A college student who noticed a ‘distinct lack of Asian representation’ on his local McDonald’s walls posed as a ‘Regional Interior Coordinator’ to hang a giant photo of himself and a fellow Asian pal in the Texas restaurant.
Jevh Maravilla, 21, revealed Sunday that he and his friends pulled off an imaginative caper more than 50 days ago, in which they mocked up a fake McDonald’s advertising image and hung it on a blank wall in a McDonald’s in Pearland, TX.
Maravilla’s shenanigans, which have since gone viral, were the result of a realization that there were zero images of Asians on the walls at the particular McDonald’s restaurant that they frequent.
Filipino-Americans Jevh Maravilla, 21 (right) and pal Christian Toledo, 25, realized that no Asians were featured on their local McDonald’s walls and came up with a plan that saw them posting this photo of themselves on a blank wall in July
Part of Maravilla and Toledo’s scheme involved tracking down a McDonald’s uniform shirt at Goodwill, which Maravilla wore to play the part of a ‘Regional Interior Coordinator’
Maravilla told KHOU that one day in June, while he and his friend, Christian Toledo, 25 — both Filipino-American — were eating at their frequently visited Pearland McDonald’s, they looked around and realized that none of the posters had any Asians in them.
‘They had other races, but no Asians so we felt like it was our duty to put ourselves up there,’ Maravilla said.
The YouTube video he shot to reveal the prank as it was being put together detailed how Maravilla and Toledo took a photo of themselves holding a McDonald’s burger and fries, matching it to the style of the real images hanging on the restaurant’s walls. They paid $85 to print the image on a large canvas via Office Depot’s website.
Maravilla then managed to track down a McDonald’s uniform shirt at Goodwill — a steal at less than $7 — and doctored up a fake ID badge that made it appear to anyone asking questions that he was Jeff Bergara, a McDonald’s Regional Interior Coordinator.
Both the position and Bergara’s name appear to have been concocted out of thin air.
On July 13, Maravilla, Toledo and friends snuck the over-sized poster into the Pearland McDonald’s and proceeded to hang it on the wall without being detected.
Maravilla told Inc. that the phony advertising image has been on the McDonald’s wall for the past 53 days and that he waited so long to reveal the prank via Twitter because he ‘wanted people to think it was impressive that it’s been there for so long.’
In a YouTube video revealing the prank, Maravilla showed off a fake ID badge he made
Maravilla and friends then managed to sneak the enormous poster featuring an image of himself and Toledo, doctored to match actual McDonald’s art, into the restaurant
According to Maravilla, the poster of himself and Toledo has been on the wall for 53 days so far
Maravilla, who attends the University of Houston, told Click 2 Houston, ‘I hope this can open the eyes of McDonald’s and their corporation to show more people like me, Asians, in there.’
He said that the stunt was motivated by the hit movie, Crazy Rich Asians, which features an all-Asian cast in its leading roles, making it the first Hollywood studio film to do so in 25 years. The last time this occurred was in 1993’s Joy Luck Club.
Maravilla noted that ‘Asian representation in media is not as prevalent as it should be,’ adding that he got a confidence boost after Crazy Rich Asians released, thinking that ‘if I take a step and do something small like this, it could make a difference.’
Crazy Rich Asians is now set to be the most successful Hollywood studio romantic comedy at the box office in almost 10 years, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In a statement obtained by DailyMail.com, Pearland McDonald’s franchisee Mariselle Quijano said, ‘We take pride in highlighting diversity in every aspect of our restaurants. We applaud these students’ creativity and hope to see them in our restaurants again soon.’
McDonald’s, however, did not indicate whether it intended to remove Maravilla and Toledo’s photo.
‘I kind of hope they will ask us to be representative models for them,’ Maravilla told KHOU. ‘Like, for Asian men. That would be insane if they did that! It would be, like, a dream come true.’
The McDonald’s that Maravilla and Toledo frequent, which know has their poster on its walls