Wendy's 3conomics

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(2)


(3)


So, I was a little bit confused by these commercials. The gist of it is that Wendy's is trying to advertise their new money-saving promotion where you can buy 3 burgers for 99 cents each. They call this "3conomics." Appropriately, they have three characters - 3 guys for 3 sandwiches.

Out of the three guys, two of them are white and the third is Asian. The choice of characters is what confused me. First, assuming that they are co-workers, they are all dressed differently. While the white men are dressed more casually, even ready to do physical labor, the Asian man is dressed in a button shirt and tie. Also noticeable is their difference in sizes. Sandwiched in between the two men, the Asian looks distinctly smaller.

I feel like this characterization is supposed to be a play on the Asian 'model minority.' But rather than exuding the superficial positive connotation of the image, this commercial gives it a more negative spin, even making fun of the stereotype. The Asian man is wearing the tie to indicate that he is at a different level as the other two in the work place. But he comes off as super 'nerdy' (check out that bowl haircut!). What's more, even if he is at a higher level working position, the other two still appear to dominate over him as indicated by their number (2 vs. 1), spatial positioning around the Asian man, their larger size, and their attitudes and behavior to him (Especially in ad #1. They don't acknowledge that he is there!). He doesn't even say anything 'intelligent.'

I don't get the choice in characters for this ad. Maybe the middle commercial could be considered funny, but the first one...now, what's that all about!?