17052: Performative PR On 3AF Impact 50.

Advertising Age spotlighted the Asian American Advertising Federation (3AF) compiled its inaugural “Impact 50” list, featuring brands that have allegedly “demonstrated exceptional commitment” in connecting with Asian American consumers.

 

The 3AF Impact 50 unveiling coincides with Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

 

Time will tell how President Donald J. Trump’s anti-DEIBA+ executive orders might impact multicultural marketing.

 

It would also be interesting to learn if the “exceptional commitment” from brands translates to cash or crumbs.

 

Toyota, McDonald’s and dozens of other brands are doing Asian American advertising right

 

By Erika Wheless

 

Toyota, McDonald’s and Procter & Gamble are among the 50 brands being recognized for their marketing efforts by the Asian American Advertising Federation.

 

To celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the Asian American Advertising Federation (3AF) has released an inaugural “Impact 50” list of brands that have “demonstrated exceptional commitment” in engaging with Asian American consumers through events, investing in media specifically targeting them and creative that resonates.

 

3AF pulled from several data sources to compile the list, including Asian American media reports, community events organizers, agency updates and iSpot video research. Brands did not pay to be on the list. (The full list of brands is below.)

 

According to 3AF, there are 24 million Asian American consumers, and their purchasing power is projected to reach $1.9 trillion next year.

 

The organization pointed to several examples of campaigns that resonated with Asian Americans, including McDonald’s Grandma McFlurry campaign, which included a website that could translate messages for consumers who cannot speak the same language as their grandmother.

 

Another example was the campaign for Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice starring actor Ronny Chieng and dancer Alex Wong.

 

3AF also called out Toyota’s original racing anime series, “Grip,” and Moët Hennessy’s packaging partnership with Chinese landscape painter Yang Yongliang.

 

“According to Nielsen, representation isn’t just important—it’s powerful,” Genny Hom-Franzen, 3AF’s executive director, said in a statement. “Asian American audiences are 46% more likely than the general population to support brands that show up in inclusive content. That’s not just a statistic—that’s a call to action. We thank these brands who are reaching Asian Americans and urge others to step up, be intentional, and reflect the vibrant communities they serve.”

 

The brands on the list are: Acura, Adidas, Amazon Prime Video, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, BMW, Bristol Myers Squibb, Brown-Forman, Charter Communications, Chase, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Comcast NBCUniversal, Diageo, Fox, General Motors, Gilead Sciences, HBO, Honda, Hulu, Humana, Hyundai, Kia, Las Vegas Sands, Lexus, L’Oréal, McDonald’s, Meta, MGM Resorts International, Moët Hennessy, Nationwide Financial, Netflix, New York Life Insurance, Nike, Nissan, Paramount Global, Pernod Ricard, Procter & Gamble, Sanofi, Sony Pictures, TikTok, Toyota, United Healthcare, Volvo, Walmart, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros., Wells Fargo and YouTube.

16930: How The Fortune Cookie Crumbles At Panda Express.

 

This Panda Express video posted at Ads of the World serves as a DEIBA+ doubleheader, presenting Chinese American culture/casting and Chinese/Lunar New Year.

 

Taking lead credit is White advertising agency Opinionated, who won AOR status for Panda Express in July 2024 by tapping TDW + Co.—a multicrumbtual shop—for cultural competence.

 

It would be interesting to learn how much compensation TDW + Co. received for its creative contributions. Based on the Prime Redlining typically experienced by non-White firms “partnering” with White ad agencies, the fee was likely not a fortune, but rather, fortune cookie crumbs.

 

Honesty is the best policy indeed.

 

16708: How To Expressly Catch A Panda.

AgencySpy posted on Panda Express choosing Opinionated as its new White advertising agency.

 

The Panda Express VP of Integrated Marketing Communications gushed, “Opinionated’s focus on family, authenticity, and transparency played a huge part in our decision to move forward with them. As did their drive to truly understand the Chinese American experience and perspective.”

 

Okay, except based on the people section of the agency website, it appears Opinionated lacks legitimate diversity that might lead to Chinese American culinary and cultural competence.

