14655: KFC WTF BS.

Adweek reported KFC made a Spotify playlist of hip-hop tracks with references to the fried chicken brand. Somewhere, Mary J. Blige is demanding an apology. Oh, and below is the leadership of the White advertising agency behind the initiative—which is not surprising, as White advertising agencies love hip hop.

KFC Made a Spotify Playlist of ‘Bucket Bangers,’ 46 Hip-Hop Tracks That Referenced the Brand

The chain’s French operation will be promoting it through ads

By Erik Oster

Name-dropping of brands in hip-hop is nothing new. For years, the likes of fashion and alcohol have received their fair share of attention (“Pass the Courvoisier” by Busta Rhymes or “Air Force Ones” by Nelly, anyone?).

Food has an illustrious history in the genre as well if this playlist is any indication. But did you know that KFC has been explicitly been mentioned a whopping 46 times in hip-hop songs over the past 30 years? From Run DMC and the Beastie Boys to Kanye West, MIA and Kendrick Lamar, the chain is clearly a big part of hip-hop’s history.

Now, KFC is returning the favor by paying tribute to hip-hop with a “Bucket Bangers” Spotify playlist devoted to the songs referencing the brand.

KFC’s French agency Sid Lee Paris created a campaign to promote the playlist via Spotify banners and a series of OOH ads around Paris with lyrics from the songs. But it’s not just American artists featured. “Bucket Bangers” includes a host of French acts like Maître Gims and Orelsan in addition to the familiar names already mentioned, as well as hip-hop stars from Germany, Russia and Brazil.

It’s a unique way to flex KFC’s pop culture prowess, as we’re pretty sure there aren’t many brands who could pull off such a lengthy playlist.

12059: Overreaction Of The Week.

The Wall Street Journal reported Burger King in Japan is selling black burgers. Somebody please make sure they don’t use Mary J. Blige to hype the special menu items.

Popular Burger King Japan Offering Back, Black

By Jun Hongo

In the roulette wheel that is fast food, Burger King Japan has a strategy when it comes to its new hamburger menu: always bet on black.

The company, whose previous offerings include the “Windows 7 Whopper,” said on Wednesday it will start selling the Kuro Pearl burger and Kuro Diamond burger beginning on Sept. 19. The burgers will feature black buns, black sauce and black cheese in addition to black-pepper heavy beef patties. Kuro means black in Japanese.

The black burgers were first introduced for a limited time by the chain in 2012 and became a hit, outselling all other new products that Burger King offered during the year, according to the company. They were also available for a limited time in 2013.

“The black burgers sold extremely well because of their visual impact, but people continued to come back for them because of their taste,” a spokeswoman for the company told Japan Real Time.

The Kuro Pearl and Kuro Diamond, which will be made available until early November, will take things up a notch from the previous versions. According to the company, bamboo charcoal was added to the cheese to give it its color, while squid ink was added to the sauce to make it darker.

“The bamboo charcoal adds a nice aroma to the bun as well,” the spokeswoman said.

The simple Kuro Pearl burger, which has a bun, cheese, patty and sauce, will be available for ¥480 ($4.50). The deluxe Kuro Diamond burger, which will also have tomato, lettuce, and onions, will cost ¥690.

11402: The Price Of Self-Esteem.

Forgot to mention that the Grand Prize Winner of the Love That Chicken! Chorus promotion will receive a whopping $1,000—and a lifetime of shame and ridicule as a bonus. The special site currently features a dozen contestants. Hey, Popeye’s should recruit Mary J. Blige to serve as a celebrity judge to select the champion.

11401: More Annie The Chicken Queen.

Haven’t found an online version yet, but there’s a new commercial for the Love That Chicken! Chorus promotion featuring Annie the Chicken Queen and a gospel choir. Somebody owes Mary J. Blige an apology.

11043: More Mary J. Blige Messiness.

Mary J. Blige should talk with her agent about the commercial decisions being made on her behalf. This American Cancer Society spot is embarrassingly bad.

10543: Annie The Chicken Queen Is Dead…?

Has Annie the Chicken Queen been replaced by this Handcrafted Debate campaign here, here, here and here? It’s highly likely the advertising agency considered using Annie as a voiceover for the main character—but realized adding her sassiness to big, animated lips on a piece of fried chicken would have outdone the Mary J. Blige fiasco.

10261: Blige On Burger King.

From Rolling Stone…

Mary J. Blige: Burger King Chicken Ad Fallout ‘Crushed Me’

‘My heart dropped down to my stomach,’ says singer

By Rolling Stone

Mary J. Blige is speaking out for the first time about the stir surrounding her controversial Burger King commercial that leaked in April.

Appearing on Hot 97’s Angie Martinez show on Thursday, the R&B star talked about the fallout from the ad and asked for forgiveness from her fans. “I want to apologize to everyone that was offended or thought that I would do something so disrespectful to our culture. I would never do anything like that purposefully. I thought I was doing something right. So forgive me.”

In the Burger King commerical, which leaked back in April, Blige sang about a fried chicken wrap to the tune of her song “Don’t Mind.” The ad was widely criticized for playing into African-American stereotypes, and the fast-food chain quickly pulled the commercial, citing music licensing issues. Soon after, the company issued a public mea culpa to Blige: “We would like to apologize to Mary J. and all of her fans for airing an ad that was not final. We know how important Mary J. is to her fans, and we are currently in the process of finalizing the commercial. We hope to have the final ad on the air soon.”

