“What is the American Dream?” It’s a time-tested question that has yielded countless different visions that have evolved across different generations. While there is no singular answer, the responses are largely unified by themes of opportunity and personal agency.
For many marginalized communities, opportunities can feel entirely out of reach without proof of what’s possible. That, according to The Martin Agency’s senior strategist Sean Choi, is why visibility is so important for the underrepresented—especially for the AAPI community.
“It’s really difficult to chase or follow a dream if you can’t see it,” he told Adweek.
The only way that we’re going to get better as an industry is by sharing this cultural intelligence.
Sean Choi, senior strategist, The Martin Agency
With this in mind, Martin recently debuted AAPI Dreamlight, a new extension the agency’s two-year-old Visibility Brief. Conceptualized and powered by Martin’s Asian American and Pacific Islander-focused ERG, One East, AAPI Dreamlight is a curation of the community’s top talent in the areas of business, food, comedy, sports, music, various modes of artistry and creation and film.
Raising the bar
“Dreamlight,” One East explains, is a portmanteau of “spotlight” and the “AAPI Dream.” Choi notes that this new resource is meant to not only give the highlighted talent a platform, but also reaffirm the possibility of the modern AAPI Dream—that is, to land a job that reflects the AAPI individual’s true passions and allows them proper financial security—for the public.
“What we’re hoping to do with this resource is just to reaffirm that [the AAPI Dream] exists, that it’s possible,” he said. “We don’t have to go into the stereotypical roles of an engineer, a doctor or things that were perceivably surefire careers [solely] for economic means. For us, [the dream] is that we can truly find a career that we have a strong and deep passion and love for.”
It’s for this reason that the AAPI Dreamlight project focuses on creative fields, aiming to offset the stereotype while offering visibility to emerging figures in each category.
The Comedy section, for instance, prominently features the likes of Jenny Yang, Aparna Nancherla, Fire Island’s Joel Kim Booster and SNL writer Nimesh Patel while also honorably mentioning more mainstream talent Bowen Yang, Ken Jeong and Mindy Kaling. The Fashion slide uplifts rising names like Peter Do, who recently made his Met Gala debut alongside NCT star Johnny, while still paying tribute to tentpoles Vera Wang and Jimmy Choo.
The approach is meant to display the breadth of available AAPI talent, which extends far beyond the same cluster of widely celebrated figures. That said, Choi and One East are careful to note that the roster is not definitive, leaving behind many worthy candidates deserving of similar praise. That’s because it was largely guided by what they call the “most questionably accurate algorithm: instinct.”
“We wanted to aim for that sweet spot, right in the middle of those who aren’t the most famous in their overall category, but not necessarily completely unknown,” he shared. “I’d say that was a challenge—really thinking with intentionality as we were starting this. A lot of people know The Rock, but there’s greater value in someone that has that momentum and is on the come-up.”
The ripple effect
The larger goal that underlies this effort is simple: Martin wants to help widen the aperture in the ad industry by elevating emerging talent for partnership and branding opportunities, which would bring more visibility to one of the fastest growing communities in the U.S. Recent findings from the Pew Research Center show that Asian Americans are on track to be the largest immigration group by the mid-century, potentially surpassing the Hispanic population. Yet, according to a recent survey, 42% cannot name a single Asian American cultural figure and only 3% of Asian Americans feel represented in today’s advertising.
Choi hopes that projects like AAPI Dreamlight will help bring much-needed awareness to the disparity that often blocks community creatives’ prosperity. He also hopes that this open source effort will inspire other agencies and talent handlers in the industry to attempt something similar.
“We hope that as a wider industry, we can all just progress and do better together,” said Choi. “For these DEI initiatives, I don’t think we should gatekeep those things or that they should be a competitive advantage. The only way that we’re going to get better as an industry is by sharing this cultural intelligence.”
The AAPI Dreamlight project is a series of Google slides for maximum accessibility. The project is available on Martin’s website.
