KFC Pulls "Racist" Australian TV spot

If I were in charge of KFC marketing I'd love to swing for the fences and tackle the stereotype directly. Think something like a post-racial "We all love fried chicken!" campaign.

for the US market you mean? Because there's no race damage done here or West indies.

I think there is also a PR opportunity in Australia depending on how many people followed this story and how many people became emotionally involved in the outcome.

The fall-out from this has been really minor, but that which exists has been all AUS v USA, just as it has been on this thread, so any opportunities around healing relationships would likely reflect that.

Eorl - Lets imagine a few scenarios.

Scenario 1 - Ad not pulled. Some people see the ad in the states and think WTF? KFC issues defense and explanation. It never reaches the people it should because they don't know an explanation even exists. For all they know, this was intentional. For all they know, KFC doesn't care.

Scenario 2 - Ad pulled. Some people see the ad in the states and think WTF? The Ad is referred to as "pulled" or "banned." KFC issues a defense and explanation. Even if the explanation never reaches the people, the people already know it was removed, so they know that some explanation exists. It is implied that KFC did not do this intentionally.

I see your point Eorl, but even if not racist, their is no moral high ground in keeping the ad up. It's foolish principle to demand that the ad stay up. Tell me what is GAINED? Nothing. Australians don't get to sleep a little sounder knowing they fended off some brutal American attack on their sensibilities. Come on.

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If this is how you feel, you should know that the only people that seem to see a conflict between countries is the Australians here. I think the point of many of the Americans here is that this isn't about international conflict. Not all topics of diversity are meant to be framed in conflict.

I feel like as an American, I'm being told dare not cross a line I'm not even close to. I have no desire to tell the Aussies that they should adhere to such racial stereotypes, and in many ways I'm quite envious that they are free of many of the stereotypes we face here in the states (noting of course that they have their own as well).

The notion however that Australia has somehow been made victim to the United States because one of our companies acted in its BEST INTEREST, makes the over reaction of the fringe minority of Americans that saw the ad in the first place seem mellow. Further, if the main charge against the US is that we assert our culture (which is a collage of many cultures) on other countries, then RG had it on the head already: Why is this ad being pulled the problem and not the fact that that KFC ads exist there in the first place? Isn't our companies existing in your country a greater assertion of our manufactured customs? They would not be there if there wasn't a market--perhaps at cricket matches?

Put yourself in the brainstorming meeting for this commercial. you have no knowledge whatever about the American negative stereotype you are unknowingly inserting in your ad. At the end of the day, I think you did your job, and you didn't have anything to be ashamed of. You were probably very happy with the end product and had already moved on to other ads you were working on.

Now do it again, with the knowledge. Would you knowingly make this ad? Would you make this ad, knowing you'd have to defend it? Even if you felt justified in your ability to explain the cultural references and provide all the reasons, could you put out the ad if you knew that it could offend someone? That knowledge is significant I believe. I don't think that they had it when it was created. We know for sure they have it now. This isn't about people trying to argue that they are entitled to not be offended, but rather that we don't gain anything from offending people. It's too easy to defend some notion of principle that Australians should stand their ground on this. What is it that you think that actually would have gained?

Here's my wager. I'm willing to bet that if you had to live here in the states and see how these negative stereotypes (no matter how inflated or local) actually hurt people, the fight to keep this ad up just wouldn't be worth it.

On the flipside of this argument. Think about this. KFC at least is using Aussies to make their ads. Can you imagine if Americans were making the ads to be aired in other countries? Can you imagine all the cultural gaffes then? Would you have been at the defense of an American made ad that aired in Australia that unknowingly gaffed your culture? I think in that situation, it would be more clear: An unintentional gaffe, that the appropriate response is to remove it.

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chevy advertising their NOVA model in mexico (No Va = no go)

Doesnt Pajero mean wanker in spanish? I heard it on the internet so it must be true.

The flip side would be an Australian company making adverts in America using American staff that portrayed (say) aboriginal people in a racially charged manner.
say.... a company selling metholated spirits shows aboriginal people using their product.

almost. Except they would have used African -Americans and which somehow we are ignorantly assuming to be Australian.

