Panda Express

Advocacy - DEI | Brand Crisis Initiative | Public Service Announcement | Packaging Design | Social Media

"Hate is a Virus"

OBJECTIVE:

The objective of the assignment is to choose a brand and conceptualize a positive initiative campaign to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, utilizing the best practices and objectives outlined in the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer Report (BRAND: Panda Express)

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Asians/Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders (AAPI),

Non-AAPI community members, Panda Express customers

(All Genders & Ages)

INFORMATIVE LINKS:

AAPI Equity Alliance (formerly A3PCON)

Stop AAPI Hate Organization

Wash The Hate Movement Organization

#WashTheHate video from Panda Express Employees on the brand's official twitter

NBC News Article reporting how Panda Express employees have experienced racism

National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Ant-Asian Sentiments Twitter Study

Spring 2020

Art Director •
Lilian Broyles

Copywriter •
Lilian Broyles

Panda-mic

Panda Express is the perfect brand to initiate awareness, transparency, and conversation regarding the discrimination, hate crimes and harassment the AAPI community (Asian American, Pacific Islander) is facing due to the xenophobia and racism emerging globally because of the virus's origins.

Factors that make Panda Express an ideal outlet for this initiative campaign are the restaurant’s origins. The business was originally founded and still owned by Andrew Cherng and Peggy Cherng, Asian/Chinese immigrants.

The brand was established as “authentically American Chinese” with their innovative combination of Chinese and American cuisine tastes.

In this campaign, I wanted to emphasize this fact to help people build a deeper association between the brand and its real origins – made by Asian-Americans and Chinese Immigrants – thus helping to dissolve the pandemic’s ensuing anti-Chinese sentiment.

A campaign such as this could provided more opportunities to rally a societal response and build consumer relationships, utilizing their voice to help rectify the anti-Asian/Chinese sentiment.

Officially, Panda Express participated in a social media hashtag campaign directly addressing the Asian hate phenomena (#WashThe Hate).

Logo Design

The first execution is a revamped version of the brand's signature panda, but adding a face mask in correspondence with the new mask policies. I adjusted the copy to "Founded by proud Asian Americans" to emphasize the origins of the brand and the people who helped build it.

For the second logo, I wanted to bring back in this sense of humanity that could further evoke compassion from the audience. Reports of hate against Asians can feel cold and distanced from the issue as walls of text and numerical statistics are listed off. Often people lose sight of the realities others experience. Featuring a human-like figure on the new design helps trigger this reminder.

Similar to the first new logo rendition, I changed the tagged copy at the bottom to read "Diversity, Inclusivity, Culture." Again, trying to draw a more human approach, establishing a desire for appreciation and acceptance despite everyone's differences.