Asian American Commercial Watch: May Is Blooming At JCP

http://youtu.be/hcnVYjBPY2A

I wonder if JCP, as in JCPenney, is the new KFC (as in Kentucky Fried Chicken). Ever since Ron Johnson left Apple (former head of retail) to become head of “JCP,” I’ve noticed that the department store has had hipper television ads. In reality, JCP is not the new KFC, but more like the new Target – at least when it comes to pastel colors and hip music. (Before Apple, Johnson had worked at Target.)

This TV ad stood out for the young mixed couple, with the white woman being a little randy with her Asian American boyfriend, who, personally I think looks and is dressed a bit dorky or geeky. He’s shocked and surprised at his girlfriend’s advances, rubbing her leg against his. In the second scene they’re in, the girlfriend holds her boyfriend’s hand, and it looks like boyfriend moving his head slightly away to avoid her kiss. Personally, I can’t imagine any man wanting to avoid the advances of his girlfriend, so this troubles me a little bit. What do you think?

This is the third instance I can think of where there is the white girl girlfriend and Asian American boyfriend couple, with the first being with Ally Bank, and the second one being the McDonald’s ad. Nice to see the inverse of what might normally see in a mixed white-Asian couple like in a past Target or Kaiser Permanente ad.