Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/21/kfc-apologizes-for-tv-ad-that.html
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Boobies sell chicken, apparently.
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Chicken. Breasts.
Honestly…
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KFC apologizes…
Not really; 'twas an if-pology.
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“Is it wrong to encourage people to slaughter our fellow avians?”
“Better them than us.”
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What exactly should those pre-teens should have done in that situation?
The ad shows a young woman adjusting her shorts and breasts while checking out her reflection in a car window, until the window rolls down and reveals two young shocked boys staring at her with their mouths open, along with a disapproving mom.
She’s not adjusting her breasts, she’s adjusting her top, unless she’s also adjusting her ass.
And presumably no one cares that Mom’s disappointed look equates to slut shaming.
Girls can’t dress how they want? Boys have to instantly avert their eyes or they’ll sin?
This all reads more like the Daily Mail than the Guardian.
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I don’t really feel like boys did anything horrible.
The advertising agency on the other hand…
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As a former teen boy I would have looked much like those kids. I can’t say that is a bad thing, it just is. I can’t say the young woman did anything wrong, though perhaps somewhat clueless - which more or less fits most people in their early 20s.
Don’t much like the glare of the ‘mom’, slut shaming indeed. Women and men should be able to dress and act as they please without judgement. We also need to somehow get to a place where others are allowed to notice and/or appreciate how a particular person is dressing and acting without being also wrong, while also not being inappropriate or objectifying.
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Pretty sure companies like Yum Brands (KFC) intentionally do commercials that are too close to the edge, which will create controversy and news coverage, which they will apologize for, which will make more people view the ad. I certainly would never have seen this KFC ad if BB hadn’t covered this “controversy”. It still doesn’t make me want to go to KFC though.
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You new to planet earth? boobies literally sell everything here.
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The country is literally on fire, and these bluenose bitties bitching about this?
They should change their name to the United States of Australia/
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Yeah, I’m sorry but I don’t see how this “Excuses boys bad behavior” I don’t really see this as bad behavior. Sure gawking in public and overtly staring is aggressive and inappropriate this hardly seems like that.
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“Ads like this reinforce the false idea that we can’t expect better from boys"
I want to see a remake with Bogans speaking articulately and cordially pretending they didn’t notice.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this bit on a comedy show sketch…
Okay, I admit it, I had quite the little chortle at this.
But what really should have been the proper response for the mother? If she was smiling or smirking at the amusement of this, would we say she was encouraging the boy’s behavior? And what were the boys to do in that situation - avert their eyes lest they be lured astray?
This whole thing seems a tempest in a teapot.
(I can’t believe I’m seriously discussing a KFC commercial)
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the problem is not that the boys find the woman attractive… the problem is that the woman is treated like an object in this commercial, as someone without agency, as someone whose body is a commodity to be bought and sold, and to sell other things.
Women are human beings, and we deserve to be treated AS SUCH. The more we get dehumanized, the more we get abused in our society. Male attraction is a piss poor excuse to use your fellow human being to project your desires onto or to sell god damn chicken…
And as the group points out, it’s a dangerous notion that boys can’t be expected to treat women as human beings, because “hormones” or some such nonsense. guess what… women have hormones too, and desires and are sexual beings. Yet somehow, we often manage to treat the people we’re attracted to like human beings instead of objects, because we are socially expected to do so. There is noting wrong with desire, etc. There is something wrong with using T&A to sell shit.
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Let’s say that again louder, in boldface type for the benefit of the wilfully blind and/or clueless:
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Yup. How dare anyone suggest that teenage boys would have any interest in breasts. Sexual attraction has absolutely no basis in reality, it’s just a stereotype!
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winner winner Chicken Dinner!
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Imagine this add with the genders reversed.
A handsome man checks his arse and adjusts his pants, then turns around and adjusts his “hang” and fly in the car window. It rolls down and two young teen girls are staring with the same look on their face and a really, really irritated father looking at the man.
What would you find offensive then? My guess is the objectification of the man would be the last issue that you would have with this commercial, nor that you would think that this commercial would justify bad behavior in young girls.
I mean, I’d be upset that it shows sexual harassment of young kids, even though it was accidental. I’d be rather upset at the brand for using it in a commercial. I’d find it concerning that it was normalizing the placement of kids in “accidental” sexual situations. That’s what I’d be upset about, and you know what, that’s still what I’m upset about.
And this is the problem. Our society treats young male children who are victims of sexual crimes differently than women; boys who get raped by women teachers are “lucky”; boys who get raped by priests are “gay”; but the kids are just presumed to have enjoyed the forced sex or sexual harassment and even admitting that they didn’t makes their treatment even worse. And ads like this just add to that; no one has even said anything about the sexual harassment of the young boys, and this is (not kidding, not being facetious) a very enlightened group of commenters. And that just goes to say how much work we have to do in this area.
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