News
We found this on Dime Wars.com is it ad or editorial or both:
While the new KFC Double Down sandwiches may be all the rave in stores across America, plenty of African-American households are thinking twice about going to KFC over a mini-controversy brewing in many homes. Roland Martin, was recently tapped by CNN and the advertising firm chosen to represent the KFC Double Down advertising efforts to speak glowingly about the new sandwich during a political segment. Instead of representing upwardly mobile African-Americans, the segment came off too blatantly as a commercial and, for some, was too reminiscent of the stereotypeconcerning African-Americans and fried chicken. One commenter said:
“Roland Martin is a sell out pure and simple….double insult with that “KFC Double Down” chicken…and that white woman had a racist under tone…he’s CNN’s spanking black boy…”
Ouch! The singing tone of Roland Martin’s commercial burns hotter than a KFC Double Down grill! Let’s hope the advertising company is a little more culturally sensitive next time.
What do you think?
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Is anyone bothering to watch the segment? Martin is criticizing this sandwich–he says it has “too much salt”, and will “cause a diabetic coma”. How is that shilling for KFC? If he got paid, then someone at the ad firm got fired this morning.
If you Google “KFC Roland Martin” there are already several websites republishing the blog post that criticizes Roland Martin for “selling out” over this sandwich. He is actually doing the opposite. Whoever wrote the post obviously did not take the time to watch the video.
Why did you re-post this on your website?
I think you right, but at the time we saw an obvious conflict regarding editorial vs advertising? The other is the obvious relationship of stereotypes, black folks and chicken (Roland and KFC).
Just because the man who is commenting is black does not mean CNN or anyone else is tapping into stereotypes. By that logic, anyone who is black and talks about chicken is presenting a racist stereotype. Sarah Palin tried claiming that her critics were sexist; same logic: because she is a woman and she had opponents, those opponents must have been sexist. Come on!
And, Mike, bravo! I actually watched this several times before I saw your post, trying to figure out what I was missing because there is absolutely no selling of KFC’s “double down”, just the opposite, there is a very strong criticism against it from both the black man and the white woman. The claims of this article-racism, stereotyping and selling out- are ludicrous! The only racist stereotyping perpetrated here was the desperate association the journalist made.
And conflict between “editorial vs. advertising” -that’s just as groundless and nonsensical. Advice: stop the desperate digging for dirt, and start citing the substantial displays of injustice in the world. This is embarrassingly uninformed and only perpetuates the mindframe the article hopes to banish.