Netflix shows support for Asian Americans with viral social post

Netflix has shared on its social media platforms, a video dedicated to celebrating Asian and Asian American individuals. Netflix said in its YouTube caption that "Asians deserve better than the erasure, caricatures, and stereotypes" perpetuated by the entertainment industry. Sharing the video on its LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter pages, the streaming site said in the posts: "We are brave, we are strong, we are more than a stereotype. Our stories have no boundaries. Today and every day, celebrate who we are."

The video stars familiar faces such as Lana Condor, Tan France, and Daniel Dae Kim.  Echoing various stereotypes perpetuated by the media, the individuals in the video describe how Asians are made out to be "cliches" and that it was easier to "hurt someone who's not real". The video was welcomed with over 4000 positive reactions on LinkedIn, and 57 comments that shared a theme of love and gratitude for the video. It garnered over a 100,000 views on LinkedIn. The same video uploaded onto its Instagram account with the hashtag "#NetflixAAPIStories", received over 300,000 views, 70,000 likes, and 270 comments at the time of writing. Its Twitter post received over 96,000 views, 367 retweets, 43 quote tweets, and 2,200 likes, at the time of writing. 

The follows the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council (A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University launch of the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center on 19 March 2020. According to the official Stop AAPI Hate (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) website, the center tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

It states on its website that it serves as the leading aggregator of anti-Asian and anti-Pacific Islander hate incident, offers multilingual resources for impacted community members, provides technical assistance from rapid response to preventative measures, supports community-based safety measures and restorative justice efforts, and advocates for local, state, and national policies that reinforces human rights and civil rights protections. 

Prior to Netflix's AAPI stories, it launched a global campaign in September 2020, titled "One Story Away", which aimed at celebrating the power of storytelling. The campaign kickstarted with a minute-long video, which featured clips from popular Netflix shows such as Stranger Things, Kingdom, Over the Moon, and Sex Education.

Eric Pallotta, vice president, brand, at Netflix said in a blog post that the premise of the campaign is how stories can evoke different emotions, provide new perspectives and make audience feel closer to each other. According to him, the words "one story away" perfectly encapsulate the passion for storytelling that lies at the heart of what Netflix, and its creators, are trying to bring to its members.

Most recently MARKETING-INTERACTIVE also spoke to Bling Empire star Kane Lim on the rise of the anti-Asian sentiment in the US. Listen to the podcast here.

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