For the last week, I've been thinking a lot about the racist panda commercial that Salesgenie.com aired during the Super Bowl. In the ad, a panda couple who speak with ridiculous Asian accents save their bamboo business with the help of Salesgenie sales leads.
On Tuesday, Salesgenie executive Vin Gupta apologized for the commercial, telling The New York Times that he "never thought anyone would be offended." He never thought anyone would be offended?! Gupta is either horrifyingly disingenuous or horrifyingly ignorant.
So what does this have to do with arts journalism?
Television advertising has long reflected accepted racial
portrayals in film and television.
And the Salesgenie commercial is just another reminder that the media
hasn't progressed much since Mickey Rooney portrayed Holly Golightly's
ridiculous, clownish Japanese landlord in the otherwise fine film Breakfast at Tiffany's. Can we
compare Rooney with an animated panda?
Well, they're both short, round non-Asians donning bad Asian
accents. And they've both helped
media executives try to get a laugh by portraying Asians as buck-teethed
buffoons who cannot speak English properly.
Asianweek's recent list of the 25 most infamous "yellow face" film performances only proves how shockingly reactionary Hollywood is when it comes to race. While most of the list's entries come from Hollywood's past, three are from 2007 films.
When noting Christopher Walken's turn as a villainous ping-pong master in Balls of Fury (2007), Asianweek comments, "Would anyone in their right mind cast Walken as, say, an African American character and not expect to get their asses reamed?"
The same thinking applies to the Salesgenie commercial. Would Gupta even think of casting a family of gorillas speaking ebonics as his laughable protagonists? Somehow, the Asian-American population is considered easier prey.
To add insult to injury, The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Gupta "boasted that his commercials were intentionally bad." As they say, bad publicity is better than no publicity. And to attract business to his website, Gupta actively sought the title of "worst Super Bowl commercial." Unfortunately, it seems like the racist plan worked. The ad has apparently brought in millions of dollars in revenue for Salesgenie.
Even though Gupta has pulled the ad, he says he will continue to run another animated commercial featuring a salesman with several children who speaks with an Indian accent. Gupta, who himself is half-Indian, explained to The New York Times that "people have been making fun of my accent for years, and I love it." According to USA Today, Gupta also claimed that only white people criticized the ads and that his Asian friends had no problem with them.
Well, Mr. Gupta, this Asian-American writer congratulates you on your thick skin... and poor taste.
Yay!
Finally, someone has come out and identified how racist those panda Super Bowl ads were.
I was sitting with a bunch of friends, mostly Asian Americans, watching the game and the commercials, generally having a good time. When those animated commercials came on, there was only stunned silence.
After several moments, one of the guys said, "That was the most racist commercial I've ever seen in my life." We all agreed.
The guy who said it wasn't even an ethnic activist type -- just your average guy enjoying the biggest game of the year.
I'm kind of shocked that the person behind those ads was also part Asian. But that's no excuse. Here we are in 2008. Racism on TV should be identified and condemned. Silence amounts to tacit endorsement.