Wendy's

I love a good commercial. And by good commercial I mean one that makes me laugh. Something that is clever and witty definitely achieves my approval, even one with a hidden or double meaning makes any commercial enjoyable which leads me to the commercials for one specific fast food restaurant that steadily express a hint of stereotypes and somewhat racism towards Asians. It's with Wendy's whole "three-conomy" notion, with the three workers enjoying their lunch break. I've only seen three commercials having to due with this, and they definitely could be taken offensively to the Asian-American race. True, the commercials are witty and funny, but partly because of their subtle racism and stereotypical characteristics of the ad. Which in a sense is nearly repulsive, that America would publicly display such towards a specific race. Now I know that it has been done in the past, during World War II for example, and they were hardly subtle then, but this is the year 2009. I was under the assumption that America was past such behavior. What is ironic about the commercial though is they would have to hire an Asian to play the part. Willingly would one go against their own like that?



To be honest, I didn't even notice the subtle humor of these ads at first, it did have to play a few times before I really caught on, which indefinitely displays my way to be naive, but on the other hand I can't say that I didn't laugh when I saw them, and that I don't continue to laugh when they do come up. I just find it minor appalling that the Wendy's industry could get away with that. Yet, I could be blowing this out of proportion. Maybe Asians have no problem with this ad and they too, find it funny. Which would explain why they could easily hire an Asian actor to play the part. Or perhaps it wasn't intended to be the Asian originally and it all just came together. Possible, but not necessarily probable.



However, the Asian dresses to play the part, fitting the stereotype of which given to them. A dorky haircut is even included with his somewhat nerdier outfit and I bet that "high waters" are even part of the whole ensemble, though his pants aren't shown in the commercials.



On the other hand, why do we find racism humorous? I hear the jokes and the comments made all the time, especially by people my age and those of my grandparents' generation, and people simply laugh, like it was a good clean joke. But it's not, it's discriminating against a certain group people just because of how they look. We have all been taught its wrong yet people continue to participate in such acts. I wonder how the minorities of America take the idea of people laughing and making fun of them. I mean I hear blond jokes all the time, but I find that I can laugh at them because I know that I'm not that dumb, but Asians, African Americans, Mexicans- they know their race; they can't exactly hide it or deny it. So how does one feel about something they can't control? I guess it could be the same as me knowing I'm blond but not dumb. Maybe they know what they look like, but don't act such that the stereotypes gives them.

I don't know how all the politics and everything work out in such situations, so I'm not going to boycott Wendy's just because they make fun of Asians, but it undoubtedly makes me wonder about just how far have we come since World War II racism.

I would love to show these commercials to you but I haven't had any luck finding them on youtube.