One of the lead “Tigertail” actors, Tzi Ma, was at a Whole Foods store in Pasadena, Calif., early in the outbreak when a man approached in a car and told Mr. Ma that he “should be quarantined,” Mr. Yang said. Later, during an interview with Mr. Yang on Instagram Live, viewers left comments saying he and the interviewer, an Asian man, were the same person.
“This wasn’t an abstract idea to me, something theoretical,” Mr. Yang said. “I knew people this was happening to.” He described the production process as “an emotionally fraught time,” when he toggled between overseeing the shoot over Zoom and attending Black Lives Matter protests.
The result, Mr. Yang said, is a rare example of a nationwide marketing effort focused on Asian issues, represented by Asian-Americans from a wide range of backgrounds.
“It’s very meaningful to me,” he said. “I never saw this growing up.”
In a Pew Research Center survey, 58 percent of English-speaking Asian-American adults said expressions of racist or insensitive views about Asians had become more common since the pandemic began. More than 30 percent said they had encountered slurs or racist jokes in recent months, and 26 percent said they feared being threatened or physically attacked because of their race — a higher percentage than for Black, white and Hispanic adults.
But many Americans, including several non-Asian members of the production team working on the Ad Council’s campaign, have been unaware of pandemic-related racism, Mr. Yang said.
Steven Moy, the chief executive of the Barbarian ad agency, said campaigns like this one were “a good starting point.”
“I don’t know if this is enough, or how effective it will be, but let’s do baby steps and create awareness,” he said. “I have not seen enough of this — we should do more.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/business/media/asian-american-harassment-ad-council.html
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.