Acceptance was making wonderful progress for a while. And then it stalled and hate raised its ugly head again. According to The Asian American Foundation’s TAAF’s 2025 STAATUS Index, only 23% of Asian Americans now say they feel fully accepted in the US, and this sense of exclusion is especially acute among younger generations. Just 20% of Asian Americans aged 16 to 24 say they feel fully accepted for their racial identity.
“Following decades of being cast as perpetual foreigners caught in a balancing act of being too Asian or not Asian enough, many have felt pressure to abandon their culture, names, or languages just to fit in, often internalising shame and self-doubt in the process,” the organisation stated in its press release.
Wieden + Kennedy has created the campaign, Asian+American, for TAAF, that champions the complexity of Asian American identity. At its heart is a 60-second film, Beyond, Together, that explores the pressure of being Asian American but also presents Asian American individuals embracing their full selves without limits or compromises.
The campaign is a declaration that Asian Americans don’t have to choose between identities; they belong as both. It deviates from classic acceptance campaigns that focus on haters. Instead, Asian+American aims to build cultural pride and confidence among the Asian-American community.
The film is narrated by American actor, Sandra Oh, and directed by Sean Wang, who participated in the inaugural Sundance Institute | TAAF Fellowship cohort in 2022. It is paired with portraits by photographer, Jingyu Lin, that will run across digital, social, and out-of-home platforms.
TAAF is also partnering with Right To Be, a leader in anti-harassment education, that empowers individuals to safely intervene in moments of bias or harm, including instances of anti-Asian hate and xenophobic harassment. Together, they will launch a US national Train-the-Trainer program, that will equip local leaders to run workshops in their own communities.
The film and OOH creative also ask “What is your Asian+American story?”, encouraging Asian-Americans and allies to join the conversation by sharing their stories on social media using #AsianPlusAmerican and tagging @TAAForg. This part of the campaign aims to amplify the diverse voices, experiences, and identities that shape the Asian American community and to show the world what it really means to be both Asian and American.
