Is This KFC Ad Racist?
A mere three months after the Harry Connick Jr/blackface incident, there’s been another accusation of racism in Australia, this time in the form of a television advertisement for KFC. While the blackface incident was racist at best and ignorant at worse, this commercial is in much more of a gray area.
The ad in question is part of a series of commercials called the “KFC Cricket Survival Guide”, which features an Australian character caught in different scenarios with various cricket fans and how he uses KFC to get out of these situations. In one commercial he’s a lone Australian sitting with several fans of the West Indian cricket team and when he produces a bucket of fried chicken, the fans stop cheering and instead focus on the food.
(You can also view the ad here, via the KFC Australia website.)
As an Australian who is immersed in American culture, I can see both sides of the argument in this case. The ad is not simply saying that Black people will always be distracted by fried chicken, but I can see how that could be inferred – the focus of the ad is saying that KFC will distract any cricket fan, but in this case they’re using West Indian fans instead of English, Indian or New Zealand fans. In Australia we also get to see the context of the ad as it is run with many different KFC/cricket themed commercials, where the whole point is how KFC is popular with fans of cricket, not just Black fans of cricket, something that is also lost when viewing the West Indian ad by itself.
To read some different points of view on the commercial, check out “Here We Go Again: Australian KFC Ad Deemed Racist By Ignorant Americans” (inquisitr.com) and “KFC Knows How to Put White Guys at Ease” (mediabistro.com).
What do you think – is the commercial racist? Ignorant? Harmless? All of the above, or none of the above?
I enjoy apple pie.
Hope that helps
OMG Mr. Smith, do u no dats da 1st thing I thought when I saw dis ad!! I’m sure everyone can make up their own mind…but i no wat im voting…xox
It’s so easy to jump to conclusions, but after reading your write-up, it sounds like just a very bad and unfortunate decision on KFC’s ad company’s part.
harmless,its true!!!!!
it’s racist but funny, I’m sorry it IS. But how many racist ass mcdonalds commercials must I look at where they always have black folks rapping and sh*t, wtf is up with that?
personally I guffawed, i thought it was going to be a little more overt than that but still.
I just watched this on another website and everyone is jumping to conclusions like australia is the MOST racist country on the face of the earth. gtfohwtbs!
stupid advertisers= stupid advertisers and not a whole country full of racist
I see absolutely nothing racist about this ad whatsoever. What I see is an Australian reinforcing a traditional Aussie value, and that is Mateship. Being a mate and sharing. What is wrong with this? Why has this caused condemnation of Australia by Americans? They are West Indies – not African Americans. This ad was shown during the cricket matches between Australia and the West Indies team, and they aren’t complaining.
Besides, the West Indies and African Americans wouldn’t share the same lifestyle, so once again, why am I hearing Americans complaining about the people in the ad eating fried chicken?
I used to have some respect for the USA, but now I have lost it all. You are too politically correct and it is corrupting your nation – not Australia. America, don’t stick your nose in things you know nothing about!
your change can change lives
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Seriosly. People need to TTFU (toughen the f*&k up). The guy uses food to shut people up – simple really. Food in mouth = no noise. If the black guys in America keep looking for people disrespecting them they will end up like Muslim extremists. MAD as a hatter! Chill T F Out. tools.
Watching this ad out of context, it is easy to interpret it as racist. However, there is quite a few of these commercials that the same guy uses fried chicken to distract people of european descent.
It also happens that the West Indies were playing against Australia in cricket at the time. The ad would have been no different if the croud consisted of the Barmy Army (English cricket supporters) had we playing against England at the time.
The ad was not produced OR shown in the USA, and was certainly not meant to offend. Besides, who doesn’t love fried chicken?
Keith, the reason this caused commotion by americans is because there was West-Indian Americans over here too. not everyone is African American, so you have to understand what they’re seeing here. Poor choice for an ad tho. thats all. coulda just made that dude in the middle of a crowd of people rooting for the other team instead of making him look like the only sane person in the crowd lol. commercial had potential tho…
WHAT! they actually think that that is racist?
Why does tht country always have to jump to conclusions and stick there noses where there not wanted. There all up set because of some racist joke that was made up in there COUNRTY and it hahs nothing to do with african american, so hy are they complaining??!
Americans are the most racist people i have met! while they may think there country is great they hate everybody else whether it be the native americans, african americans, indians, asians what ever and you can even see it in there government example guantanamo bay. I mean look at all there telivision shows south park, family guy, american dad, futurama the simpsons while they are humerous shows they all reflect on stereo types and racism, and when ever they poke fun at other countires ththey dont care they assume we’ll take it as a joke but when anywehre else does anything they have to stick there fat arses where the not wanted
i mean look at the hey hey its saturday skit, we Australia was just having a bit of fun and that pussy (whats his name…some one junior) had to go nd over react nd mae a big deal out of it cause he ethough he was kool nd special nd anted all this attention f* him
f* off america ifx ur own damn problems before you try to fix problem that ur creating ur selfs leave the rest of the worl out of it!
I posted about this earlier on my own blog. Your article has really given me some food for thought, I really feel you’ve made many very intriguing points. I want I’d discovered it earlier, previous to writing my very own post.