TV: Bud Light Super Bowl Ad Features Desi Actors

Last night, as we were watching the Super Bowl at a friend's house, we remarked about how such major sporting events remain one of the few desi-free zones in the U.S. Not a single South Asian face was visible among the teams, the officials, the announcers and analysts, post-game reporters, Prince's band during halftime or the cutaway shots of the crowd in Miami. Exceptions: Major golf tourneys, thanks to Vijay Singh; and Yankees baseball, thanks to Sweeny Murti, the beat reporter for WFAN radio in NYC. (Though during the BCS college football championship in January 2007, there did happen to be one South Asian, Ann Mukherjee, playing a major role during halftime.)

[ UPDATE: Manish Vij of Ultrabrown reminds that there are/have been South Asian NFL players. The only current player is St. Louis Rams defensive player Brandon Chillar, who has been in the league for three years and had his best year in 2006. There are also two retired NFL players. One is Bobby Singh, a Fiji-Indian-Canadian, who played in the 1999 season for the Rams. Another is Sanjay Rajiv Beach, an Indian-Jamaican-American, who played for four years for the New York Jets, Green Bay Packers, and twice with the San Francisco 49ers. See the Manish's 2006 SepiaMutiny posting on this topic.]

But, it turns out, there were a couple of desi faces (whose names I don't know) among the actors in one of the high-profile Bud Light ads that ran during the show. The ad, among those which cost the company $2.6 million to air, featured  Latino comic Carlos Mencia trying to teach a group of immigrants how to speak English.  Below you will see the video, via YouTube - please place your thoughts in the comments section below.

[UPDATE: Som Chivukula reports that one of the desi actors, the first to speak, is Anjul Nigam. And Natasha Alim reports "the Desi face in the first row is actor/comedian, Ravi Patel from L.A.! He's actually been in several mainstream commercials/shows... I was so excited to see not only the Desi faces, but a familiar one!" Any other tips? See coverage of this ad on Ultrabrown, as well as a previous Ultrabrown posting on Mencia's skits about desis. As you can see from the comments section, at least one person is unhappy with the ad - and this posting. Add your comments below, please.]

Comments

[Choyon]

I wouldn't exactly trumpet the fact that desi actors were featured in the budweiser ad because it only reinforced the image of the Apu (from the simpsons) "Thank you come again" type of incoherent immigrant who is ignorant to the "american beer culture" and can't pronounce "bud light" correctly. It's blatant stereotyping that makes fun of easy targets.

Projecting that image, especially to superbowl watchers and bud light's frat boy customer base definitely put the community two steps back and is really nothing to be proud of.

[parthiv]

I think we need to lighten up.

Stereotyping is perfectly acceptable in humor; and this ad was nothing if not humorous. If Lawyers were half as sensitive as we are being here, than poor guys would have to crawl under a cave... but wait that would be a good thing, wouldn't it? :-)

[Vikas]

Funny ad! And yeah we do need to lighten up. At this rate, we will end up becoming whiners of the world.

[Dan]

I believe that there is a simple explanation for this. Too many South
Asian parents look down on their children if they do anything "out-of-the-box"
like sports or entertainment. I can't tell you how many wonderful
young and creative South Asians I meet all over the country who want
to do something like film, athletics, music, etc. and are greeted by
ostracization, sometimes even violence, by their parents. It seems
the only acceptable professions are, as you know, IT, engineering,
finance, medicine or law. In other words, the jobs that are surefire
money earners. I always get this question, "why are there not more
South Asian actors on television?" To me, the answer is simple --
because not enough South Asians are willing to take the risk.

I would hate to be single in the South Asian market because as artists
we are really looked down upon. I get a little bit weary of people
asking me if I can make a living at this or what else I really do for
a living, (even though I just earned $9,000 for a show two weeks ago
in Orlando, and have earned as much as $30,000 in one evening
producing and performing at Russell shows), so I just tell people yes,
in fact I earn more than your average doctor, and I work about 1/10
the hours. Normally I wouldn't mention income, but I'm a little bit tired of people thinking I'm not making any money.

Also, it really gets a little tiring when people expect a professional
entertainer to perform for nothing. Fortunately I have enough paid
shows, but many groups still approach me telling me they will pay only
for my air and hotel but that will get a lot of "exposure". In the
past, I've performed at events where everybody was paid, the DJ, the
caterer, everyone, except myself. How can South Asians wonder why
there aren't more successful South Asian entertainers and yet turn
around and not want to pay the entertainers anything? If Russell, who
is now earning about $10 million a year, hadn't blazed the trail for
South Asian comedians, most likely we would still be asked to perform
for nothing, ironically by the group that has the highest income in America.

I may have mentioned this before, but my cousin became good enough at
classical piano that the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra wanted to have
him play with them, but my uncle (his father) would simply not allow
it, and forced him to become a doctor instead. Now instead of playing
the piano with his extremely gifted fingers, instead he's sticking
those same fingers inside people's anuses.

I think this is a really sad state of affairs, considering how much
creativity, intelligence and sheer talent lies in the South Asian community.
Fortunately, the second-generation parents like myself will be much
more open to having their children do something creative. You may
have read the New York Times article about the lack of popularity of
the NFL in the Hispanic community. The optimistic part of the article
is that those who are second generation are much more likely to enjoy
the NFL than the first generation. It's just a matter of time before
the first South Asian player plays in the NFL, trust me on this one.
But it will only happen if his parents don't force him to become a
doctor. And since coaches are almost always former players, then it
will take even longer for a South Asian to become an NFL coach. Look what's happening in the East Asian community.
You have East Asian basketball players, baseball players and NFL players.

