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By Mihar Dias December 2025
I’ve always admired a good prank. The kind that makes people laugh first, then think later, and then—if it’s really well done—quietly rearranges how they see the world.
I’ve staged a few myself in my time. Some earned groans, some earned grudging applause. But this one? This one didn’t just prank a fast-food outlet. It pranked an entire industry’s blind spot.
In 2018, two Filipino-American friends in Pearland, Texas did what millions of marketing consultants, DEI panels and brand “purpose” workshops somehow failed to do: they held up a mirror to advertising using nothing more than an Office Depot printout, a thrift-store uniform, and audacity. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D5kd7mVbr/
Their crime was simple. They noticed something missing.
At McDonald’s—arguably the most globalised symbol of modern capitalism—every wall was plastered with smiling faces enjoying fries and burgers. Happy people. Relatable people. Just not Asian people. So they did what all great pranksters do: instead of complaining, they inserted themselves into the picture. Literally.
For under a hundred dollars, they fabricated legitimacy. Not with hacking. Not with outrage. Not with hashtags. Just design, confidence, and a laminated lie that said “Regional Interior Coordinator.” The poster went up. Nobody asked questions. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D5kd7mVbr/
Nobody blinked. And for 51 days, two Asian faces smiled down from a McDonald’s wall, unnoticed precisely because they looked like they belonged there.
That, right there, is the punchline.
The prank worked not knowing who they were—but because the system assumes advertising is always official, always vetted, always intentional. Which leads to the uncomfortable question: if two students can add diversity by sneaking it in, how absent was it to begin with?
Advertising likes to tell us it reflects society. This prank proved the opposite. Advertising reflects assumptions about society—who is visible, who is “mainstream,” who is safe to sell fries with. The absence of Asians wasn’t malicious. It was worse. It was habitual. Invisible. Unexamined.
And when the prank finally went viral, the reaction was telling. McDonald’s didn’t call the lawyers. They didn’t issue a stiff apology written by a risk committee. They laughed, applauded, and then did what corporations do best when caught flat-footed by truth: they monetised it.
Ellen appearances. Marketing campaigns. Fifty thousand dollars. Everyone wins.
But here’s why this prank matters more than the happy ending.
It shows that representation isn’t always denied—it’s often forgotten. And sometimes the most effective critique isn’t a boycott, a protest, or a 3,000-word think piece. Sometimes it’s just quietly putting yourself on the wall and waiting to see how long it takes anyone to notice.
The poster stayed up for 51 days. Not because it was perfect. But because it didn’t look wrong.
That should unsettle every brand strategist alive.
This wasn’t vandalism. It was a focus group. It wasn’t deception. It was an audit.
A prank, yes—but one that revealed how advertising trains us to accept who belongs in our everyday visual diet, and who doesn’t.
So yes, I tip my hat to these pranksters. They didn’t just change a wall at McDonald’s. They changed how we should look at advertising itself—not as a neutral backdrop, but as a powerful editor of normality.
And if a fake poster can do that, imagine what honest ones could achieve—if someone bothered to hang them.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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