KFC Parent Company Pulls Questionable Obama KFC Ad in Far East

By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 8, 2011 7:42PM

YUM! Brands, the Louisville-based parent company of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver's, among others, recently pulled an ad that ran in Hong Kong for a fish sandwich marketed by KFC, featuring a black man acting as an obvious stand-in for President Obama calling for "change." The ersatz Obama is then squashed by a giant version of the fish sandwich.

If this ad ran in the States, the outcry of racism would be immediate. In the Far East, not so much. This is where corporations go to play up racial stereotypes for benefit of the bottom line. It's a region of the world where Darkie toothpaste was sold as recently as the early 90s. The name of the toothpaste was changed to Darlie, but the minstrel on the label stayed in many markets.