I can’t emphasize this enough, but we know when AAPI voices are included at the beginning of a marketing campaign, vs. when we were added in to check off a box. There is nothing more powerful than a real representation of a story from the AAPI community.

I write this open letter today with hopes of igniting open conversation and action for the Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. I challenge the marketing and advertising industry to bring visibility to our existence in the work that we do. I’ve outlined here seven key challenges and actions we can start today to fight the invisibility. Before I jump into the key challenges, I wanted to provide the cultural context and nuance behind the Asian or Asian-American experience.