HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

[kimo55]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

I mean, how often do you see Cherokee-Vikings in HPU's ads?

I saw one!

no, wait.
yea, ok, sorry. that was a Dodge Ram.

[MadAzza]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

I saw one!

no, wait.
yea, ok, sorry. that was a Dodge Ram.

Hey, man! That was INSENSITIVE.

Probably why it cracked me up.

[kimo55]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

I know that it's mainly a white, gated/walled enclave which I am slowly tiring of. But it was a good investment at the time!

and others in non white ungated communities are slowly tiring of those that buy Hawaii r.e. as investment...
so there ya go.

[kimo55]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

Hey, man! That was INSENSITIVE.

which is probably why i said it.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

Put it this way, kahalabrah. Kāhala is to Honolulu what Beverly Hills is to Los Angeles. Wakatta?

[LikaNui]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

Oh, yeah? Try being a Native American-Swede. We are severely underrepresented everywhere. I mean, how often do you see Cherokee-Vikings in HPU's ads?

Maybe, but y'all did get those national TV commercials for the credit cards!

[Fondoo2]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

where did you live last and were you born in the states Kahalabra? Just wondering I'm from southern cali,big melting pot with plenty of asians and whites in the mix and have seen/heard little in the way of racism towards asians.
One thing comes to mind with many of the asians that are not born or have lived much of there lives in the states there is a differance in the american and asian version of polite behavior,mostly just the lack of saying please and thank you or may I,with clearly enough understanding of the language to be capable of it.As well as applying a forcefull/abrasive attitude over small things It used to put many of my family and friends on edge myself included.Since then I have had the good fortune to have made some asian friends and descovered that there are simple cultural diferences and not a rudeness of charactor
I am writing all this and risking getting blasted for saying "anything that could offend anyone"because you mentioned having ill-feelings towards whites and in my mind that hurts your spirit and doesn't hurt the people that mistreated you one bit,and unless you can read minds it is possible to missunderstand peoples motivations and actions and even your own contributions to the situation
So my point on this rant is I'm as white as they come and love the asian people and culture and wish you the very best

[MadAzza]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

Maybe, but y'all did get those national TV commercials for the credit cards!

ROTFL! This place is fullla comedians! Fulla comedians, I tell ya!

[kahalabrah]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

To prove my point just pick up a copy of the Downtown Planet. Over the past year and a half, I have seen MOSTLY white men and women in their ads. As in the mainland, they WILL feature some asian women but rarely any asian men. The one time I saw an asian man featured in Downtown Planet, he was positioned out of focus and in the background of a male haole.

If their target audience is mostly asian and their student body is almost entirely asian but they use mostly whites for their marketing this reeks of subtle racism. This reminds me of my frequent travels through asia for business. Asian marketing very often uses whites to promote their asian companies and products on TV, billboards and all other ad media. Think about that. Whites to market asian products to asians.

It really underscores how racist HPU's marketing is. They are employing the same racist marketing to sell their image to asian-americans.

To Fondoo: I was born and grew up on the mainland in virtually all-white, upper-class areas where I was often stereotyped and ridiculed on a daily basis by classmates, neighbors and colleagues. Often times its the subtle, "joking" comments that hurt the most. Don't think anti-asian racism exists on the mainland and even on the west coast? You're wrong. Even on the west coast there is plenty of resentment of asians. I lived there too. Check out www.angryasianman.com for daily updates by a west coast asian.

Hawaii is the only place where I feel welcome and fit in as an asian-american.

[Miulang]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

As a private institution of higher education, I don't think HPU needs to follow the same standards as the UH does in terms of being politically correct. HPU could probably have put green toed Martians in their ads if they wanted to. Since HPU's student population is made up mostly of Asians and Pacific Islanders, if there are any Caucasians in their ads it might be to let Caucasians know that they will be welcome in this environment, too?

All I know is HPU is danged expensive. My bro sent one of his kids to UNLV because he said it was cheaper than HPU, even with the cost of airfare and the out-of-state tuition.

I'm sorry you feel so oppressed, Kahalabrah. That's what happens when you're in the minority anywhere.

