Juicy Obama Fingers Hit the Shelves

Principessa

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Tender, Juicy Obama Fingers Hit the Shelves

GERMAN FRIED CHICKEN

By Charles Hawley

A German frozen food company hopes to raise sales with a new product: Obama fingers. The tender, fried chicken bits come with a tasty curry sauce. The company says it was unaware of the possible racist overtones of the product. Selling products has, of course, become a bit more difficult than usual these days. No wonder then that companies everywhere are turning to optimistic marketing messages in an effort to counteract the steady drum beat of negativity coming from front page headlines around the globe.

Many sales executives have drawn the same conclusion: What better poster child for hope than US President Barack Obama? There are Obama dolls, Obama T-shirts, Obama soap-on-a-rope. There is even Obama thong underwear on offer.Not wanting to miss the boat, a German food company has now gotten into the act. Sprehe, a company that has all manner of frozen delicacies on offer, has come up with a new product it calls "Obama Fingers." Far from being real digits, though, the "fingers" in question are "tender, juicy pieces of chicken breast, coated and fried," as the product packaging claims.Fried chicken, in other words. With a curry dip.

:wtf1: You have got to be kidding me! :mad:

 

Principessa

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Darn you Nick8 for stealing my thunder. :tongue: I was about to suggest they be served with a watermelon martini. :biggrin1:
 

javyn

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Who gives a shit? Seriously?

Besides, last I checked, we do not rule the country of Germany, so they do not have to abide by our politically correct sensibilities.
 

B_Mister Buildington

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I agree that this is nothing to get upset over. I doubt that Germans know about the stereotype of black people liking fried chicken...

what the hell kind of stereotype is that, anyway? Does anyone NOT like fried chicken?
 

D_Ireonsyd_Colonrinse

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njqt:

When I first read your post title, It never dawned on me to connect "Obama" and "chicken fingers" to "implied racism". I thought the point was opportunistically latching onto the Obama name to sell a product.


It is now time (to "MOVE ON", as MoveOn.org likes to say) for african-americans to become less touchy about chicken, watermelon and monkey associations. It's now 2009. We have a black president. Seeing racial overtones in chicken and monkeys means, subconsciously, that one wishes to be placed in (and exploit the) victim mode.


Point 2: A "german frozen food company" is testing this product, Obama Fingers. Europeans do not have the same cultural history and cultural baggage as the U.S. -- I think one would be hard-pressed to argue that Germans make the implied Black man-chicken-racist connections that african-americans do.
 

B_Nick8

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Actually, and not to jump on the "the whole world is familiar with US culture" bandwagon, I've seen Nazi (not to equate modern Germany with Nazi Germany) and fascist cartoons in which blacks were depicted in very similar stereotypical ways to racist American ones. Also, I have tons of Western European friends who are all highly aware of the watermelon/fried chicken references we have and find offensive. I think it's a little bit disingenuous to think that a major European manufacturer would be completely unaware of such implications and even if they were, you'd think they would have done their homework. Like Chevy learned to after the great Nova debacle.
 

D_Kissimmee Coldsore

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Well I'm western European and until I read the outrage threads on here I had no idea of those connotations. Sure, they could have done some research. But I gather they are selling them in Germany, so maybe the research showed that Germans don't make those links.
 

D_Ireonsyd_Colonrinse

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Racial Overtones: A Dialogue

(NJQT and Queen Elizabeth are conversing before a meal)


The queen: You know, darling, these watermelons are perfectly in season and are the sweetest, most delectable-tasting --

NJQT: (cutting her off) Oh, watermelons?? You had to go there, didn't you! Grapes are in season! Strawberries are in season! But NO!, since it's ME sitting to lunch, it's watermelon! GO AHEAD! Just call me a jungle bunny! Get it over with! You know you want to...

The queen: Darling, I had no idea... I meant no... My grandson brought me sweet watermelon this weekend...

NJQT: What's the main course? Popeye's chicken and biscuits??? Throw in a bag of pork rinds?

The queen: Dear, I'm sorry, I'd have thought we might have evolved a bit in the race category department in the past...

NJQT: (her mind clicking & connecting) EVOLVED?? What, is that like a veiled allusion to Darwin? Monkeys? Listen, old lady, if I wanted to be insulted, I could have stayed in the States.
 

pym

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WillTom....i was gonna write up a whole response to your post regarding NJQT's fantasy luncheon, And then i remembered your post regarding Leviticus/Purim.
And instead of saying all i feel i could say.....I'll just say this.....

THOSE WHO DO NOT REMEMBER THE PAST.......Are DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.
 
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B_Nick8

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Oh, pym, suffer the little children 'n all that. Will's just being funny. He couldn't be more a raving libtard if Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond were chasing him down the street with a bucket of tar and a bag of feathers.

And he has a reeeally good memory, actually.
 
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D_Ireonsyd_Colonrinse

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NJQT: Do you think I crossed a line with my above Dialogue? I apologize if so (and I feel like a schmuck apologizing because I think I made a valid point about over-sensitivites in our collective cultural backgrounds - I feel like a schmuck in the same way that one "apologizes" after being called out by the Reverand Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton).


