every culture in the world supposed to be politically correct to every other culture globally when censoring advertisments.
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01-06-2010
Rating:
If I was an actor reading the script, I'd have been like "Hell no! If you want to dog black folks out like this, you better draw up some cartoon characters instead!!" Guess that wasn't necessary though...which kinda gives me more pause than anything.
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