Aug 20, 2021
With Susan Diaz off on a much deserved summer road trip,
Rohini Mukherji, Susan's cohost of the ABCDEI podcast and senior PR
leader, joined Will for this week’s #ThirstList
*****
Shang-Chi is not an
"experiment"
Disney can’t seem
to catch a break lately between their legal battles and a
foot-in-mouth problem. Allegedly, on a Q3 earnings call, the CEO of
Disney called the release of Shang-Chi, a film starring an
Asian-Canadian actor, “a big experiment”. This caused some backlash
from the cast, who rightly feel that this is a big moment for the
Asian community. Maybe the comment didn’t come out quite right, but
it goes to show that it's important to be intentional with our
language. Actions matter, but words do too.
Disney's Spin and Turning
Red
Despite our focus on the negative things lately, we're totally not
anti-Disney, and think they have some really cool stuff in the
works. The Disney Original Channel just premiered 'Spin', a
movie about an Indian-American family with a daughter torn
between her family and wanting to be a DJ. And a little closer to
home, a Pixar movie called 'Turning Red' set right here in Toronto
and filled with characters of different races and religions is
coming out, marking the debut of their first director that is a
woman of colour. Represent!
Making
Lululemonade out of lemons
Last week we spoke
about the recent UN climate report and how fast fashion is having a
devastating impact on the environment. After a yoga-pants filled
pandemic, Lululemon has announced a big plan for making their
products more sustainable, starting with their investment in a
plant based nylon company, Genomatica.
H&M's
latest collab
H&M is known
for its collabs with high end fashion designers, and recently
they've paired up with Indian designer Sabyasachi Mukherji.
Known for his intricate and traditional embroidery, Sabyasachi
often works to empower artisans, which is causing some people to
wonder why he would sell out to a huge, ethically questionable
company like H&M. We think it's a toss-up - we obviously would
love more awareness of Indian fashion and have it become more
mainstream, but we want to see this done in a way that is
authentic, preserves the culture, and is fair to everyone
involved.
Say no to
fake political news!
The Canada federal
election is coming quickly, and Facebook has an initiative to
ensure that the information that goes out to the public from the
political parties is true and correct. Users can also now adjust
settings to decide whether they want more political news or less in
their newsfeed. In true Facebook style though, the process in which
this will work is a closely guarded secret. Despite that, it's cool
to be able to choose how much we want to hear about the election
and have the news be a little more regulated to whatever we
want.