Is This KFC Ad Racist or Not?

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Alot of Australian humour is delivered in a very dry matter-of-fact manner, such as that Sam Kekovitch ad. The fact that he uses the made up word 'Unaustralianism' is a major clue. He's obnoxious on purpose and having a go at people who overuse the word Unaustralian, something which is thrown around alot in this last decade. It's cropped up as this weird bit of nationalism that we never really had before and now it's here it won't go away. Sometimes that sort of comedy gets misinterpreted because people can't see the satire. We're a very selfdeprecating country overall.

Going back to the racism thing. There's a book by Shelby Steele called:

Web Page Name

In it he describes how America shift from the civil rights movement - where all people were equal. To one where minorities were viewed as victims - on both sides - and that the key to a better society should empowerment rather than entitlement.

This should be a classroom school book. But I doubt it will happen. Shelby Steele does have some radical ideas, but this particular one makes sense.

I wasn't really aware it was only about African Americans, I thought it was just about black people. But I'm from the far west, so maybe the stereotype deteriorated after its long journey from the deep south.

Is anyone else reminded of the, "Need a minute?" Twix ads, where someone says something that can cause trouble, then the person takes a moment to eat a Twix bar and thinks of a way out of the situation? "Need a minute? Chew it over with Twix." I don't like the commercials, but the, "If you find yourself in a hostile situation," line makes me think of those ads. I wonder, if "Mick" had been offering Twix, would people be upset? "Mick" is clearly trying to offer people something everyone likes (or so the ad wants you to think) to form a bond of sorts out of his "hostile situation." I don't think it's racist...but I could see how you could put a US twist on it and think it was.

Um, I have a Twix bar in the fridge and I'm going to get it right now.

Is this song racist? I don't think so but it fits the advert perfectly. If he had some KFC with him he wouldn't have lost his mothers silver chain gift.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0MQ2-fYQno[/youtube]

Last edited by FTM on 07 Jan 2010, 5:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

As a (mostly) white dude from the south, I'll share my experience...

Yes, black people like chicken.

I've eaten chicken with them, so I know.

I even had a chicken eating lesson from a black friend once (who knew chickens had ribs?)...

The thing is, black people like chicken, but because of our nasty, racial history (i.e. the chicken and watermelon stereotype), some Americans (both white and black) freak out when there's anything like a reference to it in the media.

In my experience these people (both white and black) are usually politically correct, crypto-racists who need to be castrated and lobotomized before they can plop a steamer in the gene pool.



Yeah, well the reaction also speaks to what cretinous, ethnocentric, idiots Americans are.


Don't call me white--NoFX


Don't call me white (x4)
The connotations wearing my nerves thin
Could it be semantics generating the mess we're in?
I understand that language breeds stereotype
But what's the explanation for the malice, for the spite?
Don't call me white (x4)
I wasn't brought here, I was born
Circumsized, categorized, allegiance sworn
Does this mean I have to take such s**t
For being fairskinned? No!
I ain't a part of no conspiracy, I'm just you're average Joe
Don't call me white (x4)
Represents everything I hate
The soap shoved in the mouth to cleanse the mind
The vast majority of sheep
A buttoned collar, starched and bleached
Constricting veins, the blood flow to the brain slows
They're so f****n' ordinary white
were better off this way
say what your gunna say
so go ahead and lable me an as*hole, coz i can
accept responsability for what ive done but not for who i am"

dont call me white (x2)

japanese whalers are poaching whales with the conscience of an insect.
they enter our waters and kill our whales illegally whales so they can shave them up into millions of thin slices to sell at exorbitant rates to rich japanese diners.

i saw a documentary recently where the japanese general public was asked what they thought about killing whales, and the predominant attitude was that "the whales eat all our fish, so if we remove the whales then we can feed our people".
that is what the japanese press rolls out to the japanese people. whales are their enemy because they consume fish that japanese people rely on.

not many young japanese people have ever eaten whale meat.

i am tired so i could not be bothered being more eloquent

Cool song FTM!! "I love it!"

It was an australian ad, meant for cricket fans, as KFC sponsor the Australian Cricket Team.
no offence was meant.
the fans and the man with the pocketful were fans of opposing teams. Australia and the West Indies.
It was a what do you do when you are surrounded by the opposition? situation
The message is simple
the ad says just offer KFC and the fans of the other team will welcome you.

Its weird that they aired a cricket ad where cricket is not played much.

I'm from Australia and I have no idea what it means, of course, I don't understand Cricket or care about it and that makes me a minority. I can't really see why people would care so much though, do they enjoy having things to get angry about?



"African Americans"... Politically correct but fairly stupid. I remember someone posted a picture of an "African American" once and then said that anybody who called him African American was rude and intolerant because he was born in London. It made me laugh though.

You do not expect to find African Americans in Australia. The advert is Australian and about cricket. It is natural to assume the setting is Australia and the people in the advert are not African American. It's not even sensible then to conclude that some reference from your local culture about African Americans has anything to do with the non-African American people in the Australian advert. It's insular thinking.

no definitely not.

All it did was make me hungry and realise that I've never had any KFC chicken. I really want some now.

I fail to see how this is racist.

Sure, maybe there's a slur or two, but I wouldn't go far enough to say that it's racist based solely on the fact that black people are reaching for chicken from a bucket. Simply ridiculous. People need to be re-educated as to what actually is racist.

I don't really care about cricket, but I really doubt that there was any attempt for this comercial to be any reference to the american sterotype. For one I only found out about this paticular type of sterotype when looking at american culture, I am quite certain that most Australians wouldnt be aware of it, well they might now thanks to all the huba, so in that way I thank you have made it a big deal for introducing a new sterotype.

Idk, is it racist to say that black people like fried chicken?
since many subconsciously associate black people with the south, particularly ever since the civil war, & fried chicken is also associated with the south, & in fact a rather popular food, it's no small wonder.
To call it racist seems about as silly to me as saying asian people like rice.
if the commercial were for some teriyaki place instead and it were a white guy in a crowd of asians giving out teriyaki bowls, i doubt it would even raise an eyebrow.

Or racist to call being the only one of your race in a crowd of a differing one somewhat awkward? well, yeah given that so long as our history teachers keep teaching that there was ever a problem between white & black people in the past, there will always be at least some awkward tension. So i don't really consider that part of the commercial so much racist, as just a casual observation. Though admittedly not much tact as far as commercials go in bringing that point up.

personally if it's not offensive, then i don't consider it all that racist & it doesn't really seem all that offensive. However, maybe some are more sensitive to such content than myself and may interpret it as offensive, i don't know.