Strong to the Finish…

I watch a lot of television.  Too much to not actually get paid for it, but that’s beside the point.

Black people aren’t in KFC commercials anymore.

This isn’t necessarily a complaint, just an observation made over the past thousand hours of my wasted life.  Now the question is are black people being intentionally omitted from these commercials to avoid perpetuating a stereotype, or do advertisers simply consider it a waste of time and money trying to sell chicken to black folks?  Cause let’s face it, niggas love chicken.

Of course the expected retort would be that white people also enjoy chicken, to which I would offer a revision.  Niggas love fried chicken.

Enough to plead to life in prison.  So much that it can be used as evidence in a double murder.  Enough to rob you at gunpoint.

And what do these three instances of a passion for poultry have in common?  They were all for Popeye’s chicken.

Popeye’s originated in Louisiana and is currently owned by an enterprise based in Atlanta.  Not that it should matter, but both are considerably ‘blacker’ locations than Kentucky.  (Maybe this affects their corporate hiring.  I don’t about you, but I know exactly who I’d want if I was trying to sell chicken…) So perhaps it is no coincidence that their product elicits such loyalty from the black community.  Their commercials almost invariably feature a black family or employee and a cajun accented voiceover that is readily identifiable.  I’d also considered the possibility that Popeye’s stuck to the basics and avoided gimmicks like popcorn chicken, chicken sandwiches and those godawful amalgamated bowls of corn, chicken and mashed potatoes, but it turns out that wasn’t the case.  Though I’m almost certain that KFC came up with them first.  Regardless, I’m equally certain that Popeye’s doesn’t advertise those products as heavily as their Kentuckian rivals.

So whether they like it or not, through their questionable advertising tactics (Guitar Hero?  Really?) and needless tinkering with a timed tested classics (Stop trying to wrap the chicken in pitas or buns and step your biscuit game up!), it wouldn’t surpise me if KFC is considered in some circles to be “the white man’s chicken”.  The old white man on the box is nothing less than a reminder of such.  Motherfucker probably owned slaves.

Anyway, the point is black folks unquestionably love fried chicken, but no one likes to be taken for granted.  So to our friends at KFC who might be eying a diminishing profit margin, pardon the pun, but you might wanna toss a nigga a bone every so often.

Maybe that’s what this was about…

As for me?  I don’t eat that shit.  It would just perpetuate a stereotype.