 

What’s more, AgencySpy revealed Opinionated “tapped key players from TDW + Co”—a multicultural marketing shop—to presumably gain enlightenment. This is a common tactic for White advertising agencies, albeit often a crumby consolation con for consultants of color.

 

And that’s no ancient Chinese secret.

 

Panda Express Names Opinionated as its New Creative AOR Following a Competitive Pitch

 

By Kyle O’Brien

 

Chinese restaurant chain Panda Express has selected independent agency Opinionated as its new creative AOR. The win follows a competitive review that launched in January and was led internally by the brand.

 

Panda Express—with more than 2,500 stores, 50,000 associates and nearing $6 billion in sales—is looking to the Portland, Oregon-based Opinionated to develop a strategic marketing platform that will elevate it from a well-known brand to a beloved one. The first campaign under the platform is expected to debut in January 2025 to coincide with the Lunar New Year, and will embrace the brand’s unique and rich Chinese American heritage.

 

Founded in 1983 at the Glendale Galleria in California, Panda Express is the largest family-owned and operated Asian dining concept in America. It is also one of the most successful restaurants in its category, regularly outperforming the QSR/fast casual industry.

 

The pride in its heritage and values was apparently a key element of Opinionated’s pitch and, coupled with its unique insights into the brand, played a key role in Panda Express’s decision to award the agency the business.

 

“Opinionated’s focus on family, authenticity and transparency played a huge part in our decision to move forward with them. As did their drive to truly understand the Chinese American experience and perspective,” said Fabiola del Rio, vp, integrated marketing communications, Panda Express. “We have a deep understanding of American Chinese food and culture at Panda Express and hadn’t required that expertise of the agencies, but Opinionated tapped key players from TDW + Co, a community based multicultural marketing agency, and came at our business as one solid team with a strategic vision for our brand—and they nailed it.”

 

The brand’s most recent campaign “However You Panda,” launched in Fall 2023 and centered on a series of spots that celebrated the human moments and heartfelt bonds Panda Express fans have with the cuisine. That work was created by former creative AOR, L.A.-based The Many. Prior to The Many, Panda Express worked with creative consultancy Wolfgang.

 

Media duties, which were not up for review, are handled by Pal8.

 

“We went into this pitch with a lot of passion for the heart of what Panda Express stands for as a brand,” said Mark Fitzloff, founder and chief creative officer of Opinionated. “Panda Express has a story and a culture that we are eager to express through great creative work that we hope will become as beloved as their orange chicken.”

 

Panda Express marks the latest in a string of new-business wins for Opinionated. Over the past year, the agency has added Dick’s Sporting Goods and FootJoy to its client roster, while also growing its partnerships with Adidas and Drumstick.

16461: Recommending, Recognizing, And Rethinking Centered.

 

Centered: People and Ideas Diversifying Design edited by Kaleena Sales advances “A rich, inclusive, contemporary, and global look at design diversity, past and present.”

 

In many respects, Sales ultimately provides a platform to challenge the boundaries and standards that have been historically established—in arguably Eurocentric and colonialistic style—for graphic design.

 

To ascribe Sales as having edited the book could also be challenged—mostly because “editor” seems an incomplete and insufficient designation.

 

For starters, Sales is credited alongside Adolphus Washington as co-designer of the cover.

 

Perhaps Sales should be acclaimed curator, having concepted and assembled an extraordinary exhibition of words, works, and perspectives. 

 

Creator could apply in today’s creator culture—as could influencer, given Sales’ intent to provoke progress.

 

That said, Centered: People and Ideas Diversifying Design by Kaleena Sales is a terrific book—definitely worthy of perusing, probing, pondering, praising, and partying.

16271: Clichéd Concepts Are Patronizing Too.

 

What happens when a White advertising agency tackles a brief best suited for a non-White advertising agency? In this case, it started when a former resident minority of the White ad shop hatched the concept. Yet the final production feels contrived at best and patronizing at least—leveraging the clichéd “[Fill-in-the-blank-minorities] are Americans too.” Just as “Black History is American History” reruns repeatedly during February, it looks like “Asian Americans Are Americans Too” is the motto for May.

 

To White advertising agencies heralding such work as breakthrough, please consider the following:

 

• Just because you’ve personally never done it doesn’t mean it’s never been done.

