Vitamin Water commercial emasculates Asian men
by guest contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man
Check out this commercial for Glaceau Vitamin Water, featuring David Ortiz and Brian Urlacher playing badminton against two Asian players named Yang and Lau. And guess what? The commercial makes the Asian guys—supposedly the best in the sport—look weak, inept, timid, cowering and “psychologically broken” by their two hulking non-Asian opponents. Ortiz hits the shuttlecock so hard it literally penetrates Lau’s leg. Yeah, subtle. It’s ridiculous and offensive, and it’s no coincidence. The Asian male takes another hit, ridiculed on television for the sake of selling a few more bottles of crappy ass vitamin water.
Remember Glaceau’s racist company phone greeting from a few months back? Follow the link and listen to it here. Again, jokes at the expense of Asians. What’s with the mockery? That’s strike two, Glaceau. That’s racist!
UPDATE: Here’s a story on Howard Bach and Bob Malaythong, two real U.S. badminton stars: Bach and Malaythong up against the odds. The two are training for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
UPDATE 2: Whoa. Donald informs me that Howard Bach and Bob Malaythong are the two Asians guys in the commercial! The #1 U.S. pairs team. So why the hell did they have to call them “Yang” and “Lau”? Is it because those names sound more traditionally “Asian” to the average American TV watcher?
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Wendi Muse wrote:
I am guessing that the team with Ortiz and Urlacher is supposed to represent the United States and the other represents China (based on team colors). Keeping that in mind, it poses an interesting racial AND political question. And though the teams are clearly divided by nationality, I still think the commercial works to perpetuate the stereotype that blacks and whites are American and Asian-Americans are foreign, which is ironic in this case considering that David Ortiz is from the Dominican Republic and Howard and Bob are US players (and not of Chinese descent).
Posted 23 May 2007 at 7:13 am ¶
A. wrote:
See, my question is, why did Howard Bach and Bob Malaythong even decide to participate in this commercial? It’s like how Jackie Chan agrees to do the Rush Hour movies when they’re just two hours of chop-socky Asian jokes. Or how William Hung does fan tours and music videos in all his snaggle-toothed, accented glory. Don’t they understand the implicit racial stereotypes they embody? Don’t they see how bad it makes them look? How bad it makes Asians and Asian-Americans look? Hope their paychecks were big, at least, because their brains don’t seem to be.
And yes, the very worst thing about this stupid, unfunny ad is that it plays into the perpetual foreigner stereotype. Americans are the good guys, the stronger guys, while “Yang” and “Lau” are the nefarious Orientals… who actually aren’t that tough anyway, because one of them gets a shuttlecock in his leg! Wow! Cue “I’m Proud to be an American” and let down some white, red and blue (no yellow, please!) confetti!
Posted 23 May 2007 at 8:04 am ¶
dnA wrote:
Wow. The only thing that could have possibly made this commercial more racist is if someone started doing martial arts or complex calculus.
Posted 23 May 2007 at 8:13 am ¶
Kenny wrote:
What a disgraceful racist commercial. I also hate the truck ad wher the two white guys are driving the men of color in loin cloths who are singing a chant abnd then let them oout in the woods UGH!
Posted 23 May 2007 at 10:19 am ¶
Eric Stoller wrote:
Keep your eyes open for a possible anonymous comment from Glaceau’s PR people. They tried commenting on my site when I posted their original racist voicemail message.
I just don’t get that company. They got nailed with their racist voicemail and now this commercial is just awful.
Posted 23 May 2007 at 10:39 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Really? That’s pretty lame in terms of blogger relations. Somebody over there needs to read The Cluetrain Manifesto.
Posted 23 May 2007 at 11:01 am ¶
Eric Stoller wrote:
Yep, see this post at my site — “Glaceau + Racist Voicemail Redux“. It details the comment from “Lauren,” my sleuthing of her IP Address, and determining that she was from Energy Brands a.k.a Glaceau.
Posted 23 May 2007 at 11:23 am ¶
Rob wrote:
I used to think it’s because Asian people need to get a paycheck too but now I’m more along the idea that they really don’t have a damn clue.
