Have you ever looked really closely at the pictures inside a McDonald’s? I don’t think anyone really does, which is why these guys got away with this for over two months.
In Houston, Texas, Jevh Maravilla partnered with his friend Christian Toledo to add a picture to the wall of a McDonald’s that represented Asian American men. The idea for this project came about when Maravilla noticed there was no representation for Asian Americans on the walls. I mean, these pictures are basically stock photos of people eating McDonald’s, but that’s besides the point.
There were no Asians. We took the photo outside the neighbourhood events centre while a Zumba class was going on, looking like students.
We needed one friend to record and two friends to help me hang it up.
I wore an old McDonald’s worker shirt posing as “Jeff Bergara, Regional Interior Coordinator.”
I was very, very nervous waiting for over half an hour before the coast was clear, but we were able to get it up without a hitch.
We put adhesive on the back so it could be taken down. We didn’t want to vandalise the restaurant.
However we put it up on July 13th and it’s still there.
We all deserve equality and all races deserve recognition. I don’t know why McDonald’s marketing didn’t include Asians, but often in the media Asian men are not shown as masculine and Asian women are just portrayed as cute and pretty.
When I was growing up, Asian people only appeared in movies as martial artists or funny side characters.
He’s not wrong. I immediately thought of Jackie Chan, who usually has a comedic or martial arts role in his films. Since posting the video, it has gone viral, garnering support from nearly everyone who has seen it. Hopefully, marketing teams across the country will pay attention to this and actually represent people fairly. I’m impressed no one noticed the photo for over two months.
