Bucket in My Hand: Kentucky Fried Chicken Advertising, American Dream Discourse, and the Hunger-Obesity Paradox

• Main Author: Smith, Rachel
• Other Authors: Alilunas, Peter
• Language: en_US
• Published: University of Oregon 2016
• Subjects: Advertising; American dream; Colonel Sanders; Hunger; Kentucky Fried Chicken; Obesity
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/20437

As a cornerstone of American identity, the American Dream serves as a hegemonic ideology rooted in myth. This myth centers on an ardent belief in equity despite the existence of systemic racial and economic exclusions, which includes inconsistent access to healthy food resulting in the hunger-obesity paradox. Because fast food plays a leading role in generating this paradox where an individual can be both hungry and obese, this thesis analyzes the 2015 Kentucky Fried Chicken advertising campaign to identify how the campaign perpetuates Dream discourse and understand how that discourse contributes to the hunger-obesity paradox. With the Colonel anchored at the heart of this campaign, the analysis found that he embodies the Dream and acts as a megaphone for Dream discourse. And ultimately, because Dream discourse overlooks and even admonishes low-income people and people of color, the people who most often face hunger and obesity, it contributes to the paradox.