Asian American Commercial Watch: Bank of America’s Uwajimaya profile

By John | Friday, December 23, 2011 | 6 Comments

Thanks for visiting 8Asians, a blog about Asian American issues. If you find this interesting, subscribe to the RSS feed, visit our Facebook Page or add us on Twitter!

I saw the thirty second version of this Bank of America commercial while watching cable news this past week, and was blown away. The commercial is about a small Seattle-based Asian grocery and gift store chain Uwajimaya and about how they got started. The store was started after World War II by a Japanese American, after this profiled woman’s father was able to get a loan from Bank of America.

I think this is definitely the first commercial I have ever seen that has even mentioned or alluded to the Japanese American concentration camps. If I were a Japanese American and saw this, I think this commercial would just win me over to bank at BOA.

Categories:

EntertainmentTV

NOTE: 8Asians.com is a community, and we thank you for being a part of it. While we welcome and appreciate differences in opinion, if you're rude or you're promoting spam, we have a right to edit or delete your comment. Read our comment policy for more information.

If you see a comment that violates the 8Asians.com comment policy, you may flag the comment by mousing over the comment and clicking "FLAG."

Facebook Comments (Beta)

IsaacKojima

I liked the Uwajimaya’s story. But the whole thing about the relation with Bank of America…I little meh…
TienVNguyen

This was awesome, it’s quite rare for Asians on TV to be shown to have so much depth, to be portrayed as if you knew them rather than just someone who fills an otherwise empty void.
Vaughan

>> I think this commercial would just win me over to bank at BOA.

By the time you’ve watched the commercial, Bank of America will have emptied your account with inexplicable fees, then charge you another fee for having no money in the account!
http://www.bigwowo.com/ bigWOWO

That’s a great commercial!

And even though they are “small,” they’re not really that small. They’ve got four BIG grocery stores, and before FuBonn (and then H Mart), they were the only major game in town in the Portland area. Still, I’m not complaining–their food is very fresh, and the workers are always nice and helpful.
mwei

@Vaughan sure beats Wells Fargo that charges you $1 just for printing a statement.

I was royally screwed over by Wells Fargo on my auto loan despite having a FICO score of 836 and will never have anything good to say about them.
mwei

I’ve been to the Seattle Uwajimaya next to the “international district” – ie. Chinatown by any other name.

despite the fact most of the Asian communities are bunched in together there, I was like “huh?” at 1:27 when they intercut to the “Chinatown” sign.

but it’s still an amazing commercial to have an internment history 101 lesson.

8 Asians