@dadpad,
dadpad wrote:You [(some) Americans] believe black people + Fried chicken = racial stereo type. Therefore that commercial should not have been made by Australians for Australian television.
It should not have been made by KFC marketing employees because their very purpose is to positively brand KFC and this results in a net negative.
I don't think Americans really care that much about what is on your televisions.
Quote:Australians dont think black people + fried chicken = racial sterio type, yet the advert still needs to be removed from Australian television.
Why should Australian culture force an American company to continue to pay for a lousy ad that happens to also be their marketing nightmare?
American's don't care what's on your TV. They care that this carries an American brand. If it were a local Australian commercial it would probably barely cause a ripple. Some people would call it racist if they happened to see it, and they'd be ignorant and all, but this generates controversy because it's the perfect storm for KFC where you have their absolute worst branding nightmare out in the open and social media on it.
Quote:You see KFC as an American company. I see KFC in Australia as a company staffed and run and organised by Australians regardless of the companies roots.
But their bosses are in America answering to the American culture and most people will take the view that the buck stops at the top (see sweatshops, they don't get mad at the subsidiary, they get mad at Nike) so they have to react to that reality.
Quote:Americans would not be the only country to want to believe their own culture is the best and everyone else should be like them.
Ie the Aust stance on whaling.
However American culture pervades the world and many are sick to bloody death of the American assumption that the whole world should be like America.
I get it, I had a visitor recently who expressed surprise that more people didn't speak English (in a place where many people get by with
only English to boot, I know a guy who has been here over a decade and still hasn't learned Spanish) and it is off putting to me even though I'm an American citizen. I also like living abroad because the whole world is American enough for me and this way I get two cultures in one. I totally get how American culture can seem loud and overbearing.
But you are asking for a lot of cultural context to be taken into consideration but cultural context these days is gone at a click. They didn't see it in context. They didn't see it on TV in Australia. They saw it in America, with an American brand on the internet. The big story from the American perspective is that there's live video of this gaffe with the KFC brand. Branding isn't effective if it needs to be deeply introspective to come out as a positive for the company, and expecting this to keep running is asking a lot of any company. In advertising, almost any negative perception dooms it. Advertising is about false magic, not gritty realities and confronting the intricacies of navigating cultural differences.
P.S. the US just happens to be a culture that will bow to almost any pressure about racial sensitivity, even from other cultures (e.g.
changing the lyrics in Aladdin). You are trying to change their culture!
I actually don't think trying to influence someone else's culture is inherently wrong, though I can see how it can be inherently annoying.
