Colonel Sanders Says His Black Friends Don't Mind This Racist Ad Too Much
An awkward white man wins over a crowd of unruly black people with a bucket of fried chicken. That's racist. But wait: KFC says context matters, and "How to Silence a Noisy Crowd" aired during an Australia-West Indies cricket match.
As Harry Connick, Jr.'s blackface ≠ OK incident demonstrated, Australians have a slightly different understanding of racism than we do, which is why The Chicken formerly known as Kentucky Fried says its ad has simply been "misinterpreted by a segment of people in the U.S.," and was never supposed to appear before American eyes.
It is a light-hearted reference to the West Indian cricket team. The ad was reproduced online in the US without KFC's permission, where we are told a culturally-based stereotype exists, leading to the incorrect assertion of racism.
Welcome to the internet, Colonel Sanders. Let's put this in sex tape terms: You did something nasty with sluttish mistress Australia, then put a digital recording of it on your computer, thinking your long-suffering housewife, America—who tends to the mutant chickens while you are away and is slowly being poisoned to death from all those saturated fats—would never see it. But by the power vested in Rebecca Gayheart's Noxema pasties, we did, and even if the video means something different to its intended audience, we still saw it, and now we like you a little less. Besides, who wants to see Colonel Sanders naked, anyway.