Notes

[alt text]

The Chinese man on the left is in a kimono that is dark blue with floral designs on it, he has a black mustache that dangles from the sides and is wearing a black Chinese hat. He is holding a plastic bag that has meat inside it. The man on the right is also Chinese and is smiling with his teeth showing, wearing glasses, and is wearing a whit chef hat and whit apron. He is clasping his hands with joy and looking at the other man. On the table in front of them is a bowl, whis, eggs, ad some vegetables. 

[transcription]

#WILL INSCRUTABLE CHINESE SOON INVENT EGG-FOO-BAG?

It is no occident that some of the western world’s leading makers of Oriental foods are discovered boil–in-bag.

With Confucian wisdom, they’re already filling 3M Scotchpak Brand boil-in-bags with srhimp and chicken chow mein and sweet-sour pork. Egg-Foo-Young may be next.

Consider. Delicate aromas and flavors (the sould of Oriental cooking) stay in the bag instead of simmering away. Pot doesn’t get gooey, need scouring. Magnificent Mandarin dinner ready in 3 or 4 minutes. 

Housewives have great wisdom, too. 

If you make a heatable eatable, try to think of it in a Scotchpak boil-in-bag. We already are… and we may have some ideas you could use, or change or adapt or improve on. 

Write to 3M Company, Film, and Allied Products Division 3M Center, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101. 

We’re not nearly as inscrutable as the Chinese. 

##Scotchpak 3M COMPANY

Brand Polyester Film

[additional notes]

• playing on the dehumanizing and racis term ffor those who live in Asia

• Highly Western lens that is used to forge competition: (Asia should not be the lead in the frozen food industry)

• ‘inscrutable’- frames Asians as unintelligible and if they are capable of making this product, then America must step up in their mass production 

• the image itself shows a shift in emphasizing foods that have ‘culture’ or exotic cuisine that can fall easily in the hands of Americans 

• inputting Asian cuisine into a fast-ready made production 

• the competition of cuisines

• having the ability to understand the idustry better than America poses a threat and concern for ‘falling behind’ 

• compacting food into bags to creates a way to have less preparation 

• the use of numbers heightens the idea of being able to get food ready in mere minutes: saves time and money 

• the inclusion of wives also pulls on the masculinity of men

• drawing on stereotypes 

• wiser than Americans

• embracing the new technology of packaged food

• the interpretation of what Chinese food is supposed to look like 

• inauthentic cover up 

• rhetoric to appeal to foods Americans are used to

Themes: competition, racism, the rise of ‘exotic foods’, accessibility, wisdom, embracement, the adaptation of cultural foods, trends in packaging

What is Confucianism?

• the philosophies of the Chinese which is used in order to guarantee ‘virute’ and ‘morality’ in the product (to seem likeable and trustworhty)

What is the relation to the West and Asia during the 60s?

• history of exclusion, racism, and bias

• ad shortly came about after the 1965 Immigration Act which abolished discriminatory quotas based on race/ethnicity

• relates to the ad as there is a reinclusion of racial backgrounds, which may be the reason for the emphasis on cultural cuisines coming back into the food industry 

• not the typical American meal

What is Scotchpak Brand known for?

• packaging foods in seals that are plastic which are then cooked or reheated to eat (additives must be used in these foods in order to ensure they do not go bad during this process)

[Karlene Rodriguez]