Come on everyone, the entire campaign is clearly racist in the extreme.
The protagonist is called Mick, a well known derogatory term for Irishmen.
Yes, it specifically introduced it as part of a brand repositioning a few years ago - probably to make it sound more ‘authentic’ than any other fried chicken (of which there are numerous small brands/single outlet enterprises in the UK).
Sorry, I should add, by ‘authentic’ I mean ‘genuine southern US food’. There’s no racist connotations between fried chicken and black people here in the UK.
We’d more likely associate black people with goat curry and plaintain, as much of our black population is first-generation descended from immigrants from the West Indies. Although I wouldn’t say the association has such racist overtones here, it’s more an ethnic association, like saying french people like frogs legs and germans like sausages.
I’ve been thinking about this more.
There are certainly racial tensions with non-white people in Ireland and the whites. Take for examples the recent running out of town of Muslims by (IIRC) the residents of a Northern Irish village. This is therefore a clear metaphor for the underlying racial tensions within Ireland, as shown by our Irish-monickered hero Mick and the unruly black savages.
I am pretty sure that this campaign has not been shown in Ireland, so clearly they are intentionally keeping it from the Irish audience.
Both Republic and Northern Irish teams play in green. Everyone in the advert has green on their clothing so it is not clear who they are supporting. Therefore I shall insist that they are all supporters of Ireland, probably at a rugby match. Therefore it is clear that the only thing Mick is worried/petrified about is being surrounded by black savages.
Who’s with me?
It was pretty apparent to me that there was some sort of sports involved, but I was really just baffled at the commercial until the cricket rivalry was explained.
So the American equivalent of this would essentially be, let’s say, a single fellow in burnt orange and white sitting in the stands surrounded by people in maroon standing up and whirling white rags. This wouldn’t even make much sense outside of Texas – I’ll bet that unless a person actually follows American college football it would be completely impenetrable.
Where I’m from, though, it would be instantly obvious to anyone, even if they weren’t from either town in question and didn’t follow the sport much. It might be subtly funny if the guy in orange started handing bottles of Lone Star around, though… 
Obvious cheat sheet: The guy in orange is a University of Texas supporter, the guys in maroon are fans of Texas A&M. The two teams have had a rivalry lasting longer than a century. Also, Aggies have about six thousand school traditions including those white rags and standing for the whole game out of respect. Also, apparently, they kiss their girlfriends at every touchdown.
Lone Star is a Texan beer. It cannot be found much outside Texas, and for good reason. It is what you give people to drink if you don’t want to spend much money, especially if you expect they have poor or unrefined taste. Since Longhorns have a reputation among Aggies for being effete – “t-sips” – and Aggies have a reputation among everyone else for being rednecks (er, sorry: uneducated, rural, and working-class) this would be Mildly Funny. YMMV. This offer not valid in Utah.
Off-topic: huh?
I don’t think there’s anything in the story to suggest they were Muslim - they were Roma from Romania, and they were run out of a part of Belfast not a village.
Nasty story, though. Bear in mind this is in Northern Ireland rather than the Republic of Ireland - often when people say “Ireland” they are referring to the Republic rather than the island; the two places have, sadly, very different recent histories.
Oh. That’s not so surprising - “gypsies” have been run out of towns all over Europe for generations - even if it’s equally unpleasant.
There was a “gypsy” family that was basically run out of the town I grew up in, in Dorset. I do remember my mother and brother being a little worried that it would be us next, swarthy people not exactly being common in the West Country.
That’s the fella. Roma/Muslim. They’re all the same, like Australian Aborigines, Afro-Caribbeans and African-Americans.
But how do they feel about fried chicken?
They love fried chicken. Chooks are easier to steal from the farmyard than say, a cow or something. We all know the Roma Muzzies are born thieves. And lazy ones at that.