P&G “THE NAME”
Creating Belonging, Starting With A Name
Everyone has a name — and from birth through a lifetime of introductions, it becomes the cornerstone of our identity.
For many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), their given names carry an even deeper history and significance. But bias, indifference, and even unintentional mistakes can lead to mispronunciation and even misidentification.
Reframing “American” advertising
“The Name” challenges any lingering stereotypical notions around what stories speak to a wide American advertising audience. Its success demonstrates that campaigns sharing a distinct cultural perspective can be universally relatable and inspire empathy.
The creation of “The Name” also shed light on issues of AAPI representation in advertising itself, and demonstrated what’s possible when creative teams are given the space to represent their own cultural backgrounds and identity in the stories they tell. At R/GA, employee resource groups representing different communities, known as Culture Collectives, contribute unique cultural understanding that informs client work.
What’s an
“American” name?
One key insight driving the campaign and illustrated in its tagline – “Belonging starts with a name” – was the role our names, and how others approach and react to them, play in feelings of belongingness.
This point was informed by a recent survey demonstrating how few people saw some of the most common surnames in the country as “American” – and the impact this type of thinking had on making the people bearing those names feel unwelcome. Other recent research showed that about half of Chinese international students at U.S. universities surveyed had adopted Anglicized versions of their given names to make it easier for others to pronounce them, which helped inform the story. It’s not hard to see the parallels to the bias and exclusion Asian-Americans have faced since first arriving in the country.
