As I grew up behind goofy, blunt bangs and big, round glasses between the ages of 8-14, I was born into a family of dual identities. Being the first child in my dad’s family to be born on American soil, there has been a constant tug-of-war of cultural conflicts between my traditional Chinese parents, and my ‘white,’ suburban surroundings. Little did I know that the seemingly epic war between old and new was really instilling in me a strong sense of empathy.

This deep understanding of empathy has always been prevalent in my early youth, as I recall attending a mostly Caucasian elementary school. I never noticed that I was different, except that I was better than all the boys at tetherball, and pretty terrible at remembering where all 50 states were on the concrete map of our country.

Until, one day, a new girl arrived to my fourth grade elementary class from another part of town. The boys made fun of her appearance, because she had brown eyes, not blue or green, and she had a funny haircut. When I looked in the mirror, I saw the same, and could not understand why the kids were so mean to her, but not me—she had a ‘funny sounding’ last name too, that wasn’t Scott or Jones, and was also in a secret society I thought only my family was in, and that was the ability to speak Chinese.

At recess, I grabbed her hand and together we walked onto the playground, beaming amongst a crowd of blue and green eyes. There was a moment as we looked at each other with our dark brown eyes, a feeling of “It’s okay, you’re not alone,” that was transferred from me to her; slowly, she smiled her first smile in her new home.

Venturing through my first weeks here at Organic, I began to recall this childhood memory as we discussed business and consumer empathy. A particular campaign that I thought tied the two  successfully was McDonald’s Wrapped Campaign, by Leo Burnett Jakarta in Indonesia.

The campaign revolved around Ramadhan, a Muslim tradition of month-long fasting between dusk to dawn. In order to honor fasting Muslims, McDonald’s offered dual menus for the two times of the day, during and after Ramadhan. During the day, the images of food on the menu were wrapped in paper, in order to avoid tempting Muslims from breaking fast; after dusk, the menus were switched to regular images of food and lit up, a sign that it was time to break fast, for the Muslims waiting patiently in the restaurant. Lastly, because the golden arches of McDonald’s logo are a symbol of great tasting, mouth-water food, the large logo was also covered up with cloth, as a guerrilla segment of the campaign.

McDonald’s Wrapped Campaign was so overwhelmingly successful because of its cultural consideration, by showing that they do care about their consumers.

Brands in today’s world need to prove their understanding of consumer empathy by showing that they can listen, watch and tune into cultural consideration and value. Without empathy, it’s impossible to break through the clutter of today’s advertising and truly reach consumers’ hearts and desires.

Josie Ng is a Creative, Intern at Organic