 

• If [Fill-in-the-blank-minorities] are Americans too, why are they so underrepresented in the American advertising industry?

 

16245: Picturing The Contributions Of Corky Lee.

 

The Google Doodle depicted above salutes the late Corky Lee, whose work as an activist and photographer spotlighted Asian-American culture and contributions, emphasizing that Asian-American history is American history.

 

Meanwhile, Google is apparently doing a decent job in regards to hiring and representation of people of Asian descent—waaaaay better than Black and Latinx. Although it’s somewhat peculiar given the numbers exceed 40%, despite Asian Americans only comprising 7.2% of the US population.

 

Perhaps there’s some truth to the stereotype that people of Asian descent inherently excel in technology…?

15839: Ask Your Doctor If Anti-Racist Medication May Be Right for You.

 

AgencySpy posted on a stunt from Anchor Worldwide designed to raise awareness of Asian American Pacific Islander hate crimes in New York City. The campaign featured fake pharmaceutical products—promising to cure racism with a pill—left in pharmacies across the city. Um, as if pharmaceutical advertising isn’t misleading enough… Sorry, but this concept would never have gained FDA approval. Just visit this website instead.

 

Agency Releases Guerilla Marketing Project to Raise Awareness of AAPI Hate Crimes

 

By Kyle O’Brien

 

Independent creative agency Anchor Worldwide has gone guerrilla on pharmacies around New York City to raise awareness of—and combat the spread of—Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate crimes in New York.

 

The agency has unleashed an art-meets-guerrilla marketing project made of hundreds of fake pill boxes that have been planted in pharmacies throughout the city—in areas where hate crimes have taken place.

 

The reason for the project arose because, during the pandemic, the rate of AAPI hate crimes spiked 300%. And while vaccines arrived to fight Covid-19 and infections declined, incidences of AAPI racism have not decreased accordingly. The “Cure for Racism: AAPI Formula” masquerades as a seemingly new pharma product that purports to end racism with a pill. On closer inspection of the pharmaceutically styled pill box, people learn that the only real cure for racism is love, compassion, introspection, empathy, courage and conscience.

 

Fine print on the box reads: “There is no recommended dosage of anti-racism treatment. Only learning and understanding can help. If you are experiencing racist thoughts or behavior and feel increasingly violent towards others, just stay home and rest. Forever. No one wants racists out on the city streets. We all belong here.”

 

Additionally, mock ads as wild postings are being placed on city streets in impacted communities. Headlines tout this new “Cure for Racism” and how you can “Feel less racist, Fast!” A QR code on the posters and the pill boxes connects curious viewers with the StopAAPIhate.org site where they can learn more about how they can help.

 

“We wanted to use an unconventional delivery mechanism to share our anti-racism message—because racism really is a kind of a disease in the way that it spreads and infects people’s minds,” said Anchor Worldwide chief creative officer Aaron Sedlak in a release. “While we have found ways to prevent and treat Covid-19, AAPI hate crimes have continued unabated. So when art director Kevin Bae proposed a project to support StopAAPIhate.org, an organization devoted to combatting AAPI racism, we as an agency immediately embraced it.”

 

15809: Enter Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

 

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Oddly enough, the weeks ahead will probably see fewer patronizingly celebratory APAHM advertisements than Chinese New Year messages. Hell, there will likely be more Cinco de Mayo campaigns.

15616: Really, Droga5…

 

Adweek reported on an Asian American Federation campaign from Droga5 that plays off the culturally clueless question often posed to Asian Americans: “Where are you really from?” Regarding this pro-bono campaign, Droga5 could reply, “Where are we coming from? We’re really just trying to win an award—while falsely positioning ourselves as diversity defenders—and don’t really give a fuck about Asian Americans.” Really.

14968: Prejudiced Pandemic Prompts Hand Washing And Hand Wringing.

Adweek reported on the #WashTheHate campaign launched by IW Group to address the anti-Asian hate and racism fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The story’s key insights include:

• IW Group leveraged existing relationships with influencers who had experienced hate incidents firsthand.

• Harassment hits home as Asian Americans in marketing and advertising encounter bias, too.

