I saw this television ad for Wells Fargo last week and realized that this was depicting an Asian American man about to take an Asian American woman on a movie date. I think this is the first time I’ve seen an Asian American couple in a TV ad. If you slow down the commercial (at least on my DVR), you can see the woman’s facial expression of surprise and bewilderment as she sees how old and torn up the couch is, which is pretty funny.
I had blogged previously about an Asian American man in a, what I thought was a funny, CareerBuilder.com commercial. We at 8Asians.com have also blogged about Lucy Liu’s character dating and kissing a fellow Asian American in Cashmere Mafia – shocking, I know, to actually see an Asian American couple on a major television network show.
We know Asian Americans aren’t really represented well in the media. I had previously posted about Entertainment Weekly’s write-up on the issue: EW: Diversity in Entertainment: Why Is TV So White? So even something as minor as having an Asian American couple in a TV commercial, well, it’s a small big deal, at least for a post on 8Asians!
And my least favorite television commercial featuring an Asian American in recent years – Kaiser Permanente’s “Thrive” campaign, titled “Entourage”:
In general, I have liked Kaiser Permanente’s “Thrive” commercial campaign. It’s just that in this particular ad, the only ad to feature a couple, they highlight a White male, coming home after a hard day’s work, to his subservient welcoming Asian wife and head immediately to the bedroom so they can make a baby. Maybe I am being over-sensitive, but this commercial just rubbed me the wrong way.
