17055: Stereotypical Streaming…?

To commemorate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Peacock presents performative programming.

 

But if you want Hawaii Five-O, you’ll have to go with Paramount+.

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.

16643: Monthly Mind Games.

 

In Adland, Mental Health Awareness Month appears to have overshadowed Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month.

 

Feels like a form of disrespect—From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You “Ancient Chinese Secret.”

16630: I Have A Bad Feeling About This.

 

Happy belated May The 4th Be With You—aka Star Wars Day—whereby Disney and Adland pay homage to the iconic science fantasy franchise. Meanwhile, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month gets short shrift. In descending order of importance, it’s R2-D2, C-3PO, BB-8, L3-37, Ewok, AA and NHPI.

16420: For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Click Here Now.

 

Cybersecurity Awareness Month has been around since 2004; however, the event feels like yet another diversionary stunt to avoid addressing racial and ethnic equality—and it probably receives far more attention than Black History Month, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and National Native American Heritage Month combined.

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?

 

16256: Overreaction Of The Week.

Chronicle Books celebrates AAPI Heritage Month—yet apparently hasn’t read the presidential proclamation that added Native Hawaiians to the festivities.

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…?

16242: Overreaction Of The Week.

 

In Adland—a racist galaxy not so far, far away—Star Wars Day receives more attention and resources than Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Even though the iconic movie series features deep influences (and direct rip-offs) of Asian culture.

 

16238: Celebrating The Other Side Of Exclusivity In Adland.

 

Advertising Age is commemorating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in rerun style like Black History Month—spotlighting a diverse range of talent via the Honoring Creative Excellence series. The second installment features Digitas North America CCO Atit Shah sharing the micro and macroaggressions that people of color face in Adland. Hey, there’s always a diversity of racist behavior in White advertising agencies.

 

Atit Shah Of Digitas On ‘The Other Side’ Of Being Asian In Corporate America

 

The chief creative officer on creating an eye-opening storytelling platform for Ascend Leadership

 

Ad Age is marking Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package. Today, our guest editor Soyoung Kang turns the spotlight to Atit Shah, chief creative officer North America at Digitas.

 

Here, Shah writes about the creation of an eye-opening storytelling platform for Ascend Leadership.

 

There was a particular late night, early in my advertising career, that has stuck with me. Exiled to a lonely lane of cubes, fueled by takeout and soundtracked by Napster, I was industriously working on a deck to hand off to a higher-titled someone who would present said deck … when I met a head-on-collision. A senior exec I had only encountered on elevators asked me, quite politely, if I could unlock the mailroom to send out a package.

 

I had no response—I just kind of froze. Seen but somehow totally unseen. This is my story from The Other Side.

 

“The Other Side” was an awareness platform my team and I created for Ascend Leadership, an organization devoted to the Pan-Asian workplace experience. It illuminated the other side of being Asian in corporate America. Not the side you think you know, where the AAPI community abounds in professional careers. Rather, The Other Side, the one where barriers, both real and perceived, keep Asians the least represented ethnic group in top executive roles.

 

To kick off the campaign, we uncovered the hidden and not-so-hidden biases that confront the Pan-Asian professional climb through a first-of-its-kind “headline hack” on LinkedIn. Working with an AAPI coalition of Fortune 500 executives, we changed their job statuses into declarations of Other Side struggle. Overnight, leaders swapped their high-wattage executive title for realities like “Least likely to be promoted to the C-suite,” “Labeled as the Technical One” and “Reduced to the Model Minority.” Because of these leaders’ significant followings and the algorithmic visibility of this kind of LinkedIn update, we sparked a perfect storm of heartfelt response and confession.

 

Our leader coalition followed the headline hack with a wave of Other Side stories in the feed, in podcasts and out-of-home in the real world. Anne Chow, former CEO of AT&T Business, recounted life on the front line—and the repeated rejection of being an Asian woman in pursuit of a sales career. Sanyogita Shamsunder, a top executive at Google, talked about the tightrope moment when she shed the need to ask for permission at work. Soyoung Kang, global chief marketing officer of eos Products, shared her conflict with reconciling the sense of duty toward her immigrant parents with her yearning for a creative, out-of-the-box career. And eerily echoing my own story, Eric Toda, global head of social marketing at Meta, recalled being mistaken for DoorDash at a boardroom meeting.

