Feel-good KFC commercial featuring Bangkok upsets some

A world away from her home, the young girl reacts with anxiety to the unfamiliar sights and sounds of a new city. She passes enormous malls, orange-robed men and soaring temples on her way to a school where she struggles to understand the customs and of course, chopsticks. As school lets out, a sensitive classmate leads the unhappy girl to a KFC, where the presence of familar, fried chicken makes everything better.

Many in Bangkok have noticed the video posted 10 days ago mostly for featuring the Thai capital, but some complain racial stereotyping lies at the heart of the ad created by KFC’s South African subsidiary.

Their complaint isn’t the chopsticks – Thailand’s long learned to shrug off misrepresentations of its table custom – but the association of blacks with fried chicken. While it is true fried chicken is a dish popular among black Americans and black Africans, it is particularly in the United States where the association is a painful reminder of an awful past. Well into modern times, African Americans were commonly represented in American media as cartoonish and buffoonish figures, always happy with a piece of fried chicken and watermelon to eat.

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“I’se so happy” proclaims the child. This type of imagery was common in the United States until after the Civil Rights era of the 1960s.

 “I don’t care what KFC says… this advert couldn’t be more racist if they tried!” commented YouTube user Suraya Mohamed. “It’s like the one black kid, and they helped her find the chicken!”

Other comments were either engaging in irony or joining in on the race-baiting. “You know black[s] love themselves a good bucket of chicken,” wrote Brooklyn J. Pakathi.

But once again, similar to the eye-stretching ad pulled last month by Central Pattana, many consumers aren’t going to share those reactions and take offense. Probably because they don’t share the same troubled histories which lead them to make the same associations.

In a more local discussion of the ad on a Thai marketer’s Facebook page, many chose to focus on Thailand without addressing the core question of the ad’s appropriateness.

“If you look carefully, you’ll know that the maker of this commercial have a totally non-racist take on Thailand,” Facebook user “Ok JubJang” wrote in Thai. “Regardless of nationalities, language or religion, we can all live together.”

To Pond Kovanthanakul, however, the advertisement “is pretty racist.”

User Pla Mayer-Harnisch noted that regional perceptions would likely factor into one’s opinion, saying the ad would be “considered racist in the states.”

It’s not the first the time restaurant chain formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken came under fire for being racially insensitive.

In 2010, KFC Australia was criticized for an ad which suggested the best thing a white dude could do to settle down unruly, dark-skinned people was to throw down a bucket of wings.

Decide for yourself: 

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Comments

  1. I don't think it was racist at all. I have lived in the southern US, and now I live in Thailand. KFC is an international brand and product that is loved by people the world over. The Thai girls are taking their new friend to something she is familiar with a KFC restaurant. Perhaps we are becoming too sensitive as people.

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