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KFC’s Racist Advertising, America’s Myopia
// 7th January
Some excellent developments from the United States of the World to-day, that demonstrate why reality is far funnier than fiction, people are far sillier than we think, and satire will never die.
KFC Australia, who hold a sponsorship deal with Cricket Australia, have been running adverts during the televised cricket coverage. The ads cover cricket survival tips, such as how to score a decent seat at the ground, or how to stop your in-laws ruining your day of sitting in front of the television to watch the cricket. The advertisements are clearly tongue-in-cheek. One of the adverts features the usual star, Mick, stuck in a crowd of West Indian fans at a game. West Indian fans are known as a fun-loving, boisterous, and noisy group. They are adored by cricketing nations worldwide for being such. Mick offers them a bucket of KFC to distract them from supporting their team. What do Americans see when they watch the advert on YouTube? They see a white guy offering black people fried chicken to shut them up. Speaking as one who has watched the cricket for the last four days, and hence one who has seen the advert as many times as anyone has, it never occurred to me once that the advert was racist. And so news outlets in America are kicking up a fuss. On the one hand, this is hilarious. On the other hand I almost feel ashamed to share a planet with these people, to be part of a race that offers up America as the height of our civilisation. That sounds extreme, and it’s clearly hyperbole, but the daftness required to be so short-sighted is huge.
It reminds me of the episode of Extras where Maggie starts seeing a mixed race actor. She gets so caught up in trying not to be racist that it’s all she can think about. She ends up trying to sneak a gollywog toy out of the room and getting caught, and the guy leaves her to sort herself out.
And while we’re on Extras, here’s a back-and-forth between Andy and Maggie from the aforementioned episode, which I relived with a friend the other day;
Andy: Well, there is that test I can give you.
Maggie: What test?
Andy: The racism test they give you when you join the Council to make sure you’re not a racist.
Maggie: I’ve never heard of it.
Andy: Yeah, do you want to do it? Just ten questions–You’ve got to answer totally honestly, okay? Just relax, you’ve got nothing to worry about… unless you are a racist. Okay, question one: Who would rather see with their shirt off, Brad Pitt or Sir Trevor McDonald?
Maggie: Brad Pitt, obviously.
Andy: Obviously?
Maggie: What?
Andy: I can’t say anything until the end. Right, question two. This is about racial awareness, cause often you catch out a real racist because they don’t know or care about any black issues. Who is the prime minister of Great Britain?
Maggie: Tony Blair.
Andy: Correct. Who is the Prime Minister of Namibia?
Maggie: …I don’t know…
Andy: Ooh, you knew the white one… okay, um, oh dear. Who is the Queen of England?
Maggie: Queen Elizabeth II.
Andy: Correct. Who is the President of Djibouti?
Maggie: Oh, this is ridiculous! I’ve never even heard of blubbin’ Djibouti!
Andy: Oh! Please do not ridicule the totally valid African language, please. Alright, next question. Who would you rather have waiting for you when you get home tonight, Johnny Depp or OJ Simpson?
Maggie: Johnny Depp, because of the murder thing.
Andy: Because of the murder thing? I think you’ll find that OJ Simpson was acquitted, but in your eyes because he’s black, he’s still guilty!
2 Comments
Add a comment:
She’s got a hate-rating one point less than Hitler!
Josh, January 10th
With the KFC ad, isn’t it racist to make a distinction between the Australian and the West Indies. If we want to be treated as equal, it would have been the same as offering a bucket of chicken to any other person; black, white, asian, sub continent etc. It only becomes racist when people make the distinction between the races and each race should be treated a different way. That what burns me up
Jonny, January 14th