On Thursday, Blige recalled seeing the leaked version of the ad for the first time. “Oh my God, my heart dropped down to my stomach,” Blige told Martinez. “I got this sweat and I said, real calm, ‘This too shall pass.’ But it just kept getting worse and worse and worse … I went online to listen to the remix I did with Fat Joe, and all I can see is ‘Burger King’ and ‘chicken’ and ‘buffoonery.’ It just broke my heart.

“I would never just bust out singing about chicken and chicken wings,” added Blige. “It hurt my feelings and crushed me for two days.”

Explaining why she’s remained silent about the ad until now, Blige said, “There was too much going on for me to stick my head out there and say anything. So I just pulled back and watched everyone and everything.”

Blige added that she was originally sold on the idea that she would “be shot in an iconic way” for the ad and that she’d seen it as “a great branding opportunity.” She also said that while she understood the jokes about the spot looking back, the experience also showed her who her real friends were. “Busta Rhymes hit me and he was like, “Are you ok, sis? I see what you were trying to do,’” recalled Blige. “Fat Joe hit me; he was like, ‘Yo, we don’t care about that stupid chicken commercial or whatever. We love you, Mary, and we know what you were trying to do.”’

Still, Blige said, “It was a mistake when you look at it at the end of the day, because people look at it as a mistake. But I did it because I thought it was something that wouldn’t come out like that.”

9976: More Mary J. Blige-BK Thoughts.

Over at Slate, Aisha Harris declared that Mary J. Blige’s Burger King Ad Is Silly, Not Racist. Harris wrote:

So why the uproar this time? Perhaps the answer has to do with the ad’s intended audience. Unlike the many fast-food commercials aimed specifically at black audiences, usually found on black-targeted networks like BET, the Blige ad features a mostly white supporting cast. It is meant to appeal to a “mainstream” (read: white) audience; some of the ad’s critics seem worried about the way it might make black people look to white people.

Not sure why Harris believes the ad is intended to reach a “mainstream” audience. In fact, she is probably dead wrong to think so. As previously noted, Burger King made a deliberate decision in 2010 to dump its minority agencies, claiming to take a more “cross-cultural” approach to advertising. In other words, the Mary J. Blige spot is not intended to primarily appeal to Whites, as Harris contends; rather, it’s for the mythical multicultural audience. And as the Salma Hayek companion spot has “cross-cultural” appeal, but really targets Latinos, the Blige spot is probably intended to have greater appeal for Blacks.

MultiCultClassics agrees with Harris that the commercial is not racist for the reasons many people think it is. However, it is arguably racist for reasons the general public does not realize. Specifically, a White agency was charged with producing advertising targeting blacks, delivered a culturally clueless effort, and allegedly saw fit to release the commercial in an unfinished state. There’s definitely some questionable behavior at play in this affair, but ordinary citizens remain oblivious to the behind-the-scenes details.

9968: Unfinished Business With Blige & BK.

The Burger King-Mary J. Blige fiasco is getting crazier by the minute. According to Advertising Age, BK and Blige said the spot aired in an unfinished state. OK, but based on the quality of the companion campaign commercials, the “finished” version will essentially involve polishing a turd. Additionally, the scenario hints at potential racism. That is, the minority agencies got dumped in favor of a White shop that doesn’t even bother to present quality work for audiences of color. Maybe they figured selling fried chicken to Blacks was a slam dunk. Hell, they probably considered running the rough cut or animatic. Just play a hip-hop groove behind tabletop footage of the nasty chicken items and call it a day.

9966: Burger King-Sized Cultural Blunders.

One final point about Burger King and its decision to dump its minority agencies in 2010: It takes extraordinary cultural cluelessness and ignorance to make Mary J. Blige and Salma Hayek look bad.

9963: Mary J. Blige, The New Chicken Queen.

The short-lived Mary J. Blige Burger King commercial is worth a quick replay. Too many sources have ripped the spot, and reports claimed the catcalls prompted BK to pull it. However, an official statement from the fast feeder insisted music-licensing issues led to its yanking, and the commercial may soon reappear. Whatever.

Critics initially wondered which advertising firm was responsible for the piece. The mediocre production values—coupled with the contrived colored-person-singing-about-fried-chicken concept—actually felt like the stereotypical handiwork of a Black shop. Or Will.i.am. However, neither option could have been true, as Burger King dumped its minority agencies in 2010. At the time, BK bigwigs said the idea to go exclusively with a White agency was “based on where our consumer is,” especially considering “the X and Y generations” allegedly believing in the “melting pot. … We felt the right decision for Burger King is to address all our consumers as a whole, instead of taking a segmented approach.” Uh-huh. Wonder what the Whopper crew is thinking now. More importantly, what would the public think upon learning that the King’s court is comprised of White guys—and minorities were kicked out of the castle?

The creative culprit, incidentally, is Mother New York. This leads to a twisted snap: Your Mother is so culturally clueless, they made Mary J. Blige sing like a Subservient Chicken Queen about fried chicken for a racist, flame-broiling burger joint.

8010: Minorities In Advertising Week.

AdweekMedia is offering Real Time Advertising Week coverage, and the majority of depicted minorities are celebrities who don’t work in advertising.

7389: Fighting Words.

The cover quote on the latest issue of JET seems downright prophetic.

Essay 4995

On the cover of the February 2008 issue of VIBE magazine, Mary J. Blige asks, “What you know ‘bout me?”

Um, is that question directed at folks conducting the latest steroids investigation?