This ad from Citizens Against Government Waste, called "Chinese Professor," hit the fan just a few weeks ago as the campaign season was hitting its fever pitch, and it fanned the flames of outrage among Asian Americans across the country. It's not subtle: The commercial obviously perpetuates an ugly, evil vision of Chinese as grim, committed enemies of America, gloating over a fantasy collapse of US world power and the rise of a gray-tinted China... with a gigantic visage of Chairman Mao glaring over an auditorium where a professor gloats to his students.
Here's Angry Asian Man on the ad, and the original post on The Atlantic that analyzes the spot.
Angry Asian Man also tracked down a couple of extras who were hired for the commercial, and they explain that they knew the commercial was conservative, but they had no idea their stint sitting in an audience and laughing on command would be put in such a grim, stereotypical context.
There's not much more to say about this ad, except it turns my stomach -- and it aired tonight while we were watching election returns.
Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user\'s experience more efficient. The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. For all other types of cookies we need your permission. This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.
Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers.
Preference cookies enable a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.