Sen. Blackburn’s anti-China ad smashes fortune cookies that aren’t Chinese

Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is running for Tennessee governor, is facing backlash over a campaign ad that saw her crush fortune cookies in a Chinese restaurant while vowing to “stop communist China.”

The 30-second ad shows Blackburn seated at the restaurant with a familiar bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce and a menu in front of her. In its apparent climax, she reaches into a basket of fortune cookies and crushes one after another in her hands. Two fortunes pulled from the wreckage read “Marsha Blackburn will fight to protect Tennessee land from China” and “Marsha Blackburn will close loopholes and hunt down communists.”

“It doesn’t take a fortune cookie to figure it out,” Blackburn, 74, says. “Here in Tennessee, we’re going to stop communist China and protect Tennessee land.” The video, which closes with a waving cat figurine, is reportedly the first ad the senator’s campaign has directly funded this cycle, shelling out about $112,000 for statewide airtime as of July 6.

Fortune cookies are widely associated with Chinese cuisine, but Japanese immigrants introduced them in Hawaii and California between the 1880s and early 1900s, as we previously reported at NextShark. Chinese restaurant owners began producing the cookies during World War II after Japanese Americans were forcibly incarcerated. The treat then became fixed in American Chinese dining. In 2024, roughly 4.5 million fortune cookies were made each day by Wonton Food Inc., a Brooklyn company that stands as the industry’s largest producer.

It is also worth noting that some of the ad’s imagery, including the cat figurine and soy sauce bottle, likewise traces to Japan instead of China. The cat figurine, a “maneki-neko,” or beckoning cat, is a traditional Japanese symbol often displayed in Chinese American businesses. And of course, Kikkoman is a Japanese company with a history dating back to the 17th century in the town of Noda. Clearly, the ad conflates distinct Asian cultures under a single “China” symbol without addressing Blackburn’s land ownership policy directly.

Unsurprisingly, the video drew swift backlash on X, amassing more than 1.3 million views within 24 hours. But while many criticized Blackburn’s stunt, some comments outright claimed that the fortune cookie is an American invention, failing to recognize the nuance that it was brought by Japanese immigrants. Still, most users echoed the same sentiment, calling out Blackburn for her ignorance. “Smashing a product invented in America, mass produced by a machine invented in America, based off a Japanese treat sends a strong message to China … Good job,” one user noted, drawing in over 2,300 likes.

In response, Blackburn’s campaign manager, Abigail Sigler, defended the ad. “She’s going to crush China, just like she crushed those fortune cookies, and libs everyday,” Sigler told the Daily Beast. Meanwhile, Chinese state-run outlet Global Times also weighed in, calling the ad a stunt that “backfired remarkably” and arguing it distracted from Tennessee’s own economic concerns.

The controversy comes as Blackburn remains the frontrunner in the Republican primary to succeed term-limited Gov. Bill Lee.