• Brands are missing out on support from a major global—and notoriously loyal—consumer base.

The campaign warrants consideration, as it appears to underscore a disturbing phenomenon that routinely erupts during U.S. disasters. That is, disasters expose and ignite latent—or hidden—racism and hate.

Sure, the Pollyannaish might insist disasters bring everyone together, creating a common bond and singular purpose. But reality writes a different script. Think about it. The terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, inspired ugliness towards Arabs, Muslims and South Asians among others. Hurricane Katrina spotlighted the segregation and discrimination faced by Blacks in Louisiana. And now, COVID-19 is spreading a prejudiced pandemic for people of Asian descent.

The second key insight—Harassment hits home as Asian Americans in marketing and advertising encounter bias, too—is worth misinterpreting as well. The initial read sounded like Asian Americans were experiencing bias in the marketing and advertising community. Well, it could be argued that agencies such as IW Group are second-class citizens in the multicultural ghettos of Adland—and that’s no ancient Chinese secret to be washed away.

14961: Pride Train On Track To Derail Anti-Asian Hate.

Adweek reported on the Pride Train campaign designed to combat anti-Asian hate and racism, which has spiked during the COVID-19 crisis. Gee, guess the Ad Council’s #AloneTogether propaganda isn’t working…

Faux Subway Posters Urge NYC Commuters to Curb Anti-Asian Hate

Campaign launched at the height of coronavirus-fueled xenophobia

By Mary Emily O’Hara

Two weeks ago, when people still left their homes and New Yorkers took the subway to work, Thomas Shim and Evan Choi snuck from station to station pasting up posters. With the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) logo stamped in the upper right corner and the familiar phrase “Service Information” emblazoned across the top, the posters looked like official public notices from the city agency that operates one of the world’s most busiest commuter systems.

Featuring colors from the Chinese, Korean and Japanese flags, the official-looking announcements tell riders: “No ignorance, racism, or xenophobia allowed at this station at any time.”

But the posters weren’t officially sanctioned by the MTA. Instead, they are the latest guerrilla campaign by Pride Train, the same group that brought attention to LGBTQ Pride Month and racist attacks at subway stations is now tackling xenophobia related to the coronavirus.

Shim, one of the founders of Pride Train and a creative strategist at Instagram, told Adweek the inspiration for the latest posters came from the rise in anti-Asian attacks since the coronavirus pandemicstarted.

“As an Asian American, I’m hyper-aware of my surroundings, and I’ve felt watched,” said Shim, who has Korean and Japanese ancestry. “And it doesn’t help that some of my friends and neighbors have been yelled and spat at.”

Public attacks on Asian Americans and Asian immigrants began to ramp up in February, with reports of violence around the U.S. as well as internationally. One viral video showed a Chinese woman wearing a paper medical mask being chased, holding her arms up to block her face as a man threw things at her, and finally being violently grabbed and hit.

Less violent—but still impactful—forms of discrimination took hold quickly as the virus spread, with Asian American restaurants becoming deserted to the point where food bloggers started a #SupportChinatown campaign in an attempt to keep businesses open.

Choi, who is Korean and works as a freelance art director, said he’s experienced harassment mostly at later hours when subways and public areas are more deserted. “When I go outside around 9 or 10 [at night] when there are fewer people around, people have said things to me like, ‘Get out of the country,’” he said.

“Since Thomas and I started this project, I hear a lot from my Korean friends who say, ‘Thank you for doing this; I’m really afraid to go out and get harassed,’” Choi said. “Right now is the highest point of it. There’s a lot of misconceptions like, ‘Asians are the virus.’”

On Pride Train’s Twitter account, a photo of the recent posters was met with harsh responses that served as examples of why the campaign is needed. “The left are so ignorant they believe a virus is a race,” said one reply, seemingly clueless about the spate of violent attacks the campaign is trying to halt.

The majority of responses to the campaign have been positive, but Shim said he was surprised that some of the strongest negative feedback came from Asian and Asian American people on social media.