When I made "monkey" references, I especially had in mind those recent Obama-Chimp-Stimulus cartoons that Sharpton immediatley told the press were rife with racial undertones.

I'm a liberal, but still, I saw a rabid chimp in those cartoons which conservatives feel was an out-of-control beast (the $787 billion stimulus bill). I did not see chimp-as-Obama, Obama's a monkey, as the african-americans did. If you look at the cartoons from the Raging Beast perspective, it represents a wild uncontrollable spending bill (which cons wanted to shoot down).

Sorry if you are (or are going to be) offended. I hope you know me better than that from my posts. If this forum devolves into extreme political correctness, it'll be at a loss.
 
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B_starinvestor

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If they really wanted to sell something that was a reflection of Obama....forget any racial undertones, etc.....

What they should be selling is fried pork. Call them Obama stimulus pork tenders.

And since he is the master of double talk and deception; sneak some fried fish and fried chicken in with each basket. So people can get a flavor for not getting what they are told they will be getting.
 

B_Nick8

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And since he is the master of double talk and deception...

Hey star, remember that talk we had about how sometimes you get on my last good nerve in that other thread? This is one of those times. :rolleyes:

'Scuse me, don't you have some WMDs to keep looking for?:wink:
 
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B_starinvestor

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Hey star, remember that talk we had about how sometimes you get on my last good nerve in that other thread? This is one of those times. :rolleyes:



And the pork tenders should come with two booklets outlining a detailed history of the pork tenders and how wonderful they are. Just as Obama comes, complete with two books about his woundrous self.:tongue:
 

D_alex8

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I think it's a little bit disingenuous to think that a major European manufacturer would be completely unaware of such implications and even if they were, you'd think they would have done their homework.

Sprehe Feinkost scarcely qualifies as a "major European manufacturer," though. It's a poky little supplier of frozen meat products to low-end supermarkets, and operates out of a small rural town with barely 3000 inhabitants. The company gets less than 4000 hits at Google, and more than half of those relate to its sponsorship of a junior team in local horse-riding competitions.

Which may well be the point; if they were some high-profile, cosmopolitan, "major European manufacturer", then of course they SHOULD have known better. But as it stands, they're merely a parochial small-town food company who almost certainly didn't have anyone aboard with the relevant cultural knowledge.
 

pym

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Sprehe Feinkost scarcely qualifies as a "major European manufacturer," though. It's a poky little supplier of frozen meat products to low-end supermarkets, and operates out of a small rural town with barely 3000 inhabitants. The company gets less than 4000 hits at Google, and more than half of those relate to its sponsorship of a junior team in local horse-riding competitions.

Which may well be the point; if they were some high-profile, cosmopolitan, "major European manufacturer", then of course they SHOULD have known better. But as it stands, they're merely a parochial small-town food company who almost certainly didn't have anyone aboard with the relevant cultural knowledge.
Perhaps they would be better off to sticking with cultural references as regards there food stuffs that they are more familiar with:
Angela Merkel MUFF-ins
Merkel BIG-ASS BRATS
ANGELA's FAVORITE 'WEINER' schnitzles!
or the like. Either way, just as insulting to a world leader.
And in this era, that meat packing plant would have to be existing in a cultural Vacuum. I doubt that very much.
Just for fun......maybe they could go with JOSEF FRITZL FRANKS! Pretty timely product to try out eh? I'll bet EVERYONE in that plant will get that joke!
I wonder what OBAMA himself would have said if he had been asked wheather or not he'd like to endorse that product.
 

D_Ireonsyd_Colonrinse

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Which completely makes my point that this was not a case, ultimately, of should they know - or not know - about the history of black racial stereotyping or a sensitivity to racial undertones.

This is not about blacks and fried chicken.

It's a case of -- WHY IS THIS COMPANY ATTACHING OBAMA'S NAME, unsolicited, to its product, to raise its profile? If I'm selling peanut butter, and attach Brad Pitt's name to it (Creamy Pitt Butter... it's peanut-ier!) isn't that actionable in court? Pitt Peanut Butter and Jolie Jelly?
 

pym

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Which completely makes my point that this was not a case, ultimately, of should they know - or not know - about the history of black racial stereotyping or a sensitivity to racial undertones.

This is not about blacks and fried chicken.

It's a case of -- WHY IS THIS COMPANY ATTACHING OBAMA'S NAME, unsolicited, to its product, to raise its profile? If I'm selling peanut butter, and attach Brad Pitt's name to it (Creamy Pitt Butter... it's peanut-ier!) isn't that actionable in court? Pitt Peanut Butter and Jolie Jelly?

I can't possibly speak for OBAMA, But as a betting man.......i am SURE he would have been personally insulted at the conotation.......not the lack of endorsement permission. IMHO.

PS: to what extent would he be insulted? I think ultimately he would see it as chump change, and that would be a testament to the mans charachter.
 
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