As reported by BNET Advertising Blog Oprah Winfrey’s offer of a free KFC grilled chicken meal for anyone downloading a coupon has created two interesting things:
- A 1960s-style sit-in at a Manhattan KFC when management refused to continue honoring the offer.
- Yet another opportunity to debate whether using black people to advertise a fried chicken chain is racist.
News outlets such as the Huffington Post, NY Times, and bloggers like TheLoop21.com
and Carmen D at Black Voices Blog are covering the story. Many bloggers are asking is Oprah wrong for feeding us with KFC?
There is one thing for sure, Oprah's KFC free-for-all has sparked a number of civil rights era-style protest.
Blogger AverageBro.com is on point when he wrote: "There are soo many things wrong with this story. Although I can’t help but laugh at the fact that those who actually wanted to pay faced beatdowns from angry coupon holders.
But the fact remains that people staged a sit-in for chicken. Chicken! These weren’t starving people begging for a meal, but crazy Americans angry that KFC wouldn’t honor a coupon. And I just know that after the whole Popeyes debacle, black people were involved. Probably spearheaded the revolt. The special runs until May 10. So these angry customers could have just come back to get their free chicken on another day.
And KFC and Oprah hold the responsibility for this foolishness. Oprah, I never thought you’d make the Do Better list, but alas, the day has come." More HERE
AAPP says: Candidly, I like many bloggers wonder why Kentucky Fried Chicken has black folks dancing around buckets of chicken?
It's all about the money! Now they (Kentucky Fried Chicken) are willing to spend money to make more money from.... guess who?
Check it out - The KFC President Apologizes For Oprah Fiasco
Feel better now?
Customers wait in line on East 42nd St. to redeem their free coupon for KFC's new grilled chicken.
Why is it that news outlets like, Forbes, the NY Daily News, and other news outlets can cover and shame Kentucky Fried Chicken and find Oprah's KFC Promotion Hypocritical yet also on many occassions fail to address real issues impacting black America?
Why is it that black folks can lead demonstrations to get KFC to mail out rain checks for Oprah chicken freebie, but seem to refuse to address issues of impacting our own community?
It's too bad black folks by-and-large don't address crime in our communities, poverty, teen pregnancy, tasering while blacks, high unemployment rates among black youth, lower educational attainment, high rates of incarceration among black males, the unwillingness of some businesses to employ ex-offenders, and the loss of between $71 billion and $92 billion in black home ownership assets - the worst loss of wealth for people of color in modern U.S. history. But let's get irate and demonstrate about some free chicken of course. We should be signing a petition to save black folks, instead we are more interested in some silly chicken.
File this under: The Politics of chicken. Or better yet, Chicken Wars