Entertainment
Viral Filipino-American pranksters guest on Ellen
Jevh and Christian shared that their prank was modelled after the popular film “Crazy Rich Asians,” an adaption from Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel; then hoping to push for racial diversity in restaurant posters. (Screenshot from Ellen Has a Big Surprise for Viral McDonalds Pranksters/EllenTube)
Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo, who recently became viral for standing up for race representation through a McDonald’s billboard prank, got recognition from Ellen Degeneres who said, “I know a great prank when I see one.”
The television host asked the two to guest on her show after Jevh’s Twitter post presented photos of their prank. It captioned, “I noticed there was a blank wall at Mcdonald’s so I decided to make this fake poster of me and my friend. It’s not been 51 days since I hung it up.” The post has gotten 1.02 million likes since its initial date of sharing on September 3, as of writing.
Jevh and Christian shared that their prank was modelled after the popular film “Crazy Rich Asians,” an adaption from Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel; then hoping to push for racial diversity in restaurant posters.
Jevh told Ellen, “I watched the movie three times. It was insane,” with Christian adding, “And so we wanted to be crazy middle-class Asians.. Or maybe lower middle class.” Jevh continued, “We were eating McDonald’s one day and we looked around and saw there were posters around that didn’t have any Asians. They had other races but no Asians so we felt like it was our duty to put ourselves up there.”
In an interview with NBCNews.com, Jevh also said, “I hope that we can inspire others through the use of film through media platforms—either on the web, television, or on the big screen.”
Ellen ended Jevh and Christian’s guesting by congratulating the Filipino-Americans for a job well done, following it up with a $25,000 check from McDonald’s and an upcoming marketing campaign featuring the duo.
McDonald’s corporate office has reported that they have taken down the poster, but it has been put up for auction and will be donated to Ronald McDonald House Houston charity.
