Viral Fil-Ams who posted photo in McDonald’s appear on Ellen; hired for fast food’s marketing campaign

Photo: Screenshot from Ellentube.com.
Photo: Screenshot from Ellentube.com.

From internet celebrities to a guest spot on The Ellen DeGeneres Show real quick.

That’s how things have changed for Filipino-Americans Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo who appeared on comedian Ellen DeGeneres’ Emmy award-winning talk show yesterday. The two became viral earlier this month when they created a fake McDonald’s poster featuring them, which they hung on the wall of one of the fast food brand’s outlets in Pearland, Texas.

Aside from speaking DeGeneres about their prank, the two men became twice as lucky after being told on the show that they’ll be hired by McDonald’s for a marketing campaign.

Maravilla, the prank’s mastermind, said he did it because he wanted to see more Asians represented in the media.

In the interview, the two men discussed why they did the prank. Said Maravilla: “We go there pretty often and there was this blank wall.”

Toledo joked: “It was like inviting us to put up something.”

Realizing that there weren’t any posters featuring Asians, the duo then decided to create their own poster and hoist it on the wall.

It also required Maravilla to dress up as a McDonald’s employee so that they wouldn’t get caught on the day that they were going to put the poster up.

Maravilla also talked about how his mother was quite supportive of their prank.

He said: “When she came to my house and saw it (the poster) she couldn’t help but laugh with my dad.”

Maravilla said that he was also inspired by Crazy Rich Asians, the first Hollywood film in 25 years to have an all-Asian and Asian-American cast. Critics have called the movie a step forward in representing Asians in American media.

Crazy Rich Asians is a big influence on me,” said Maravilla. “I watched it three times.”

“Because we want to be crazy middle class [Asians],” joked Toledo.

DeGeneres then gave the duo a colorful poster of herself and told them to put it up at a McDonald’s store.

The two got the shock of their lives when the comedian told them that they’ll get to work on a marketing campaign with McDonald’s and be paid US$25,000 (more than PHP1.353 million) each. She also gave them gigantic mock checks to boot.

It doesn’t get any more awesome than that, and to think this all started with a prank.



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