encyclopedia of racist products

i'm no dom passantino, but i think i'm reasonably up on u.s. culture. i had no idea about the chicken thing until about 5 years ago, fwiw.

i think you can overestimate the extent to which u.s. culture has become dominant. and which bits of it have become dominant has little to with what is the most controversial or interesting in the u.s. -- just because something is genuinely shocking to you, it doesn't mean someone in australia is any more likely to be aware of it than, say, the king of queens.

they're delicious! bought some the other day at the dollar store.

no question someone at kfc hq should have caught this, btw, but whiney's initial post was "What the fuck is wrong with you, Australia", not "What the fuck is wrong with you, KFC"

i guess the problem is if you want to make it at a cricket match, you've got to have fans of a different ethnicity, because teams are not so identified with particular colour shirts, etc.

I dunno. I think if it would have been a crowd of people wearing green shirts, and one guy in a blue shirt (or whatever), the idea that he was in a crowd of people cheering for the other team probably would have been clear.

i only watched the commercial, no sound: i thought the plot was he's surrounded by rowdy non-white fans, he gives them fried chicken, and they calm down. is that not what happens?

Did I hear something about a racist product controversy that also involved cricket?! Well, hell-o!

Complicated by the fact that no one is doing anything that's ACTUALLY threateningly "rowdy" in the first part! I guess that would have been too unfriendly even for KFC/Australia. But the problem with that is that the only threatening thing about them ends up being their different race. Which is even worse.

I think that this is much less about chx wngs and more about the calm white person being distracted to annoyance by the black people and sibsequently being able to control them.

xxxxp, if you want to make it a localized ad in the southern hemisphere summer, which there are good reasons to do, it's going to be a cricket match. if the crowd are wearing team colours then it is going to look like someone who know's nothing about cricket made the advert. of course if the alternative is "be racist", you pick the slightly inauthentic costume design, but this assumes "this is racist" was something that occurred to them.

full disclosure: I know very little about cricket ;)

"for those times when you don't have tight pussy, loose shoes, or a warm place to shit, offer kfc. they love it!"

like everyone else has been saying the racial dynamics are weird even absent the fact that its fried chicken

but id expect nothing less from a paradise of tolerance and harmony like good ol AUS

This is actually pretty insensitive and bad, yeah. The issue is that he's clearly wearing an Australia shirt, and there is a big historical rivalry between the (almost entirely Afro-Caribbean) West Indies and the (almost entirely white) Australians, and to be sitting among fans of the opposition is inevitably going to lead to one being barracked, but it plays upon a pretty racially-defined stereotype, and plays upon it bluntly. If it wasn't fried chicken, this advert would be fine. But it is, so it isn't.

kkvg i don't think it's about that, i think it's an attempt to find camaraderie through the international language of stereotyping

Complicated by the fact that no one is doing anything that's ACTUALLY threateningly "rowdy" in the first part!

yeah, this is what i'm saying about not understanding the advert. i have no idea what is going on.

like everyone else has been saying the racial dynamics are weird even absent the fact that its fried chicken

― max, Wednesday, January 6, 2010 4:06 PM (11 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yes. I was typing a bunch of stuff, but that's basically it.

If it wasn't fried chicken, this advert would be fine.

not really buying this tbh!

If it wasn't fried chicken, this advert would be fine. But it is, so it isn't.

hahahahaha oh dear. ok, lj is here. i'll leave you in his capable hands.

You could film the ad easy by having different shirts, and when the isolated dude stands up to cheer the rest of the crowd goes silent and turns to stare menacingly. No need for the racial subtext and the joke would go over better if anything.

although i will say, the racial dynamics may look weird, but fans of opposing cricket teams are generally of a different race, but when they interact it's not necessarily about race. i'm not saying they're colour blind though. i think we can all agree that australia is a prettty racist country.

dude doesn't seem bothered by the fact that they're supporting another team but that they're dancing and having fun

West Indies fans are generally well-known for partying in the stands, having a ball, getting into the spirit. They're not being portrayed in a 'rowdy' or negative light; if anything's offensive about this portrayal it's a trivialisation of the WI fan as fun-loving plot device for chicken commercial. The threat isn't to the Aussie's health but his dignity. I *think* the Aussie is being portrayed initially as unable to get into the spirit because it's not in his genes to party like that. Hence, self-deprecation. But yeah, the rivalry is the key here, in the first part of the advert. The second part is the offensive bit.