“The Chinese flag has a very heavy stigma attached to it,” said Shim. “A lot of our Vietnamese and Hong Kong followers found it to have [negative] connotations. We tried to see it as a national flag rather than a party flag, but obviously, people are reading into it.” Shim said that Pride Train understands why the Chinese flag—which is also the flag of the country’s communist party—is upsetting for many people.

The response has been a learning curve for the small group of creatives that are already accustomed to a certain amount of bigoted feedback.

“Just like I can’t fully understand what a trans person goes through day-to-day, I can’t understand what a Vietnamese person sees,” Shim said. “As we’re aiming for radical inclusivity, we are asking how to do it better.”

14617: Royalty-Free Biculturalism.

Adweek published a perspective from Heat Senior Brand Strategist Roger Chang, who explained how his bicultural identity helps him balance his marketer and consumer identities. Whatever. What’s oddly amusing is Adweek’s decision to illustrate the essay with royalty-free stock photography featuring an Asian American (depicted above). Did the editors include “bicultural” in the search criteria?

How My Bicultural Identity Helped Me Balance My Dual Life as a Marketer and Consumer

It gave me a unique perspective to navigate between the two

By Roger Chang

Marketers today are arguably better equipped than previous generations, with the data, tools and technology to create richer experiences than ever before. And yet many of us face the same challenges.

Ninety-one percent of consumers find ads more intrusive today than two to three years ago, and 65% of people don’t remember the ads they see on social media. Even within marketing, 75% of CMOs are neutral or negative about their ability to understand shifting customer behavior.

We’re struggling to connect with audiences because we still view them as consumers and not as people. This won’t change unless we go beyond the articles, case studies and reports we’ve grown accustomed to.

My experience growing up Asian-American has granted me a unique perspective around navigating in and out of different worlds and what it means to be both a recipient and instigator of culture. Here’s how I’ve applied that experience to my journeys within advertising.

Stand out to inspire others

One of the most common observations about Asian culture is that the collective is often prioritized above the individual. This was my experience. I was raised not to stick out, and early on in my career, I did everything I could to blend in. But the more our industry has struggled with diversity over the years, the more I’ve realized that simply going with the flow likely doesn’t do anybody any good.

Our industry isn’t powered by fitting in. Furthermore, standing out isn’t about shameless self-promotion; in its best form, it’s about illuminating the lives around you, empowering them to become the best version of themselves.

Our most powerful work doesn’t just celebrate individual voices, but more importantly, it uses those voices to inspire the birth of new ones. Always’ iconic “Like a Girl” campaign garnered high praise when it first launched, but its deeper impact is felt in the movement it sparked on behalf of young girls that continues in the form of P&G’s corporate initiatives.

Make your own path

Many immigrant parents forego lives of familiarity in favor of greater opportunities for their children. Logically, then, when a child ventures beyond the “safe” career options of medicine, engineering or finance, those same parents might fear that their efforts have been for naught. They’ve risked their future only for their child to roll the dice again.

A similar tension exists in marketing. The problem with heralded case studies like Oreo’s famed “Dunk in the Dark” tweet is that these have become templates, rather than just best practices. Many brands jockey to recreate their own Super Bowl “Oreo moment” every year, despite knowing full well the original moment can never be replicated.

There’s value in tradition, but marketers should strive to push beyond it rather than simply emulate it. For example, although it’s been controversial in the past for brands to take a stand on sensitive topics, Colin Kaepernick’s sponsorship has garnered accolades for challenging the status quo and broadening the spheres in which brands belong.

Demonstrate empathy

The birth of my son two years ago shifted how I process my bicultural identity. Whereas I used to process everything through my own lens, I now make an effort to interpret things through his, as I’m curious how my experiences will shape his future. And while my first inclination is to tell him everything I know and give him all the answers, I have to remind myself that supporting his journey is more important than telling him what he needs to do.

As marketers, we’re trained to always have a strong point of view. However, the danger in this is that we can get so entrenched in our opinions that our perspective becomes the only one that matters to us. When this happens, we neglect consumers and inevitably get lost in the advertising echo chamber. Empathy is the strongest trait we have as marketers, as it bridges the gap between us and consumers, thereby creating more resonant work.

