So I was watching one of the very few television shows that still manage to draw me in, and I caught a new Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial. At least, I think it was new. I hadn't seen it before. The commercial was forgettable, so I won't bother describing it. Truthfully, I don't remember the images; just the song. It was accompanied by Lynryd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama.

At first, I was amused that a company called KENTUCKY Fried Chicken would use a song called Sweet Home ALABAMA. Sort of like, hmm, they didn't get the name of the state right. Or oh well one southern state name is as good as another. But then, I began thinking about it too deeply, which is where I always get into trouble.

'Ol Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (now renamed simply KFC) was the well-known spokesperson for the fast-food chain and epitomized the "southern gentleman" image, an image which lends itself to thoughts of racism, hate crimes and the Ku Klux Klan. There is no proof that "Colonel" Sanders (he was an honorary Kentucky Colonel) was anything but a standard restauranteur. But there is that image, which may say courtliness and manners to some but always says hypocrite and racist to me, personally. Oh well.

However, the same cannot be said for Lynryd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama. It is a celebration of southern racism to its core. It is actually a response to Neil Young's song, Southern Man, which attacks institutional racism, slavery and the Klan. Sweet Home Alabama says, in essence, so what? Institutional slavery, racism and the Klan are things that we are not ashamed of and by god if we had our way we'd still have 'em down here in the Southland.

I just think it is odd that a national fast food franchise would select such an unapologetically racist song for its national advertising campaign. Did they not listen to the words, or are they fully cognizant of what the song is saying? Or, worse yet, does the message make no difference?