As far as South Asians in the stands - I went to a Super Bowl in San
Diego in 1989, and had tickets to last year's Super Bowl but decided
to sell them instead. Anyone in America is certainly free to purchase
a Super Bowl ticket, and since South Asians earn more than any other
group, I am certain that there are many hundreds of thousands of South
Asians who could've gone to the game if they so chose. This is really a question of assimilation.
If I moved to India, then certainly I would make every effort I could
to learn about and participate in soccer, cricket, etc. Similarly, I
think people who move here from India should make an attempt to
assimilate and learn about American sports. Both of my parents certainly did.

[Jaya Kamlani]

Bravo Dan! I am glad you are doing well in the field of your choice. I am a retired IT Consultant. When I had a flourishing consulting practice everyone in the family thought I was doing very well, but now that I am a writer and am writing my memoir which takes years to write, they ask why I am wasting my time, why is it taking so long to write a book, and my book will probably never get published, and so on. But I have confidence in myself and just ignore the naysayers, and fortunately I have now finished writing and am in the final edit phase. One can have multiple careers in their lifetime these days. Like they say, whatever you want to do, do it with your heart, put your 110% percent into it, and you can never go wrong. And if you want to be a carpenter, be the best carpenter in town, so you can build a house, and then you can become an architect and design the best and safest homes.

Incidentally, I am the first generation Indian and my daughter tells her friends I have a cool Mom, because I can name some of their generation songs and sing along with them. And when my son was younger, I used to watch the football and basketball games with him, including the Super Bowl. And he would quiz me on the players and teams and I would get the basketball players names mixed up with the football player team names, and he would get such a kick out of it. And I let him have his belly laugh for the day. I even took my children to the Bon Jovi and other rock concerts and accompanied them to the Oakland A's baseball game, and other basketball and ice-hockey games. Today, my children are my best friends and confidantes. So I think parents must ensure their children have a balanced life.... And Dan, I wish you well in your career. In the end, it is not how much money you make that counts, but how many friends you have and how happy you are in life…. And yes, I did watch that commercial on the Super Bowl with the Indians and other immigrants in a classroom setting.

Jaya Kamlani

[Manish]

There have already been desi players in the NFL: Sanjay Beach, Brandon Chillar, Bobby Singh.

See:
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/002963.html

[Lisa Tsering]

I found that commercial obnoxious and racist.

[Jaya Kamlani]

I did not complete my thoughts on the BUD commercial when I left off at "... I did watch that commercial on the Super Bowl with the Indians and other immigrants in a classroom setting," because I got off the tangent and discussed other things.

But seriously, when I arrived in New York almost four decades ago, people used to talk about cows roaming the streets of India etc. Some people wanted to know more about India, while others could not care because of the media images. So why did BUD have to portray Indians in a light where they cannot speak English (not that it may not be true in some cases) when majority of us speak very well, and most of us have excellent or even distinguished careers? I would have to agree with Choyon and Lisa. People view us from the images they see of us on television. It would be like showing the Mexicans picking vegetables, and Chinese working in the paddy fields, or the Irish drunk in a bar, ... even though many of their people are highly educated and well respected. I think this is how some frat boys in the advertising industry would like to portray us.

Lisa,I remember meeting you at a SAJA convention couple of years ago, and we took a cab back from Columbia Univerity after the dinner event.

Jaya Kamlani

[Lisa Tsering]

Jaya you are so right. The fact that the commercial played to such a hoi-polloi audience as the Superbowl ensured that a million more yobs will now have that tired image stuck in their heads.
I am not saying everybody in the Superbowl audience is yobs, but let's face it, it's not Masterpiece Theater.
Hope to see you at another SAJA convention!

[Media Consumer Guy]

Dan, THANK YOU for those comments. I wholeheartedly agree, but have three of my own to add. First, a generation ago, at least in our community, finance and law would not yet have been on the list. So there's some progress. Second, if you think "comedian" is a buzzkill on the dating/mating market, try "teacher" (never mind the appositive "independently wealthy"); but I think this affects us guys more than the ladies. Finally, I am an enthusiastic supporter of comedy in general and Desi comedians in particular, but I hope we get more good ones. (If you are the Dan I think you are, then you are absolutely hilarious -- keep it up.)

On the commercial: While I agree that we need to be able to take a joke, I agree with Lisa's points. Mr. Mencia seems to bill himself as an "equal opportunity offender", but here he's using tired old stereotypes in a pretty tired way. I did like the overall "We are the World" message, but then, I'm a sucker for multicultural harmony.

Finally, let's remember that the Superbowl is consistently one of the highest-rated TV programs of the year (and a decade or two ago, I wouldn't have to weasel so much). Many Americans of all kinds and colors watch the Superbowl. Some advertisers get this (the much-praised Coke ads were, in my opinion, the best example) while others really don't (GoDaddy, anyone?) I suppose when Bud is buying 20 minutes of ad time, they'll have some hits and misses, in anyone's opinion.

[Willy Mo Denda]

South Asians are over-represented in all things associated with success. College degrees, medical professionals, top salary earners. There is no underlying racism faced by this group of Americans.