Though you can’t currently see the video of the controversial Burger King commercial featuring Mary J. Blige currently online, bloggers and news outlets are abuzz with opinions about its effectiveness.
The crux of the controversy is explained and excused here by Gawker:
The stereotype perpetuation of a black woman espousing the virtues of fried chicken is never a pleasant thing to behold, although Octavia Spencer didn’t cause much of an uproar for saying in The Help (for which she won an Oscar), “Frying chicken just tend to make you feel better about life” in a scene that was not intended to make you want to kill yourself.
The rumor mill was fueled after YouTube pulled the ad from its site, only to give its reasoning for doing so as a licensing issue with Burger King.
Is there a double standard that calls out a black woman as a spokesperson for a restaurant selling chicken? Three other celebrities (David Beckham, Jay Leno, and Salma Hayek) are also featured in similar ads for the fast food chain’s latest campaign, but there’s no apparent controversy around their endorsements of the food.
But as the video went viral, some in the black community criticized the ad as stereotypical. The black women-oriented website Madame Noire likened it to “buffoonery.” -oshkoshhub
The sensitivities of any minority group is heightened when it feels that a stereotype has been exploited. But are the critics of this particular Burger King commercial featuring Mary J. Blige overly sensitive? Or are the sensitivities justified?
Angie Lynch is the founder and managing editor of the powerhouse women’s literary community, Smut Book Club. She is a Native Floridian without a tan, probably because she spends her days hard at work on the magical internet. For the past several years, Angie has worked way too hard at building clout as an influencer in food and margaritas as well as being a source for laughable pop culture commentary. You can read more from Angie on her blog, A Whole Lot of Nothing.
image credit musicisentropyvia Creative Commons
The outrage is more upsetting than the commercial. Certain ethnic/cultural groups have certain cuisines, and that’s often celebrate. African-American cuisine has rich history, flavor, and tradition on its side. Does that include fried chicken? Absolutely. Are most blacks going to be offended by that association? Absolutely not. No more than it’s offensive with an Indian-American does a spokesperson role for a curry product. It’s wonderful that we have such diverse cuisine choices in America, and is something that should be taught and shared from one cultural group to another. I learned how to make fried chicken from a black woman, and my fried chicken KICKS ASS. I learned how to make tamales from a Mexican man, and as a result, my tamales aren’t half bad either. Why would we shame the cultural roots of a food??
I don’t know. I’m generally torn – on one hand I think she’s probably just promoting the new menu and they sell chicken. It’s fried. Was she chosen for the food or the commercial? Are people upset that Beckham is selling a smoothie? I mean, this is a BK commercial, not a reflection on society as a whole. I think it’s an overreaction.
Then again, I’m a middle class white woman, what do I know? Would there be backlash if some white, thin celeb was selling their salads and “perpetuating” that skinny chicks eat salad?
I think society is too sensitive.
I have better things to do with my life then worry about whether a Burger King ad is offensive. Plus…their food sucks. Period.
Oh I wondered if their food not sucked yet.
people need to lighten up..there are bigger issues in this world than a fried chicken ad
I’ve watched the commercial (along with the Salma Hayek one), and I truly do not see why there is so much criticism. I feel like the people who ARE criticizing it, are just trying to make a big deal out of nothing.
So what if Mary J Blige is singing about a fried chicken wrap? It had nothing to do with her being a black woman. The lyrics in the song in the commercial have nothing to question. It’s a song about CHICKEN WRAPS. Like the Gawker article said, this isn’t the first time she has sold out for some good cash.
Would people have started the same uproar had Salma Hayek been selling, let’s say, tamales or a new salsa for BK? I highly doubt it.
I guess I’m the minority here. I do understand the sensitivity on this issue. Foods like fried chicken and watermelon have long been used to represent Black people (even though others in the U.S. eat these foods with gusto!) and usually in a negative light. Think about when stupid college kids have “ghetto parties” and everyone runs around listening to gangsta rap, drinking 40s, wearing their hair in cornrows and eating fried chicken. Not only do they associate the word “ghetto” with Black, but their perception of who Black people are and how they live, is completely offensive and stereotypical. Fried chicken has been used in racist imagery from political ads to old-school cartoons reels to propoganda from blatantly racist organizations like the KKK & Aryan Nation & other ones that now use less obvious & inflammatory names but are nevertheless just as evil.
The thing that isn’t working with the comparisons other commenters have used is that tamales, or salsa, for example, aren’t things that have been so negatively used as associations for Latinos. Associated with being Latino? Sure. Over the top and for over a century used in negative imagery as association with Latinos? No. A better comparison might be something like the statue of the “lazy Mexican” sleeping under a big sombrero, leaned against a cactus or donkey. You’ve seen those ceramic things in people’s yards or in artwork, right? If Salma Hayek were seen in a commercial advertising those, I think there would be a lot of people up in arms. The same goes for the comparison of White women and salads. White women haven’t faced the same discrimination that Blacks have and even if a salad is seen as stereotypically White and female, it’s imagery hasn’t been used as negatively as fried chicken has.
Fried chicken on its own isn’t offensive but that a Black woman who has “made it” (i.e. she has the fame, money & power to be very selective about what she endorses) would choose to advertise that product feels to many like she is playing right into the stereotypes that people still hold against Blacks.
Fried chicken doesn’t insinuate a bad trait of a black woman/man, though. The ceramic of the “lazy” mexican does, however. I don’t think it’s comparable.
I think this blog post offers insight to the stereotype connected to fried chicken:
http://www.good.is/post/eating-while-black-how-i-navigate-watermelon-fried-chicken-and-frozen-yogurt/
Fried chicken doesn’t insinuate a bad trait for anyone, that’s true – when you take it out of the context of U.S. history. And the ceramic statue also doesn’t show anything other than a person sleeping. It’s the context that matters. In the U.S., fried chicken *has* been used in a very negative context in association with Black people. If the “lazy” Mexican statue doesn’t compare well enough, I’m sure there is some other innocent thing that has been framed in a very negative context, that could be used in comparison.
Comments on this entry are closed.