KFC Pulls "Racist" Australian TV spot

It's sincerely surprising to me too. Not that I feel they have an obligation to know about it or are any less of a person for not knowing, just genuinely surprised they haven't ran into the cultural references to it. I was exposed to it overseas by countless references to the stereotype (along with the watermelon one).

I'll try to redimensionalize this.

Tobacco.

In the states we say "cigarette," and over in the UK (I'm sure elsewhere as well) it's a "fag."

If I here someone ask for a fag in England, I'm not an idiot, and I know that culturally speaking this statement is altogether unremarkable. I am in another culture, and I should expect different cultural norms. Further, the use of the word, which has a strong negative connotation in the USA, does not mean that I think the the Brits are homophobes. In truth, they're a lot more progressive than us about this.

Nobody is intentionally trying to offend anybody else, and nobody is trying to change anyone else's culture here. I'm certainly not going to assert to the English that they should have to call it something else.

Back to the ad.

I don't think the ad is racist. I don't think the Yum corporation is racist for putting it out either. It is however a liability here in the USA, and sorry Australia, but that DOES mean something to an American company. How could it not?

Put yourself in that boardroom. How do you justify inaction? Do you believe that KFC should crunch the numbers? when you think practically about this, it is not about race in the end, but about minimalizing liability. they can perhaps spend twice as much money as the ad originally cost to explain the ad to a population that can't be bothered to understand the context, or you can simply pull the ad.

Are American cigarettes advertised as fags in the UK?

T
K
O

Who is "they"?

I somehow know something about watermelon....

I think of fried chicken as a southern US thing...but I'd have had no clue it was racially a hot wire.

If anything, I'd have thought it might be a southern hot wire

Agreeing with pdog on the jokes/taunts chicken and blacks thing - I'm sure I heard about it in Los Angeles, but I don't remember the context.

I do think it's more likely something that started in the north, unlike the watermelon thing. In pre-1980's northeast, deep fried food was considered something poor people and immigrants ate. You might bring it to a picnic or serve it to children for lunch, but northern women did not brag about their fried chicken when I was growing up. They might trade recipes for their meatloaf or chicken cordon bleu, but no one was throwing breaded chicken in pot of lard and bragging about it.

Diest, I assume you know where the term "fag" comes from. I'm not surprised Europeans would use it as a common word to refer to cigarettes. It was a common word long before the modern derogatory reference. I'm not sure gays should take it as a slur anymore than I should take the word "witch" as a slur. It's really a word that underlines the cruel persecution of homosexuals. I'm not looking to start a new battle on this, but it's one of those words that is more powerful than most bigoted users realize.

(To save a few people from Googling: The term "fagot" or "fag" was a bundle of dry twigs and leaves used to start a fire. When homosexuals were condemned to death they were often burned on a stake. Burnings usually consisted of numerous "sinners" being incinerated in one day. It was tradition (for lack of a better word) to burn homosexuals first and thus they were called "fagots" because they started the fires.)

The chicken is not "breaded," and i never knew of anyone who cooked it in lard. Everyone i've ever known has fried it in vegetable shortening. You do realize that there is a typical pejorative, Yankee contempt in your description there, don't you?

I'm a good Jewish Yankee who has no fried chicken recipe in her kitchen. I do have a really nice baked chicken with cherries recipe I could share.

the best fried chicken in the world is in fact breaded, and fried in lard.

i promise...

http://www.brookvillehotel.com/

I thought I remembered a former roommate from North Carolina using breadcrumbs and complaining because she couldn't get real lard. Glad I'm not totally crazy.

GW - I think you get my point then. Cultural explanations don't fix everything. The Americans trying to explain racial strife and history is no different than the Aussie trying to explain cricket culture. Both think that their explanation is the missing piece to the other's misunderstanding.

T
K
O

Yum Restaurants (KFC, as well as Pepsi and Pizza hut), staffed by Australain marketing staff aired an advert concieved by an Australian advertising agency and produced by an Australian production company.
Nobody within those organisations would have any idea about the racial connotation of black people and fried chicken.
Even if the Yum restaurants (or it ad agency) marketing staff had been aware the the advert could possibly be seen on the internet they still would not have been aware of the chicken/black people thing that exists ONLY in the US. Nor do i believe that they should have been made aware.
Additionally black people in the advert are NOT Afro american they are West indian.
Yum restaurants should not have had to pull the ad but it is understandable that they did so.

