R/GA, Marketing Agency
The
Name
Celebrating
AAPI
heritage.
Asians-Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have faced centuries of discrimination in America, but in 2022 they found themselves living in a hostile new reality: spikes of bias and violence following the COVID pandemic and divisive political rhetoric. Procter & Gamble came to R/GA to find a creative solution that would foster empathy, acceptance, and understanding among the “movable middle” who may mean well but, through subtle actions and remarks, make Asian Americans feel excluded.
The Name launched during AAPI heritage month. We brought it to life as fully integrated campaign, which included a hero film chronicling the childhood of a Korean-American girl, Yeong Joo, as she grows up with her name. She journeys from experiencing alienation and dismissal to seeing her identity blossom through the actions of her friends, allies, and herself.
Campaign Creation
Influencer Strategy
Brand Positioning
Brand System Guidelines
Media Planning
4B+
Impressions
2M
Engagements
164M+
Website visits with an average duration of 5+ minutes spent
694
Earned media placements
80%
Of AAPIs felt seen and supported by “The Name”
72%
Of Moveable Middle agreed that “The Name” helped them empathize with AAPIs
Channel Planning
Campaign Creation
Media Strategy
From telling Asian Americans that they “speak really good English,” to asking “where they’re really from,” to commenting about how they’re “so quiet,” there are many ways that the movable middle signals to AAPI communities that they don’t belong. And there are many ways that this “innocent othering” behavior could change to help them feel accepted.
But everyone has a name. And for many in the AAPI community, they carry a deep history and significance. Acts of bias, mispronunciation, and misidentification can make Asian Americans feel like outcasts in the US. Recent research showed that about half of Chinese international students who attend US universities had adopted Anglicised versions of their given names to make it easier for others to pronounce them.
P&G and R/GA believe that belonging starts with a name — a name that’s pronounced correctly.
P&G and R/GA shared the goal of creating a campaign that would resonate with Asian-Americans on the receiving end of discrimination, to make them feel seen and supported, while also becoming a call for action for the “Movable Middle” - the silent majority of non-Asian Americans. They sit between the AAPI who experience racism, and the hostile non-Asians who deny, or encourage racism.
R/GA’s all-Asian project team drew from lived experiences to identify Asian names as a flashpoint. They revealed how they had felt excluded when others mispronounced their names, or that they felt unable to go by their birth name. This is more than an indignity. Erasing people’s names tells them that they don’t belong.
The 2 minute hero video directs users to an experience on P&G’s website. There, they can find a dialogue guide that employers and educators can use to facilitate healthy discussions on reducing anti-AAPI bias through real, meaningful action. It also has a tool that allows Asian Americans to input their name, along with a photo and the phonetic pronunciation, and outputs a custom graphic that they can share on social so everyone can learn their name too.
The campaign also included an “I AM” generator for AAPI to engage with, a proprietary site to encourage AAPI to proudly help others correctly pronounce their name, online discussion guides and other elements to help viewers understand the importance of small changes - like learning someone’s name - as a start to help AAPIs feel like they belong.