Miulang

P.S. one of the best ways I've found to beat those people at their own game is to ignore their comments and prosper more than they do. Did you ever consider that maybe they're just jealous of the fact that Asians are considered hard working, industrious and inclined toward working in the scientific or technological field? The popular misconception is that all Asians are meek and law abiding, too. Not that all Asians are, but that's the stereotype that we have to fight against, isn't it?

[LikaNui]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

This reminds me of my frequent travels through asia for business. Asian marketing very often uses whites to promote their asian companies and products on TV, billboards and all other ad media. Think about that.

Make ya a deal, KahalaBrah. I'll "think about that" if you think about why that happens.
Let's use some logic here: If it wasn't producing the results the advertisers wanted, would they continue to do it? No. But since they are continuing to do it (as you report), then apparently it is what a majority of their target audience wants.
Right?

[pzarquon]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

If their target audience is mostly asian and their student body is almost entirely asian but they use mostly whites for their marketing this reeks of subtle racism.

Except we don't know what HPU's target market is (which at best can only be derived by determining the demographics of the publications selected - it seems more likely that they're seeking downtown business people as a class, regardless of color), and as I mentioned earlier, their student body is not almost entirely Asian. Far from it. Half the time, when I'm at the mauka end of Fort Street, I feel like I wandered into some European country!

Again, if they use actual students or even actual classrooms in their ads, I think it's possible that the room might look to be straight out of rural Kansas.

And as Scrivener noted, in advertising in general, it is usually transparent when an agency wants to create the illusion of diversity when there isn't one. I remember when I was applying to colleges and got a glossy brochure from one in Indiana. You could practically see the inventory labels for the photos. "Classroom Setup C - 15 percent Hispanic, 5 percent Asian." Like they trucked some... darker kids in from NYC to sit on stoops and look comfortable for the camera.

If an HPU ad is representative of the school, and not what some fabricated formula of Ideal Diversity(tm) dictates, I'd prefer that, frankly.

Think about that. Whites to market asian products to asians.

I've observed the same thing, but how you're linking that practice, in an entirely different culture, to an HPU ad is a ridiculous stretch. I suppose you might say that both are taking the tack that non-whites "aspire" to whiteness, but in the case of the ads in Tokyo, Singapore, Malaysia, or the like that I've seen, they capitalize more on the appeal of the American or western lifestyle rather than the racial component.

I think you see what you want to see, in this case. I suppose I can start counting pale blondes in ads against other "colors," but I haven't seen anyone else here feel that the overall mix in an HPU ad is at all askew. If anything, it is a testament to the effectiveness of their ads that the ones I remember are the ones with the "local guy" or the "local surfer girl," which is a pretty good sign that they might even be on the right track.

[sinjin]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

I was born and grew up on the mainland in virtually all-white, upper-class areas where I was often stereotyped and ridiculed on a daily basis by classmates, neighbors and colleagues. Often times its the subtle, "joking" comments that hurt the most. Don't think anti-asian racism exists on the mainland and even on the west coast? You're wrong. Even on the west coast there is plenty of resentment of asians. I lived there too.

Take two white girls and call me in the morning!

[Moto]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

Another Item to think about. HPU had a commercial on the air that probably predates you here in Hawaii Kahalabrah, where they showed students announcing to the camera, where their origin were. The message they were trying to get across is that their student body is comprised from people all over the world. I'm sure the locals know what commercial I'm talking about.

[kahalabrah]

Re: HPU's Subliminal Racist Marketing Campaign

sinjin said: "Take two white girls and call me in the morning!"

I had no choice but to date haole girls when I was growing up! As you may know, on the mainland, most asian girls told me to my face, or to my friends "Sorry, I don't date asian guys." Plus, I was often the only asian in my entire town, school, workplace on the east coast. But whenever I was attracted to an asian on the mainland, 90% of the time she's a white-worshipping sellout.

Asian american women on the mainland are outwardly shameless about their preference for white men which I don't see here in Hawaii. Hawaii and mainland are polar opposites for asian americans. Everywhere in mainland media and advertising and even in real life you see the White man/asian female coupling. Never if ever do you see asian man/white female. I was an anomaly by dating white girls.