KFC Pulls "Racist" Australian TV spot

@Eorl,

Eorl wrote:

My reaction here is not against Americans en masse, it's against the ignorant reaction to the ad by whomever, the ridicule to which we are being subjected to for OUR assumed ignorant racism, and the cowardly removal of the ad. The woman in the video dadpad posted certainly exemplifies the complete lack of an ability to HEAR what we are saying and attempt to understand. She will go to her grave thinking that ad is about the black people / fried chicken thing.

Ditto except re the removal.

I get that KFC had to do that.

It's not like Australia figures that much into their global market.

I didn't even notice colour until I had seen the thing numerous times.

1 Reply

@aidan,

aidan wrote:

white people have been seen as civilizers and subduers of darker skinned people. This ad is reminiscent of that.
I fully understand it is inadvertent.

I appreciate your understanding aidan, and thank you for your thoughtfulness during the course of this discussion,however

I can only repeat that the racism here exists only in the minds of those who see "BLACKS" when in fact they are West Indian cricket supporters.

I sooo wish we had a West Indian here to give an opinion.

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@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

Ditto except re the removal.

I get that KFC had to do that.

Yeah i get that too, I just hate that the world works that way. It's the morally wrong response that they had no choice but to make.

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@Eorl,

It's an advertisement. How is deciding to stop running an advertisement a moral choice? If it costs more revenue than it generates, then they stop running it. No morality involved.

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I have just watched some of the Commonwealth bank "American ad agency" series of adverts.
*Shudder*
For the record i hated all of them when they appeared on TV and agin when i watched them just now. Sad advertisments at best.
They do reflect an Australian notion that a lot of Americans have no idea about Australia as a culture and a country.
Here are a couple of examples.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTG0_jEvOnA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot5We6IYLoE&feature=related

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@dadpad,

Shuddering along with you, dp.

I haven't participated in this thread, but have just done a quick read. Just want to to say that I wholeheartedly agree with everything you've said about the KFC ad, Eorl. I couldn't give a fig about cricket so of course don't follow it, but I do understand the Oz thing about the "Windies". I mean how could anyone in Oz avoid knowing? Wink

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@dadpad,

dadpad wrote:

They do reflect an Australian notion that a lot of Americans have no idea about Australia as a culture and a country.

I think that is a perfectly accurate notion that Australian's hold.

The vast majority of Americans do not know anything outside their own borders.

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What culture really understands another culture? We may appreciate or reject one another based on our perceptions, but the reality is it's hard to get it unless you live it. My husband worked in Australia for about 6 years and was asked all kinds of crazy questions based on their beliefs about Americans - mostly having to do with guns and Reagan era politics. I don't think any country or culture has a monopoly on misconceptions.

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@Green Witch,

Quote:

My husband worked in Australia for about 6 years and was asked all kinds of crazy questions based on their beliefs about Americans - mostly having to do with guns and Reagan era politics.

Ha. That doesn't surprise me, GreenWitch. US gun policy & Reagan era politics were quite incompressible to many of us. Why, why? Wink

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@msolga,

My husband and I ask the same thing and we live it.

Most countries are layered in cultures that have little understanding of each other. I was born into a American Jewish family that wanted to be WASP's. The only problem was we never got it quite right. My mother would make hamantashen for school bake sales. My father drove a Cadillac. My brothers competed to be on debate teams instead of football. My family thought they lived like the Kennedy's, but we were more like the a Philip Roth novel. People like to think if we study another group we can become a part of the crowd, they will be our friend and accept us, but it's not simple. I have no idea what an Australian is, or an Ethiopian, or American WASP. Like everyone else in this world, I get my information from books, TV, movies and the internet. We confuse those things with real experience and thus have a lot of misconceptions.

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I have to think that the world has a much better idea of what American culture is than Americans do about other cultures.

I mean, America exports A LOT of entertainment and culture, and while no movie, or fast food restaurant, or music album, or television show can entirely sum up what American culture IS; it gives them a pretty good general idea.

Americans born and raised in America do not tend to learn about other cultures even superficially like I think other cultures have a pretty good idea of the superficial American culture.

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@maporsche,

Maybe that's why so many people in this world view America as one big version of Grand Theft Auto or the TV show Dallas.

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@maporsche,

Yes, you're right there, maporsche. We probably do know far more about you than you do about us. And if all I did was follow media & popular entertainment for my understanding, I could imagine I have a pretty good understanding of the US. But tell you what, the more forum interaction I have with US folk, the more convinced I am that it's an incredibly complex country. You are collectively very different to the ideas I'd formed about the US in my head. (No, that's not meant to be a negative comment. Just thought I'd clear that up before somebody assumed it was! Wink

)

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@msolga,

That's interesting, and good to know. (And yes, America is complex indeed!)

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This is the view of America I grew up with. Although, I'm not so sure I ever thought about Nebraska:

http://snarkmarket.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/20091201_newyorker_america.png

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I can name the Prime Minister of Australia. I wonder how many Australians know who is the current head of state in the United States.

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@Eorl,

First, if your profession is advertising, you fall under the journalism umbrella. Second, i referred to you as a journalist because that is what you told me several years ago. Finally, if you want to be offended, help yourself, i don't give a rat's ass; in fact, i was pointing out to another member why i believed this might be important to you. Whether nor not you can find it in your tiny heart to forgive me for this, be assured that i will never again attempt to speak on your behalf. If others wish to think of you as idiotically obsessive, far be it from me to disabuse them of the notion, and risk your silly and misplaced ire.

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@dadpad,

dadpad wrote:

Just a note to say that it took until snoods post Page3(?) to actually understand that the concern with the advert was about black people and fried chicken. I still dont fully understand why that is a racial stereotype but can accept that it is in the US.

As an American who has lived a great deal of his life in the South, including in my childhood so that it is a part of my "unconsciousness," i still don't agree with Snood that this is the subject of a racial stereotype. Almost every Southern woman, without regard to skin color, has her personal preferred recipe for making what she will assure you is the best fried chicken, as well as biscuits and other foods both regional and national in character. White folks in the South love fried chicken, too. Harlan Sanders made his start in a Southern state, and he didn't became wealthy and successful attempting to target just black folks. He was successful because all Southerns, and, arguably, all Americans love fried chicken.

I'd say Snood was over-reacting in an incident with someone he doesn't like to begin with.

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I've been following this thread with some mild interest. My interest in its subject matter is, perforce, mild inasmuch as I neither live in Australia nor consume the KFC product line on even an occasiobal basis. Have no personal connection to anyone or anything in the West Indies, either. So far, I have only one reaction to this whole brouhaha (and that's bearing in mind that I respect the views of both parties in this argument):

Man, is this ever a tempest in a teacup!

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@ebrown p,

Just when i think you couldn't say more stupid things than you have in the past, you come up with something like this. Tell me, Political Rectitude Queen, what proportion of the population of the United States do you imagine know who Kevin Rudd is, as opposed to the proportion of the population of Australia who know who Barack Obama is?

1 Reply

KFC Pulls "Racist" Australian TV spot

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