As marketers, we’re all dual citizens: There’s the world that we work in as professionals and the world that we inhabit as consumers. We operate in a unique forum that isn’t just an occupation but a pursuit to genuinely connect with society around us. Our industry has a special calling to enlighten, break barriers and bridge gaps. And as we consider the challenges we face today, it’s important to remember our greatest strengths often lies in our differences.

11699: How I Met Your Mama-San.

From USA TODAY…

‘How I Met Your Mother’ creators apologize for ‘racism’

‘How I Met Your Mother’ goes into the sunset with a Twitter-fueled controversy.

By Maria Puente, USA TODAY

In television, it’s never good to end a successful sitcom series with people shouting “Racism!” at you on Twitter.

That’s the situation faced by CBS’s How I Met Your Mother, which concludes its ninth and final season on March 31 and hoped for a happy swan song. But this week the producers ended up apologizing for offending some Asian Americans with a kung fu homage episode that did not go over well or unnoticed.

In Monday night’s episode, the Jason Segel character is trying to learn kung fu moves and his “teachers” are his co-stars — Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders and Alyson Hannigan.

All of these people are white and were dressed up in stereotypical “Asian” attire, in what many suggested was a “yellowface” version of now-derided “blackface” that few showrunners these days would mistake for benign entertainment.

On Twitter, the reaction was immediate and included a hashtag, #HowIMetYourRacism, stuffed with angry comments—and a few get-over-it comments, too.

The always-helpful BuzzFeed put together a list of the most powerful. Some choice tweets:

“@CBS #Yellowface doesn’t get you better ratings, it just makes people want to boycott your network,” warned JH Seouljaboy Park.

“people are already claiming asian americans are overreacting. demanding to be treated w/ decency is never overreacting,” tweeted E. Jae.

“Disturbing takeaway is that it’s somehow acceptable—safe, even—to do racist Asian jokes. It’s not edgy cable, it’s CBS,” added Michael Suen.

Only a few tweeters took the position of Jake, who said it was no big deal. “Seriously. People are WAY too sensitive these days. GTFO if you’re offended. There are way worse things in the world.”

But by Wednesday, show execs had capitulated. Co-creator Carter Bays took to Twitter to say, “sorry” in a series of tweets.

“With Monday’s episode, we set out to make a silly and unabashedly immature homage to Kung Fu movies, a genre we’ve always loved. But along the way we offended people. We’re deeply sorry, and we’re grateful to everyone who spoke up to make us aware of it. We try to make a show that’s universal, that anyone can watch and enjoy. We fell short of that this week, and feel terrible about it. To everyone we offended, I hope we can regain your friendship, and end this series on a note of goodwill. Thanks.”

The timing of this is unfortunate because today HIMYM could have gotten positive coverage of its finale episode in March, which producers say they actually filmed eight years ago.

The reason: Because the two child actors who were in the opening scenes of the series, where the Radner character is telling the long-winded story of how he met their mother, would grow up and not look the same should the series last beyond a few years, which it did.

So in 2006, Bays and co-creator Craig Thomas brought the young actors in, closed the set to all but one camera operator, and filmed the two-minute climactic scene, afterward swearing the young actors to secrecy.

The rest of the actors will film the rest of the finale next month, but the finale of the finale will be the scenes shot in 2006. Harris said he cornered the producers at an office party recently and badgered them into giving up details.

“It’s more complicated than you would assume,” Harris said, according to the Associated Press, “and for all of our fans, they won’t be disappointed.”

11612: No Legal Defense.

Angry Asian Man spotted this commercial for an Alabama legal firm run by car accident, workers compensation and disability lawyers. Quite appropriate, as the spot is a total car wreck that could be categorized as a workplace disaster created by people with intellectual disabilities. Oddly enough, the firm’s YouTube channel features an infomercial starring a sexy and sophisticated Asian woman. Go figure.

11320: Asian Girlz By Racist Guyz.

From The Huffington Post…

Well, Here’s ‘Asian Girlz,’ The Most Racist Song In Recent Memory

Today in horrible people doing horrible things: Day Above Ground released a song called “Asian Girlz,” and it’s about as bad way worse than you could possibly imagine.

Judging by the reactions, “Asian Girlz” is either the most racist thing ever or just the most racist thing you’ll see all day.

