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Cristian Toledo, left, and Jehv Maravilla in front of the poster they created for McDonald's and representation. |
HOW IMPACTFUL is the movie Crazy Rich Asians, the first Hollywood studio film with an all-Asian cast in 25 years?
After watching the pic, two Filipino American college students were emboldened to do what they could to strike a blow for Asian American representation and in the process, question one of America's biggest cultural institutions - McDonald's.
University of Houston students, Cristian Toledo and Jehv Maravilla, recently hung a fake promotional poster in a McDonald’s that was so good that it has remained hanging in the restaurant for over 52 days.
One day back in June, Maraville and Toledo were dining at the McDonald's in Pearland, Texas. Like most other franchises across the U.S. the restaurant was adorned with posters of employees and customers enjoying their fries, quarter-pounders and other menu choices of the iconic food chain.
The Filipino American pair noticed that none of the posters featured Asian Americans. They also noticed a blank wall. That was when they hatched a guerrilla plan to correct that oversight.
With a little help from friends, a thrift-store to buy a McDonald's shirt, a phony badge and with McDonald products in hand, they had their picture taken, enlarged it to poster size and surreptitiously hung the poster on a blank wall in their favorite McDonald's.
It may seem like just another college prank, but there was a noble motive to it all.
“Asian representation in media is not as prevalent as it should be,” he told KPRC-TV. “What motivated me was Crazy Rich Asians, the movie that came out, that boosted my confidence into thinking maybe one day I could be just like that, and if I take a step and do something small like this, it could make a difference.”
"When I was growing up, Asian people only appeared in movies as martial artists or funny side characters," Jevh told the BBC.
"We all deserve equality and all races deserve recognition. I don't know why McDonald's marketing didn't include Asians, but often in the media Asian men are not shown as masculine and Asian women are just portrayed as cute and pretty."
Surprisingly, the McDonald’s franchise that has served as the poster’s home stated, “We take pride in highlighting diversity in every aspect of our restaurants. We applaud these students’ creativity and hope to see them in our restaurants again soon.”
“Asian representation in media is not as prevalent as it should be,” he told KPRC-TV. “What motivated me was Crazy Rich Asians, the movie that came out, that boosted my confidence into thinking maybe one day I could be just like that, and if I take a step and do something small like this, it could make a difference.”
"When I was growing up, Asian people only appeared in movies as martial artists or funny side characters," Jevh told the BBC.
"We all deserve equality and all races deserve recognition. I don't know why McDonald's marketing didn't include Asians, but often in the media Asian men are not shown as masculine and Asian women are just portrayed as cute and pretty."
Surprisingly, the McDonald’s franchise that has served as the poster’s home stated, “We take pride in highlighting diversity in every aspect of our restaurants. We applaud these students’ creativity and hope to see them in our restaurants again soon.”
Who knows how much longer the poster will stay up after their Youtube video went viral and local media latched onto the story? Fifty-one days ... and counting.
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