Where’s the margin for KFC in being tarred with a racist brush internationally? Do you think stealth racist ads are going to let them sell more chicken in Oz?
I believe there are. A lone white man feeling awkward in a group of boisterous non-whites is not US-centric. Yes, it can also be attributed to team rivalry, but that does not mean racial sterotyping (which is not absent from Australia) cannot also be a factor in creating the ad. I agree, KFC has deniability by claiming it was just team rivalry, but that does not mean that was the only motivation for that imagery in the ad.
I already stipulated this is a US-centric image, thus non racial in Australia.
And i find nothing racial in this imagery, not have I claimed there was.
I do, because racial stereotyping in Australia is not the hot button issue to the extreme as it is here in the US.
And I believe you are wrong or the the least reading way to much into it.
Well we’ll have to agree to disagree because I’m not seeing it in that ad at all. It makes perfect sense to me as a piece about a Aussie fan in the middle of Windie fans and now that some Aussies explained that the ad was shown only during the time the Windies where actually playing OZ and that’s it’s a series of ads of the guy using KFC to his advantage it makes even more sense.
Do you believe that it is rare in Oz for whites to feel uncomfortable when they are surrounded by non-whites?
You just don’t get it do you. It’s not about black and white. That is not why he’s uncomfortable. If you can’t move on from that and accept that you are the one reading that into it because of your cultural hang-ups then there’s not much anyone can do for you.
The ad could have been about English or New Zealand fans and be exactly the same. The only reason they are black is becasue the ad was made for when the Windies were playing. There is no racial element to the ad apart from the one you are forcing on it.
They are just fans.
I don’t know.
I know I’m not uncomfortable by default when surrounded by people other than my race. Which I’ve had happen all over the world. Events that happen can make me uncomfotable not people just in my presence.
No, you don’t get it. Just because KFC has plausible deniability with the team rivalry explanation does not rule out racial sterotypes.
You do not know the purpose of the imagery. You choose to assume it is due solely to team rivalry. I believe that is naive.
Compare the crowd in the ad with the banner at the top of the Windies’ website linked above. They look identical. That’s because the actors in the ad are behaving in the way that Windies supporters behave. The fact that the Windies supporters as portrayed are black is because, well, Windies supporters generally are black.
If they were showing Indian supporters, they might show what the TV cameras show at 0:11 in this video. Would it look racist to you if it were in an ad? I suspect it might.
Maybe it’s because you’re not used to watching international sports, Fear Itself, and interpret any group of people who are visibly one “race” or another as grounds for accusations of racism, rather than interpreting it as a protrayal merely of regionality. He’s not uncomfortable due to their race, he’s uncomfortable because they are supporters of the opposition team, and he’s in the wrong bit of the stands.
Sure, race is a plausible explanation for the discomfort by the Australian fan, but do you really think it’s the most rational interpretation of the ad? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Then any racial undertones in the ad are wasted on you. That does not mean it was not a factor to those who planned the ad. Perhaps I am just a cynic to believe that racial prejudice in Australia is not as enlightened as my own view…
Why the hell are you still arguing about this? Your initial reaction was somewhat understandable, vis-a-vis the black people/fried chicken trope in the US. When you’re still attempting to defend that position three pages later, it’s no longer understandable.
They could just as easily have made it a lone black man in a West Indies cricket shirt looking around nervously among a crowd of Australians yelling “Aussie Aussie Aussie!” but they didn’t.
Why? Because the point of the ad is to sell chicken to Australians, not to Bahamians.
If an Australian ad campaign was going to play on racial fear they’d use Aborigines or people from southeast Asia, not West Indians. There are hardly any people in Australia of African origin anyway.
What you are displaying is not “enlightenment”. It’s offense-seeking. You’d have better luck looking for hidden penises in magazine ad ice cubes.
Or fabricated by members of the offenderati.
I believe it was a factor. The matter of degree is up for debate. But it is not a binary, either/or conclusion; modern advertising operates on many subtle levels, and trying to say it was only one or the other is simplistic. I believe racial stereotypes were a factor.
Only if you believe that Oz is free of all racial stereotyping.
Your belief is nonsensical and unsupported by any evidence whatsoever. Fortunately, it’s also irrelevant, though I daresay the KFCs of Noo Hampsha will miss your business.
I have never defended the fried chicken trope.
That is rather simplistic and not very cognizant of racial bias. Bigots rarely know the pedigree of the object of their bigotry, and they are the ones I believe this ad targets.
I have never said there were.
The ad (which is pretty crappy to the extent that I would imagine people spitting on me if I offered them KFC) does represent experiences I have had. I’ve sat in big groups of West Indian fans at test matches, and used to go to a West Indian pub to watch the matches from the Carribean. And each time it was the sharing of food and booze that really opened things up to a great time, full of good hearted rivalry & ribbing.
They ran the ad because it rings true to cricket fans; that there really can be great camaraderie between opposing fans. Admittedly, rather than a bucket of KFC, it would be more likely to be a plastic bottle of coke half full of rum, but KFC advertising that wouldn’t be too good for their bottom line.
You don’t think even the stupidest Australian racist can tell the difference between an Aborigine and an Afro-Carribbean? Really?
They don’t need to, for purposes of an ad that is trying to play on subtleties of white/non-white fear. To answer your question; No, I don’t think they care.
ETA: And do you think Aborigines are the only non-white target of prejudice in OZ?