Verizon's Anti-Asian TV AD!

[Asianrules]

Hello,

I was shocked last week when I saw a TV AD about Verizon wireless. Why are Asian males always being depicted in the worst stereotypical way?

The Ad goes like this... A handsome white guy is in the backseat of a cab. He's trying to talk on his cell but the taxi driver keeps stopping and starting abruptly. This goes on for 20 seconds. Then the camera pans onto the driver: An older Chinese male with greasy hair and thick glasses.

Have any of you seen this?!?

How do we, as Asian American activists, go about protesting Verizon? I'd like to pressure them to take the horrible racist ad off the air.

Please advise, thanks. I think we should all email Verizon on the same day so we can make our voices heard, similar to how YellowWorld coordinated the protest against the makers of the Kung Fool mask.

[SunWuKong]

i would have to see the commercial for myself before i form an opinion about it.

[sOKaLiBoY]

i dunno. i seen that commercial many times and i didn't have a problem with it.

[Deadpool]

The white guy was handsome? He looked pretty fugly to me.

[TyTea36]

if its racist, the asian guy shouldnt have done the commercial for verizon. T Mobile - T mobile!!

[tvbdude]

didn't see it yet but from your post it does seem very stereotypical. remember that older one where 2 white people eating in a chinese restaurant and they got food poisoning? was that also from verizon?

[angel nympho]

Would you rather have had them depict an Arab in a turban driving the cab?

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by angel nympho@May 22 2003, 11:09 PM
Would you rather have had them depict an Arab in a turban driving the cab?

I dunno how it is on the west coast, but in NY there are a ton of Sikh and other south Asian cabbies, not Arabs.

[mr. x]

yeah i think its a bit too much saying anti-asian. a bit stereotypical yes but not what id call yellowface

[Emperor_Mike]

We're overreacting a bit here. Not everything reeks of "Outrage!" you know. It's a fine line that separates a responsible activist and nutbar who just wants to make a whole lot of noise. Let's not be the latter. :D

[angel nympho]

Originally posted by YuheiCarreau@May 23 2003, 05:38 AM
I dunno how it is on the west coast, but in NY there are a ton of Sikh and other south Asian cabbies, not Arabs.

*Shrugs* I've never been in a cab in my life. But I always thought drivers were Indian or something. I don't know why I said Arab. I think my point was... does it really matter who's driving the cab?

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by angel nympho@May 23 2003, 01:01 AM
*Shrugs* I've never been in a cab in my life. But I always thought drivers were Indian or something. I don't know why I said Arab. I think my point was... does it really matter who's driving the cab?

If, as Asianrules says, the cabbie is an Asian person portrayed in an unfairly stereotypical way, then yes it does matter.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Oh no, a Chinese guy who wears glasses and drives a cab and doesn't look terribly hip and cool like the Asian-American generation would want! Burn Verizon at the stake!

Serious this is the most ridiculously distorted description of the commercial I have ever seen. You know how Verizon's fucking annoying tagline is "Can you hear me now?" Well the commercial emphasizes this by pointing out that other services have such spotty reception, if you're in a taxi it'll be fading in and out all the time. In fact it was the white guy in the commercial telling the driver to drive all jerkily so he can get reception on his cell.

It was the white guy on the cell who was made to look like the chump in the commercial, unless you are so locked into an Aktivist mentality which demands you to see Evil Whitey oppressing and stereotyping every person of color every time they come together.

[rakovlam]

An older Chinese male with greasy hair and thick glasses.

I've taken the taxis in Hong Kong many times. NONE of them are young and handsome. Same for other taxi drivers. In New York, they don't need to be told to drive like crap. They just do.

[Faithless]

I'm still debating: troll or not troll?

Either way, sounds like Verizon makes fun of short guys more, according to short support .

Short guys need wuv too. :luv: