Kentucky Grilled Asian Chicken
The saying goes, “there's a reason for everything.” And it should apply to commercials too.
I'm thinking about that new Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) commercial touting their new grilled chicken. I've tasted it, by the way. It's pretty good. Doesn't come close to the original recipe KFC, but I'd order it again.
So anyway, this KFC commercial has several different pairs of people trying the new grilled chicken and, of course, liking it. The one pair of guys I don't understand is the two Japanese guys. What's the reason for them being in this KFC spot? I can't figure it out.
Are they gunning for the Asian consumer, who looks nothing like the pseudo-samurai guys in the commercial? It's kinda funny that they're there. They have their Japanese accents. You can hear it when the one guy says, “Chickennnnnn.” They're wearing Japanese garb, hapi coats and red and white head bands.
The rest of the commercial is like most we see nowadays with a mix of ethnicities. There's white, black and these two Japanese guys. Funny, there are no detectable Hispanics in the spot.
The problem is, the two Japanese guys look like they were plucked out of a bad Japanese game show. What 21st century Asian-American dresses like that? No one I know.
As far as the TV commercial goes, it's effective. Watch it and you get the idea that KFC has added a grilled chicken to the menu. Cool idea. But then you have to ask, why are the cartoonish Japanese guys in the commercial? They don't serve a purpose other than to make you laugh at their humorous, forced Asian appearance.
I would go so far to say that they're slightly distracting. It would have been far more effective to put in a couple of average looking Asian-American in there without accents and dressed in regular clothes from Gap.
I'm Asian-American myself. I don't look at this commercial and get upset about the perpetuation of a stereotype. Although, it probably does have that effect. I look at it and laugh (mockingly) at KFC and think, “What the heck were you thinking?”
