Say My Name: Honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

By Kana Feng

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Proctor & Gamble has introduced a campaign to raise awareness of something many members of the AAPI community (and in reality, others outside of the community) experience―feeling alienated from name mispronunciation.

My name, Kana, is very short. It’s two syllables. In my mind, there’s really only one way to pronounce it. And yet my name has been pronounced incorrectly, pronounced as three syllables, misspelled (even by me, in a rushed email, thanks autocorrect!) and all around butchered throughout my life.

In school, I always knew when my name was to be called on the first day of class because the teachers would all pause and have the same look of confusion or slight discomfort. It was annoying and awkward, but as someone born abroad, it felt inevitable.

I had a baby recently and when my husband and I were choosing a name for her we were between Japanese names, names with an Anglo-Saxon counterpart, and straight-up Anglo-Saxon names. We wanted to spare her those awkward interactions, but we also wanted her to wear her heritage proudly. Hopeful that awareness and sensitivity around pronouncing names has changed in the last few decades, we chose a Japanese name―one (we hoped) would be harder to mispronounce.

I still remember how disheartened I was when on day three of her life her pediatrician called her name for the very first time and pronounced it incorrectly. Maybe it was a fluke? But it kept happening at various appointments.

I love my daughter’s name―it’s meaningful in many ways, and I do not regret choosing it. I know she will encounter times when it is mispronounced and may sometimes feel she doesn’t belong.

But I am also hopeful.

I am hopeful since AAPI media presence has recently increased and inclusive marketing is becoming the norm. I am hopeful because as time passes, I feel people are acting more sensitively. When I was younger, almost no one would ask if they had pronounced my name correctly, but almost everyone asks if they pronounced my daughter’s correctly.

I am hopeful because brands like P&G are raising awareness about issues important to minorities.

One ad or campaign won’t completely erase the number of times “bias, indifference, and even unintentional mistakes” will make my daughter feel she doesn’t belong. One ad or campaign might not influence a consumer’s feeling about a brand. But personally, I know I will remember this one campaign the next time I’m out shopping.

Interested in gauging if consumers will remember and resonate with your ad campaign? Set up a call with our team.