I believe the (knee jerk?) reaction to the advertisment from the Young Turks woman is understandable within her culture given what i understand now. She could have done a bit more research before going public with her reaction and realised that there were no racist overtones to the advertisement within Australia. I believe that this woman owes an apology to Australia and to Yum Restaurants.

Why are Aussies so cut up about this?
Australians are concerned and fighting back because the US is forcing its own cultural beliefs onto another country... AGAIN!

Should ad agencies take care to avoid gaffes that may bring them into disrepute in another country?
I dont think so. Racism, sexism and homophobia are a few examples where each different country has different cultural expectation of behavior.
Woman in short skirts/underwear or a bikini could not be used in Australian advertising because thay may offend people in muslim countries if the advert appears on the internet.
I dont think that taking into account every single possible scenario that may offend is a reasonable expectation even in todays more global market. Obvioulsly if an advert is expected to air in a particular country some reasonable level of research would be required.

Great post!




Interesting, dat.

I don't agree that this is what is happening. Americans aren't telling Aussie that they should be tuned to this US cultural sensitivity. Americans are telling Americans that they don't condone racial stereotypes even if only perceived racial stereotypes. Americans are Americans even if they are in another country. So goes for our companies I believe.

Even if I'm in the UK, I'm not going call a cigarette a fag. Dig?

This isn't about asserting anything on Australia. The commercial being pulled wasn't a message to Australia, it was a message to the US.

T
K
O

Though now my fairness meter is kicking in.

The analogy re the not allowing revealing clothes in ads is false, in that revealing clothes are a fundamental part of Oz culture, and it is ridiculous to think of censoring that.

(Though Oz companies hoping to appeal to a strict Muslim audience would do well to eschew them...and pork and such.)

A white man handing out disgusting food to black people isn't a fundamental part of our culture (unless we go back to handing out white flour and sugar to Aboriginal folk...and we wouldn't go near THAT as a fun activity in an ad!) isn't.

I do think that:

a. It's reasonable that KFC, given the apparently racially perilous nature of their product in their home market, should ensure that an expert in US racial arcana is part of their promotional decisions.

b. It's fine to pull the ad if it's hurting people or their business.

c. People assuming the ad is racist without questioning their US-centric view of the universe are being stupid and ignorant.

b. People accusing Oz of racism for having the ad are people I want to punch in the nose.

I'll agree with that, and not the lard in blue boxes from the market, but rendered lard..

I'm not sure where lines should or shouldn't be drawn. I agree only Americans could possibly see something wrong with the Australian commercial and it's unfortunate that our bigoted past has to be so powerful that it pushes into other people's innocent creations, but here is a more extreme example: Darlie is the number one selling brand of toothpaste in Taiwan . It was originally called Darkie and was sold in the US with the images on the left and middle. A Chinese company purchased the rights for this product from Colgate in 1985. I doubt many Chinese people would know how racist the image and name is, but the new company replaced them with something less offensive. In China it is still referred to as "Black Man's Toothpaste", the branding was changed not for the new market, but in order not to offend people of a different culture who might or might not ever see it.

Possibly a poor analogy.
My point was that its unfair to expect marketing staff to take ino account every little possible social gaffe in every country in the world.
Is this a better analogy?
Should this company change its name? They have a currency converter so they expect international guests. Would this be culturally insensetive in the US? or perhaps Canada?
Negroni
Negroni, the newest edition to the highly reputable Melbourne hospitality scene, has emerged in a class of its own. Incorporating an Espresso Bar, Wine Bar and downstairs Cellar Bar, it can cater for every event from a casual business lunch to a cocktail party of the highest extravagance.

It's actually italian in origen.

black pasta?

Negroni would not a problem. Although, I remember a few years back a US politician used the word niggardly in a speech and some people complained it was a poor choice of words because it could be misconstrued. Yeah, the bigot thing runs deep here.