Posted 23 May 2007 at 11:31 am ¶
Rob wrote:
Also, Phil from AAM reported that someone with the name of Nicole was posting on another site and saying how it wasn’t racist. They traced the IP address and, surprise, it was traced back to the company.
Guess they’re not all that smart when it comes to technology but they take the cake when it comes to racist stereotypes.
Posted 23 May 2007 at 11:33 am ¶
Vox wrote:
Rob, that statement is sort of offensive. Asian Americans are just as diverse as any other group, and just because some of them play stereotypes, often for a paycheck, doesn’t mean “they just don’t have a clue.” There are just as many African American, Latino and Native American sell-outs as Asian American. Or do those actors in Apocalypto, every extra who plays a landscaper or gang banger, and Chris Tucker (who also plays to stereotypes in Rush Hour) just not count?
In the U.S., Asian American actors have to move to Asia and get big there before they can get on screen in their own country, and some never sell-out and refuse to play stereotypical roles, but a pair of Asian American men taking a commercial spot means that all “Asian people” are clueless?
Posted 23 May 2007 at 4:58 pm ¶
Mina wrote:
I used to think Glaceau was just sugar water and drank juice or at least Gatorade instead. Now I have another reason to avoid the stuff!
Posted 23 May 2007 at 6:48 pm ¶
Blanky wrote:
I must say that while this is a very iffy commercial, I think that at times people can read into these a tad too much. For example, I currently saw a commercial in which a bunch of men rip their shirts off (for some unknown reason) and while the ebony-skinned macho-man was statue-esque, the fairest one looked pathetic and sexually unappealing. Should this have been taken as a malicious attack on everything pale?
No, because:
1) The key demographic, white males 18-34, would watch that scene, relate to the pale man, and do what the advertiser wished, enrolling at their program
and
2) It’s funny.
This may or may not have been a malicious attack, but far too much subtext can be stolen from commercials that had no intention of offending.
Posted 23 May 2007 at 7:38 pm ¶
Judah wrote:
I was disgusted when I first saw this on TV. The final cutaway to “Olufsen and Jensen,” to reinforce the strong American image versus the sissy Europeans only makes the stereotyping worse.
Extending the stereotyping to other groups doesn’t mitigate the first instance or cancel it out to make it acceptable. It means you’re being offensive to everyone.
Posted 23 May 2007 at 10:07 pm ¶
dnA wrote:
I take it back. The fact that the two guys are American, not Chinese, and were given stereotypical Asian names for this commercial makes it so much worse.
Can you imagine a commercial where two black men named “Rastus” and “Tyrone” are fighting over a juicy piece of watermelon? this is pretty much the same thing.
Posted 24 May 2007 at 5:57 am ¶
Sewere wrote:
Blanky,
When there’s a pattern of advertisers employing the same anti-Asian male stereotype time and time again, it’s structural racism. Whether they intended to cause offence or not, it is racism. Remember the road to hell and how wonderfully paved it is with the best of intentions? (Now if I could only find Nezua’s definition).
Posted 24 May 2007 at 12:32 pm ¶
Blanky wrote:
To be honest, this is the only commercial of its kind that truly stood out to me in recent years (aside from that unforgivable Bud Lite one).
Posted 24 May 2007 at 7:14 pm ¶
Flynt wrote:
How about Lebron driving against all of the supposedly ASIAN folklores. What if we had Yao kick Martin Luther King, Malcom X, and whoever black heroes there is. Would that have been racist?
What if we had the asian guys, after taking “competitor brand” RUN OVER Urlacher or strike out David Ortiz.
Posted 24 Jun 2007 at 8:58 am ¶
JGL wrote:
honestly, I find it absolutely ridiculous that such accusations of racisism can be conjured from a silly commercial posting David Ortiz, the Dominican baseball slugger, as a Badminton player. It is clearly meant to be funny, light, and absurd, not a sort of “evil” propaganda US dominance over the rapidly rising asian economies. People today are clearly trying to find anything that could be remotely racist and protest it for the mere sake of protesting. If a person is offended by such a commercial, then that person is certainly searching for something to be offended by.
Posted 28 Oct 2007 at 8:37 pm ¶