 

This act of storytelling, with an audience who collectively grew up on a diet of “work hard, keep your head down, keep it to yourself” proverbial wisdom, felt radical. So many leaders came to the table adamant that they had no Other Side story to share, only to find a deep, emotional well of them after a little time together. And their stories led to an outpouring of more stories.

 

It’s this kind of storytelling that we must champion going forward—the unlock of our next big leap.

 

The Other Side wasn’t the biggest project of my career. It was a humble, homegrown effort led by a thoughtful, passionate crew. But it was perhaps the most personal, representing the first time I stopped and considered my Asian experience as part of my professional identity.

 

15833: Authentic Representation For Only $4.00 With A 1-Month Subscription.

 

Advertising Age published a perspective titled, “LGBTQIA+ Asian American Pacific Islanders—It’s Time For Authentic Representation And Visibility.” Yeah, well, get in line behind White women and a slew of other White segments claiming marginalized status.

 

It’s also hilarious that Ad Age chose to illustrate content about authentic representation with a $4.00 stock image. Perfect.

 

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.

13544: BHM 2017—Macy’s.

Macy’s salutes Black History Month—and damn near every other minority celebration.

10118: APAHModels.

10110: Verizon Phones It In For APAHM.

Asian and Pacific Americans love hip hop.

10104: APAHM 2012 At Macy’s.

Macy’s celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with events and a quiz—featuring references to Tiger Woods and Keanu Reeves.

8787: An Hour Later You’re Nauseous Again.

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. Is Advertising Age celebrating with this article on Asian-inspired fast-food joints?

Table Set for Fast-Casual Asian Invasion

As Diners’ Tastes Evolve, Established Players Look to Grow, While Chipotle and Others Launch New Brands

By Maureen Morrison

Drive down any major U.S. thoroughfare, and you are bound to pass chains that sell hamburgers, fried chicken, tacos and sub sandwiches. But if you’re hankering for cashew chicken or Thai noodles, you’ll likely need to find a local establishment—at least for now.

Despite the maturity of the fast-food industry in the U.S., the Asian category is still relatively untapped on a national level. Among the top 500 chains in the U.S. only about 1.7% of sales are from Asian chains, according to Technomic.

Traditionally, fast-food chains have not seen as much opportunity in the sector due to several factors, including the large number of reasonably priced mom-and-pop restaurants and the fact that in some corners of the country Asian dishes weren’t considered mainstream enough for the average palate. But as the chain restaurant giants scour for increasingly scarce growth opportunities in the U.S., the sector is looking a lot more attractive.

“Historically the other fast feeders have had a huge head-start. But if you look at which segments have grown, this has been consistently growing at a small rate,” said Mary Chapman, director-product innovation at Technomic, which finds that last year fast-food and fast-casual Asian chain sales among the top 500 grew 9.3%.

But because U.S. consumers have been exposed to Chinese food for so long through local mom-and-pop establishments, they are increasingly interested not only in Chinese, but in expanding the Asian-culinary horizons to Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and even Indian. According to a recent Technomic report on the Asian category, the number of consumers between 2008 and 2010 who said they would be very likely to order a Chinese-style beef dish jumped from 30% to 46%. “Asian’s got a high flavor profile—consumers want more interesting flavors,” said Ms. Chapman.

Ms. Chapman said that even in non-Asian restaurants, incidences of Asian appetizers and meals are up. Among the top 250 chains in the U.S., there were 19% more Asian items on menus in the second half of 2010 than in the same period in 2009. Even McDonald’s is in. The fast feeder last week reintroduced its Asian salad, which will be available through early September.

Population growth may also be a factor. Asians grew at the same rate as Hispanics from 2000 to 2010: 43%, according to the U.S. Census. There are 14.5 million Asians in the U.S. The largest population is Chinese, followed by Indian, which just surpassed Filipinos. The Chinese population grew 38.5% from 2000 to 2009 to just over 3.2 million.

