NY1 concludes its coverage of the city's Asian-American heritage with a look at the growing visibility of South Asians in popular culture and television commercials, and whether greater media exposure can bring about acceptance. NY1's Shazia Khan filed the following report.

South Asians were virtually invisible in advertisements just a decade ago, but in recent years, there has been a considerable increase in the number of marketing campaigns featuring South Asian actors.

Rajan Shah, a founding member of South Asians in Media, Marketing and Entertainment Association (SAMMA), attributes part of this growth to South Asians having more success in media and entertainment.

"You're starting to see more and more South Asians really contributing to kind of pop culture here in the United States, not to mention just the growth of South Asians in the technology space in the fields of medicine and the fields of law," says Shah. "So as a result, you're starting to see South Asians become very prevalent in advertising."

Still, there are those who are not satisfied with just the increased presence of South Asians in marketing. Bill Imada, chairman and CEO of the IWGroup, a communications firm focusing on Asian-Americans, recently wrote an article criticizing Metro PCS's latest campaign, which shows two heavy-accented South Asian hosts of a technology-centered talk show.

Metro PCS stands by its ads, saying in part, "The campaign was devised to provide a humorous, unexpected way to educate consumers" about their product.

Yet Imada is calling for more sophisticated humor, saying marketing that turns to "tired" stereotypes, like exaggerated foreign accents, makes light of the culture and can have damaging consequences.

"It perpetuates this image that South Asians, and Indians in particular, are perpetual foreigners and as perpetual foreigners they are open to ridicule or subject to ridicule," says Imada. "And we see that manifested in so many different ways -- bullying in school, people mocking South Asians on the street or social settings or even in the job place."

With some three million South Asians living in the United States, including many with increasing purchasing power, Shah says ads which play into negative stereotypes are not only offensive to segments of the population, but are also poor business decisions. But he is keeping it all in perspective.

"It is just part of our growth in this community and it's part of doing business," says Shah. "Looking forward, I think, in fact, a lot of these companies are going to very quickly start rethinking how they come up with this creative that places theses stereotypes. In fact, I think America and Americans are actually much further ahead then some of these companies."

Shah and Imada hope these companies catch up soon.