From AAPI to NHPI: expanding Spotify’s Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month campaign 🌴

From AAPI to NHPI: expanding Spotify’s Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month campaign 🌴

DURATION

2 weeks

MY ROLE

Visual Design

Social Campaign

AAPI with emphasis on the PI part

In May of 2020, Spotify released a campaign celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, but they forgot one thing… to include Pacific Islander artists.

The term “AAPI” has been a controversial topic since it encompasses a wide range of cultures and ethnicities — from East Asians, Southeast Asians, South Asians, West Asians, Central Asians, and lastly Pacific Islanders.

Often times Pacific Islanders get erased all together because their percentage of the population is so small by comparison. However, in places like Hawai’i, Asians occupy a lot of their native lands which makes this grouping and erasure even more frustrating and harmful.

OUTCOME

A creative director from Spotify commented on my post and later added one Hawaii playlist to their list of AAPIHM music on Spotify.

CHALLENGE

Create a series of Instagram posts inspired by Spotify’s AAPIHM campaign but with emphasis on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander artists.

A screenshot of Spotify’s original AAPI Heritage Month campaign. Photo and Design by Josephine Tansera and
Edward Yeung

The Problem

Though Spotify’s AAPIHM campaign included a wide range of Asian and Asian American artists, it failed to acknowledge any Pacific Islander artists even though Pacific Islanders span across 15+ cultures and ethnicities including Carolinian, Chamorro, Chuukese, Fijian, Guamanian, Kosraean, Marshallese, Native Hawaiian, Niuean, Palauan, Pohnpeian, Papua New Guinean, Samoan, Tokelauan, Tongan, Yapese.

AAPI to NHPI

In Spotify’s original campaign, they utilized a lot of Asian elements from their border, to the flora, birds, and fruits they used as accents. In the same vein, I wanted to include a lot of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander imagery to showcase the richness of the diverse cultures of each artist I included.

Culturally significant imagery

Each flower and animal were explicitly chosen for each artist depending on their cultural background and ethnicities.

In the example above, Rebel Souljahz has always been proud to represent Waipahu, Hawaiʻi, so I included red hibiscus (kokio ula) and 'i'iwi bird because they are native to Hawaii and hold deep cultural significance.