Commercials with Asian male and white female

[bcla]

I remember there was some backlash about the Cheerios commercial that shows a black father with a biracial kid. Not that most people thought there was anything wrong, but that kind of stuff tends to bring out the racists. General Mills had it posted to YouTube, but they ended up deleting and disabling comments after all the offensive comments.

However, a familiar trope is the Asian female being attracted to a white male, which seems to be more "acceptable" with certain segments of the American public. But recently I noticed a couple of commercials that turn that around. I've barely seen that in popular culture, but I just noticed these two commercials within the past month or so.

There's this Samsung commercial where this couple meet by flirting with the phones (you have to watch to understand) and then they develop their relationship using some feature on their phones. Judging by the comments section, they've probably cleaned up a lot of the overtly racist reactions to the ad. It also seemed to get an inordinate number of dislikes.

The other one is Panda Express, which ironically shows an Asian male being introduced to his white girlfriend's family where he brings takeout. They had different ad last year.

 

[DeniseJH]

I think both commercials are very cute! I'll never understand why people have a problem with this.

 

[asta]

I think the first commercial is cute, I haven’t seen the second. I really like the music in the Samsung ad. I keep hearing it over and over in my head so it must be very effective.

 

[L&Lfan]

I could be wrong but I think part of the dislike could be coming from Asian females who are having difficulty finding Asian males to pursue relationships with. Oprah did several shows on black females who are bothered by black males dating white females. It's like "aren't we good enough?" This is hard for me to explain but I'm just saying not all of the negativity or "backlash" could be due to racism. Personally I have no problem with interracial relationships. People should be free to love who (or is it whom?) they love.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Ok I'll bite.

The interracial aspect is a non-issue. Who cares?

I sort of cringed when she texted him from the back seat of the taxicab "I think I love you." for what I can only assume, is the first time she is using the word "love" to describe her feelings about him. Call me old-fashioned but, I feel some things should be reserved for face to face conversation.

(Who am I kidding? There's no way that was a taxicab. Probably Uber or Lyft. See, I told you I was old-fashioned!)

The Samsung commercial might be using the interracial aspect to draw the viewers attention away from what they are really trying to communicate.

Viewer: "Oh look! The Samsung corporation supports interracial relationships. I like that! They must be a good company. I can let my 'consumer's guard' down now. Surely I can trust what they are telling me to be a representation of all that is good in the world. Wait a minute! I just realized while watching this commercial that, just like that cute couple, I want to be/stay in love too! I think a Samsung phone will help me fall/stay in love!"

The message from Samsung here is that life/love happens, and IS happening, IN your Samsung phone. Without the phone, life/love will pass you by. Sneaky!

[removes tin foil hat]

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I remember there was some backlash about the Cheerios commercial that shows a black father with a biracial kid. Not that most people thought there was anything wrong, but that kind of stuff tends to bring out the racists. General Mills had it posted to YouTube, but they ended up deleting and disabling comments after all the offensive comments.

However, a familiar trope is the Asian female being attracted to a white male, which seems to be more "acceptable" with certain segments of the American public. But recently I noticed a couple of commercials that turn that around. I've barely seen that in popular culture, but I just noticed these two commercials within the past month or so.

There's this Samsung commercial where this couple meet by flirting with the phones (you have to watch to understand) and then they develop their relationship using some feature on their phones. Judging by the comments section, they've probably cleaned up a lot of the overtly racist reactions to the ad. It also seemed to get an inordinate number of dislikes.

The other one is Panda Express, which ironically shows an Asian male being introduced to his white girlfriend's family where he brings takeout. They had different ad last year.

I can't get past this quote. Maybe you can comment?

However, a familiar trope is the Asian female being attracted to a white male, which seems to be more "acceptable" with certain segments of the American public.

Seems to be "more acceptable"? That is really in the eye of the beholder imo. If someone is a "purist for skin culture", both sides, people probably will not like the commercial, let's just say.

Personally, I believe that I am "consciousness" and the outer shell is just that, a shell. My body is a vehicle for carrying brain, soul, or energy.

To comment on the "trope" aspect, there are white women that are married to Asian men. A trope by nature as you know is putting it out there in the public to give an example of a couple that exists in today's society.

As far as Samsung, that is whole other topic, lol.

 

[Mermaid02]

I love the Samsung ad- my heart actually skipped a beat when he pretended to not know who sent the text, but I recovered quickly!