Fast-casual is one of the better performing restaurant categories because consumers view the food as fresher, in part because they can see their order being made, said Ms. Chapman. And consumers also view Asian food generally as fresher.

In that case, Chipotle is opening up is Asian concept at just the right time. ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen will have one location (for now, anyway) in Washington and feature cuisine inspired by Thai, Malaysian and Vietnamese cuisines.

Chris Arnold, communications director at Chipotle, said that the Asian concept “absolutely lends to the Chipotle model.” He added: “We have long believed that Chipotle’s success isn’t necessarily about tacos and burritos, but rather it’s about a simple model that keeps us focused on doing just a few things, but doing them very well. With the same disciplined approach to ShopHouse, we think it will do well, too.” Mr. Arnold said there will be no advertising initially, so there is no ShopHouse agency.

Yum Brands is also tentatively getting into the space: Last week it made a bid to up its minority stake in Little Sheep, a well-known hot-pot chain in China, to 92.3%. Little Sheep also operates a handful of units in California and Texas.

Panda Express, though not available everywhere, is the dominant player in this country’s limited-service Asian category, with market share of 45.7% and U.S. sales of $1.4 billion in 2010, according to Technomic.

Whatever critics might think of the mall staple, “consumers say that they believe it to be fresher and healthier,” said Bonnie Riggs, restaurant industry analyst at NPD Group.

Panda Express plans to expand its number of restaurants over 70% to about 2,300 nationwide by 2015. Much of that growth is planned for the eastern part of the U.S. Still, with roughly 1,330 units at the end of 2010, the company posted 12.8% growth in U.S. sales, and a 4.9% increase in locations, according to Technomic.

As for Panda Express’ marketing plans, Glenn Lunde, chief marketing officer, said, “We are increasing our investment in guest-focused initiatives to continue our commitment to exceptional dining experience for every guest. This will always be our priority and best marketing strategy.”

In 2010, the chain spent about $6.5 million on U.S. measured media, nearly all of which was on spot TV. It works with Siltanen & Partners, Los Angeles, for creative and Pal8, Santa Barbara, Calif., for media.

Other regional restaurants have expansion plans. P.F. Chang’s fast-casual outlet Pei Wei—the No. 2 limited-service Asian restaurant in the U.S. by sales, according to Technomic—had 168 stores in the U.S. at year-end 2010 with sales of $310 million, and plans to open 10 to 12 units in 2011. Minnesota-based Leeann Chin’s, which had about 42 locations at the end of 2010 and estimated U.S. sales of $46.7 million, according to Technomic, has talked of franchising nationwide.

But with all this potential for growth, there lie some hurdles.

One failed experiment, perhaps too far ahead of the curve, was China Coast, which shuttered in 1995. The Darden-owned chain lasted five years and grew to 51 units before the company pulled the plug.

Ms. Riggs said full-scale development in the Midwest could pose challenging. “The most developed areas for Asian food are in the Mountain and Pacific regions of the country, and the Mid-Atlantic. … It’s going to be a challenge for these concepts in the Midwest, because people are exposed to other kinds of food less.”

7677: Under The Bonsai Tree.

Happy belated Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.

5529: Adweek Discovers Asian Americans.

Let’s close out Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with a contribution from the ever-culturally-clueless Adweek. The trade news source spotlighted a story titled, “Marketing to Asian Americans.”

Did Adweek reporters show case studies of targeted campaigns? No.

Did they interview any executives producing specialized, segmented work? Uh-uh.

Did Adweek staffers collect insights from advertisers wooing the diverse audience? Nope.

Adweek essentially shat out what looks like a PowerPoint presentation of U.S. Census-style factoids. It’s essentially the basic setup material an Asian American advertising agency might present to a new client. Certainly nothing that couldn’t be acquired via a standard Google search.

Another lackadaisical, lazy effort from the publication calling itself, “The Best Advertising Resource for Advertisers.”

5518: This Is Only A Test.

According to the body copy, the LAPD celebrated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by conducting a recruitment seminar and written test. Nice.