I'm sure it was made to run during the series between the two Commonwealth sides but AAAARGH. Whatever the history of KFC in AUS, ad agencies are supposed to run due diligence on their campaigns if only so their company doesn't do the classic 'launch Chevy Nova in Mexico' move. This really should have come up in a meeting.

You could film the advert.about a different Australian sport where people wear team colors?

I think we can all agree that this ad is just racist enough to have a 500-post-long clusterfuck discussion about it

if anything's offensive about this portrayal it's a trivialisation of the WI fan as fun-loving plot device for chicken commercial

I hope you realize that this fragment, when diagrammed, isn't saying quite what I assume you meant.

xxpost

One day international shirts have colours, why not lone Aussie surrounded by Barmy Army or South African fans? The point is, as soon as you recognise that maybe this ad is "lol a bit dodgy" you ought to probably think how to reshoot it?

why not have the west indian surrounded by menacing aussie fans

The advert is especially made for the KFC Big Bash tournament, which is an Australian cricket competition that also involves quite a few West Indian players, because the West Indies aren't playing elsewhere at the moment. The West Indies recently toured in Australia. It's an advert for a situation.

TBH if I didn't post about this it'd be wrong ;-)

What's it saying? I meant 'fans' obv

...and yeah, I'm saying they shouldn't have made the ad, because it plays on racial stereotypes.

vrem (9 minutes ago)
black people like fried chicken. its just what they eat.

hahaha max that was in an earlier iteration of my longer post upthread

xp: you aren't saying it's trivializing West Indian fans, you are saying it is trivializing their portrayal as plot devices for a chicken commercial

Barmy Army? : ) Who are they?

vrem (9 minutes ago)
black people like hen fap. its just what you need to have.

hahaha max that was in an earlier iteration of my longer post upthread

seems more true-to-life to me anyway in terms of australian race relations

let's not forget that fried chicken is delicious. even when kfc makes it. i mean fried chicken is just good.

sad but true

wait, that's not sad at all, in fact it's awesome

I wd never be a fried chicken denier, that is true.

I've eaten at.KFC lately and it was not good.

be funnier if the windians gave the aussie some fried chicken and he had a huge tearful crisis of identity right there in the stands

"i hate you fucking people but this is so crispy and delicious"

KFC chicken is fine imo but the fries here in the UK are a fucking abomination unto the Lord.

naggz (11 hours ago)

Can't believe these fucking retards. The ad isn't racist. Go cry over something more important. What the fuck is racism anyway. We're supposed to be all multi-cultural and shit, but yet everyone still hates gay people? I don't see much of a difference between the two problems. Both effect alot of the worlds population, black people can't help that they were born as their race. Gay people can't help that they were born gay and like the same sex. Gtfo.

oops Dan sorry! I did mean that it was trivialising the WI fans. Into being plot devices for a fried chicken commercial. It's not trivialising the device. It's making quite a thing of it, sadly.

not a KFC fan fwiw

xxxxxp are tim tams like penguins?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y-cxdruYQc&feature=related

O_O

I guess we should applaud the progress they've made in 18 years.

Used to drive down with best friend in coldest winter to get KFC mashed poato/gravy combo, then snarf it in the car before we got back home.

American KFC does not do French fries It is much better than UKFC.

The only thing I think I detest when this shit comes up is it resulting in people saying shit like "people forget how backwards Australians are", thank you very much guys, have a nice day.

I detest the racism as well.