Dis-comfort Food

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGrqW3nx5HM

There is a recent Popeyes commercial that depicts an older African-American woman expressing her undying love for Popeyes fried chicken. Fried chicken, the stereotypical go-to food for African-Americans, has become a staple of black culture. Looking back on most Popeyes advertisements, unlike KFC, which seems to be more generally accepted and preferred, there has been a majority of African-Americans in their commercials. This may be due to their corporate belief that their main audience is within the Black community, however it does have a deeper affect of insinuation. With the woman who possesses a somehow slightly obvious hint of a Southern accent, seems to represent what American media has defined as the quintessential Black mom. She praises the chicken while condemning their competitors, and then performs a quick dance for her chicken. It seems that Popeyes figured an easy way capture their audience’s attention would be to perpetuate many stereotypes of African-Americans. Using a quick jingle, a flash of fried chicken, and a 3 second dance, Popeyes is able to, perhaps unintentionally, represent the Black community. Although one is much more aggressively promoting these stereotypes, the Popeyes commercials share similarities with a former YouTube phenomenon, “Fry that Chicken.” With these stereotypes being subtly kept alive through all media, it is hard to imagine that we can, as a general population, dismiss the prejudicial connection between Fried Chicken and Blacks. -C.S.