 

[L&Lfan]

The Samsung song was sung by Desi Arnaz in an episode of I Love Lucy. Just sayin'...

 

[bcla]

The Samsung song was sung by Desi Arnaz in an episode of I Love Lucy. Just sayin'...

The version in the commercial is by Peggy Lee

 

[L&Lfan]

Thanks! I love Ms Lee. I had never heard the song before outside of that Lucy episode.

 

[bcla]

I can't get past this quote. Maybe you can comment?

However, a familiar trope is the Asian female being attracted to a white male, which seems to be more "acceptable" with certain segments of the American public.

Seems to be "more acceptable"? That is really in the eye of the beholder imo. If someone is a "purist for skin culture", both sides, people probably will not like the commercial, let's just say.

Personally, I believe that I am "consciousness" and the outer shell is just that, a shell. My body is a vehicle for carrying brain, soul, or energy.

To comment on the "trope" aspect, there are white women that are married to Asian men. A trope by nature as you know is putting it out there in the public to give an example of a couple that exists in today's society.

As far as Samsung, that is whole other topic, lol.

Well, I’m saying that the use in popular culture of and Asian female and white male is considerably more common than the opposite pairing, and there have been articles on this as a popular culture issue that refer to it as a trope. I read this one a few years ago:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/familiar-ad-trope-pairing-white-men-and-asian-american-women/2012/09/27/a959bc84-feb1-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_story.html
Ads featuring Caucasian males and Asian females play off a long history of such portrayals, says LeiLani Nishime, a professor and Asian studies scholar at the University of Washington. “I think part of the comfort with those images comes from the way they affirm a lot of stereotypes we already have about asexual Asian men and sexually available Asian women,” she says.​

Of course the whole topic of offensive stereotypes (including being asexual) in American culture of Asian males is another matter. I didn’t see it, but The Great Wall this year seemed like it was setting up for a “white savior” trope, but actually had an equally offensive stereotype in Asia of the Asian having to teach the stupid or selfish white man how to overcome it.

And yah, Samsung is trying to out the Note 7 battery debacle behind them. They did have that really odd commercial with Christoph Waltz.

 

[bcla]

Thanks! I love Ms Lee. I had never heard the song before outside of that Lucy episode.

Here’s the whole song.

Of course as a Disney fan I’m thinking “He’s a Tramp”.

 

[hereyago]

I have seen the Samsung commercial before and it's cute.

I am part white and Native American and I have mostly dated guys that were part Asian. In my teen years, I lived in a huge military area and it was more common to see Asian women with white and black men.

I am a big believer in love is love, you are attracted to who you are attracted to and anyone who has an issue with it can kick rocks.

 

[rastahomie]

Am I blind? Both people in the Samsung commercial look Asian to me.

 

[katie111]

I live in an area that is a hub for higher education so we have a large Asian population. Very rarely do I see Asian men with white women. I see lots of white men with Asian women, in fact two of my very good friends are Asians married to white men. I am also acquaintances with 3 other couples in the same scenario. Both of my friends have told me they just weren't attracted to Asian men despite their parents being upset about them dating white guys.

I think the Samsung commercial is very cute and I don't really care what race they are but I agree that is a new variation on a couple that I haven't seen depicted much on TV.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

I think the big "flare ups" you heard about was about the actual phones not the commercial.

 

[hereyago]

Am I blind? Both people in the Samsung commercial look Asian to me.

Perhaps there is a type of smoke in front of your screen,lol. The female is white.

 

[cabanafrau]

Maybe pay a visit to some college campuses and witness all the stereotypes and preconceived notions turned on their head.

 

[bcla]

Am I blind? Both people in the Samsung commercial look Asian to me.

The actor is Michael Liu.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2134407/

The actress is Cyrina Fiallo, and her bio says she's of Italian and Cuban ancestry.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2687265/

 

[bcla]

Maybe pay a visit to some college campuses and witness all the stereotypes and preconceived notions turned on their head.

It's been a while since I've been in college, but back then the dynamic was still where it was more likely to see Asian girl with white guy than the other way around. It was also far more likely to be accepted, even in a liberal college town than the other way around, which would attract stares.

Even back when I was in high school, there were some depictions in popular culture. I guess Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles was highly cringeworthy. But the one I remember was 21 Jump Street, where they showed such relationships as normal.