Öpinionated turned aunties into action heroes, and Panda Express just keeps feeding the momentum.
Chris Le, Cam Soane and Marcelina Ward from the Portland shop walked through the latest iteration of the “Have You Eaten Yet?” platform—a campaign that started with a Lunar New Year spot and evolved into something with stunt doubles, car-hood slides and door-kicking comedic chaos.
The third chapter of Panda’s brand storytelling hyperbolizes what’s always been true: aunties will do anything to feed you. And when that truth gets wrapped in martial arts-inspired action sequences, fluffy slippers and all, you end up with work that makes jaded ad people laugh out loud.
From simplicity to stunts—without losing the plot
The complexity lives in the production. The idea stays simple.
Soane explains the approach: “You gotta make stuff that makes you laugh and is going to entertain people. And if it can be on strategy along the way, then bonus.” That’s how they landed on aunties as stunt doubles fighting over who gets to deliver dinner—same cultural insight, bigger set pieces.
Le breaks down the foundation: “The idea is simple enough—food is love, and these aunties will do anything to feed you. The challenge isn’t bringing a big idea small. It’s taking a small truth for everyone and expanding that out.”
Laughing with, never at
Balancing cultural authenticity without slipping into caricature takes intention.
Le frames it plainly: “That discussion is like laughing with someone versus laughing at someone. It’s the antics that they get into that are funny versus the Asian background of them that we’re never mocking—just the idiosyncrasies that are funny and awkward sometimes.”
The work honors the cultural insight while making it accessible. If you grew up in an Italian family or any family where food equals love, you get it. The aunties aren’t characters. They’re real.
The account side: confidence born from cultural truth
Ward addresses the 80% of the job that happens after the work is made: “The fact that the work is on strategy, and it started from a cultural insight, made this easy to put in front of the clients. It’s allowed us to push even farther with each iteration of the aunties. Because it’s just so based in truth.”
When work is rooted in something honest, defending it becomes less about selling and more about reminding everyone why it matters. Panda was ready to do something different. Öpinionated found the sweet spot.
Three rules for selling risky work
Le keeps it to three words: “You have to love it first. If you don’t love it, everyone can tell and they’re not gonna be as excited about it.”
Soane adds the partnership piece: “You gotta acknowledge the fact that if you’re pitching work that’s gonna be great, it’s gonna inherently have a little bit of risk built in for that client. And it helps to just acknowledge it and go, we know that this is a big swing, but we’re here. We’re with you. We know that you can nail this. We know that we can nail this too. And so having that conversation creates a safe zone where you have each other’s back, and it creates more of a partnership.”
When format becomes the trap
Soane warns against the biggest mistake agencies make after a successful debut: “I think if you try and repeat it exactly the way it was before, it’s not going to work. There’s that weird, strange, murky, gray area of creativity that still feels uncomfortable. You have to go back to that. Think about that some way.”
Öpinionated keeps finding new expressions of the same truth. The first spot was a Lunar New Year family story. The second brought karaoke. The third went full action film. Same platform. Different executions. Always grounded in the insight that food is love, and aunties express it loudly.
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