I feel a little like the US is telling me to get a haircut and get a real job.
The whole thing has been a little like some teenage boy telling a parent DONT TELL ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE!.
STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!

or west indians.

YOU are the ones that let Americans put restaurants there in the first place, dummy.




and all we got in return was outback steakhouse. we got ripped...

Not the first time we've stupidly done what an Amercian Colonel told us to!

Hehe... luckily there's nothing Australian in those steakhouses.

From wiki: "Blooming Onion" Despite being typically associated with Australian cuisine, the dish is unknown in Australia and rarely served outside of the United States.

Anyhow.... the damage by the US is done now.
The actions of the originator of the controvesy has reinforced the sterotype of ignorant, arrogant, bully boy Americans here in Australia, which is unfortunate because i know thats not the case for all Americans.
And thank god for those Americans on this thread who really tried hard to understand.

I'd meant to comment on how much of this seemed to be driven by stereotypes about Americans earlier. The "ugly American" as the culturally unaware bullies who, bless their ignorant little hearts, just can't bring themselves to understand the world around them due to that whole being American thing. At best, they get an A for effort.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_StDMpVhDk

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8447457.stm

That's 10 minutes of very stupid talk radio (or "internet TV" if you will) you got me to watch but what's the point? It's just a sensationalist liberal (as in liberal to liberals) talk show that will play the race card easily (in America too, not just Australia). They are like a more obscure Glen Beck or Limbaugh.

Eorl, you are wasting your time. I'd just leave it be, if I were you.
This is an overwhelmingly US forum. In regard to this particular discussion, definitely US opinion rules.
You are not going to be properly understood, without US "buts" ......
I understand exactly what you've been arguing (as an Australian) & agree with you (though this issue is not particularly important to me), but it is not the majority A2K US perspective, so you're not going to get anywhere.
Doesn't matter how well you put the case. Let it go. <shrug>

I have thunked and thunked to try to think of an analogy that might help you get why, even with those of you who have clearly taken on board what we are saying, that you continue to offend by using words like "blind to" or blind spot or "maybe it's ok in a purely Australian context."


I'll outline it, and see what you think...you may need to ask questions.


It is the eighteenth century, and the British colonies in eastern north America have just been properly vanquished in their treasonous rebellion against Great Britain.

Fortunately, this means that His Majesty's Government continues to be able to banish its worst criminals to these savage climes.

This means that when Captain Cook chances upon the wild and forbidding coasts of what will become Koorasia, the British Government is under no pressure to bring God and civilisation, at immense cost, and exacting great suffering from its subjects, to this wild land.

Koorasia continues un-disturbed by white people into the 19th Century.

At this point, the northern Koorasian tribes, through their normal trading with the peoples to the northern islands, discover that the unpleasantly coloured folk far to the north, east and west, are influencing its neighbours, and that these weird looking people have a range of bizarre inventions and contraptions, some of which appeal to the Koorasians.

To cut a long story short, the people of what will become Koorasia are able, over a long period, to become acquainted with the "civilisation" of Europe and the Americas.

Of course, they know that their own civilisation is preferable, but they incorporate the cool gadgets and inventions of the incomprehensibly ignorant, yet amusing and inventive, peoples of the west.

Koorasia becomes a strong and united country...."we are one, but we are many" is their code. They are proud and strong in their culture, but are willing to allow some of the playthings of the rest of the world into their country.


Koorasians have a culturally rich and diverse entertainment industry.

The arts thrive.

Many tribal groups come together to create great television, films and other media.

Of course, with their superior culture, they have no interest in the CONTENT of media from the inferior parts of the world, just the means of production.

However, the internet develops, and occasionally Koorasians are confronted with the effluvium of other lands.

One day, a number of Koorasian kids see a video on Youtube which fills them with revulsion and disgust.


It is an excerpt from something called The Bill Cosby show, which is made in some place called the YouESSay.

It depicts a large normally coloured (but badly dressed and incomprehensible without sub-titles) group of people, who are celebrating some bizarre ceremony which is called Krissmas.


The watching Koorasians are appalled at the scene depicted. It is grossly offensive and insulting to all normally pigmented people.


They post a series of objections on the Youtube site to the appalling racism, blasphemy and offensive and disgusting nature of the video so insensitively and offensively depicted.