Here’s what happens in the music video: The band is trapped in a birdcage while an Asian model strips out of a prim outfit to reveal lingerie and tattoos, while said band sings about things like fried rice and “buttf—king all night.” As Buzzfeed noted, the fourth verse is actually just a list of Asian stereotypes. While this is happening, every member of the band goes on a date with an Asian girl, nights chronicled in Polaroid snapshots. THEN, the model in question picks up the birdcage and takes it (and the band) to the bathroom where she—of course—draws a bubble bath and lets the miniature non-musicians out for a dive into the water.

She then rubs one of them on her breasts while another one swims between her legs, causing her to moan, because who doesn’t love the tender caress of a shrunken-down, racist non-rocker?

Not only is there plenty of racist stuff to get one’s blood boiling, there’s also this actual lyric: “17 or 23, it doesn’t matter to me!”

Levy Tran, the “Asian Girl” in the video, apologized for participating in the clip on Twitter, while the band says they’re totally not racist because—wait for it—“the guy in the bow-tie, our cutie bass player, was born in Indonesia, and he steals the show!”

11281: Now Asiana Airlines Says, “Wi No Su.”

From The New York Daily News…

Asiana Airlines drops plans to file suit against local TV station as 83 crash survivors pursue own legal action

In the weeks following the July 6 crash, survivors have banned together to sue Asiana Airlines and Boeing as the airline contemplated a suit of its own.

By Nina Golgowski / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

In the wake of the deadly Asiana plane crash, the legal finger-pointing is rampant.

Even as Asiana Airlines is dropping its planned lawsuit against a local TV station it accused of damaging its reputation over a racially offensive report, 83 passengers nearly killed in this month’s crash have announced their own suit against the airline and Boeing.

Asiana announced Wednesday that it has accepted San Francisco station KTVU’s on-air apology delivered immediately after their bogus reporting on their pilot’s names and will no longer pursue legal action.

Company spokeswoman Lee Hyomin had said Monday the report seriously damaged Asiana’s reputation.

A Chicago law firm also began taking steps Monday to sue aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. on behalf of 83 people who were aboard the Asiana Airlines flight that crash-landed in San Francisco on July 6. There were 307 passengers and crew on board.

The court filing claims the crash might have been caused by a mechanical malfunction of the Boeing 777’s auto throttle, causing it to land too low. Emergency slides and seat belts also malfunctioned, the claim states, further injuring and briefly trapping some passengers and crew in their first moments of terror.

The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet released its report.

Ribbeck Law Chartered on Monday filed a petition for discovery — a move meant to preserve evidence — in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago, where Boeing is headquartered.

The law firm said in a news release that additional pleadings will be filed against Asiana Airlines and several component parts manufacturers in coming days.

Three people were killed when the airplane, flying from South Korea to San Francisco International Airport, approached the runway too low and slow. It clipped a seawall at the end of a runway, tearing off the tail and sending the plane spinning down the runway. The impact caused the plane to catch fire.

Ribbeck said that in addition to potential problems with the auto throttle, some emergency slides reportedly opened inside the plane, injuring passengers and blocking their exit, and some passengers had to be cut out of their seatbelts with a knife.

“We must find the causes of the crash and demand that the problems with the airline and the aircraft are immediately resolved to avoid future tragedies,” attorney Monica R. Kelly, head of Ribbeck’s aviation department, said in a written statement.

Boeing spokesman John Dern said the company had no comment.

The petition asks a judge to order Boeing to identify the designer and manufacturer of the airplane’s auto throttle and its emergency evacuation slides. It also seeks information on the systems that indicate the airplane’s glide slope and that warn how close it is to the ground.

Kelly said the firm wants to protect the wreckage “from destructive testing” and to obtain maintenance records, internal memos and other evidence.

The pilots of Asiana Flight 214 have told investigators they were relying on automated cockpit equipment to control their speed. Inspectors found that the auto throttle had been “armed,” or made ready for activation, but investigators are still determining whether it had been engaged, the National Transportation Safety Board has said.

Two of the plane’s eight slides malfunctioned, opening inside the cabin and pinning two flight attendants underneath them.

With News Wire Services