NEW SERIES! Face of CUNY: Zicklin Undergrad Jay Li Is the Dude with the Food

Zicklin School of Business undergraduate Jay Li (BBA, ’26) has seen himself coming and going. On the subway, staring out from a poster across from his seat. On the side of a crosstown bus hurtling down 23rd Street. “I saw your son!” his parents’ friends report. Still, nobody yet has come up to him on the street and asked, “Aren’t you the dude with the food in the CUNY ad?”

The ad in question sports the tagline, “Meet your day ones,” and spotlights Jay in the lower-left-hand corner, posing for a selfie as he’s about to bite into a breakfast sandwich. It’s a playful take on Jay’s social media persona, @jaysofoody, in which he roams the city sampling fare from around the globe.

Jay sat down with Zicklin News for an interview.

Zicklin News: How did you get chosen for this campaign?

Jay Li: I think it was two things. Yun Yan (BBA, ’27), who works on the CUNY marketing team, is a childhood friend, and I told her that being in one of those ads was on my bucket list. But I think they recruited me because I post food content on TikTok and Instagram. I have over 16,000 followers.

ZN: Was that pose your idea—to bite into a bacon, egg, and cheese?

JL: No, I wasn’t aware of anything beforehand. When I arrived for the photo shoot they handed me the sandwich and said it was the best representation of me because of the food content I create. But the sandwich got cold because we were shooting for over two hours. When they finally asked me to bite into it, I had to spit it out afterwards because it wasn’t good.

ZN: How did you end up at Baruch and the Zicklin School?

JL: I was born and raised in Queens, near Jamaica. I was either going to go someplace in upstate New York or stay in the city. Once I decided to stay, my options were either Baruch or Queens, and I chose Baruch because I figured it would give me the best opportunity for my career goals.

ZN: Tell us more about your goals.

JL: I decided I wanted to study business in high school, but a lot of the majors didn’t resonate with me. I couldn’t see myself doing finance or accounting, so I decided on digital marketing because I thought it could emphasize my personality and creativity. I want to continue creating content for the time being and see how far it can take me, but to be on the safe side, I’m also applying for jobs and internships.

ZN: Can you tell us about a favorite class at the Zicklin School?

JL: Marketing 3600, Marketing Information for Decision Making, taught by Amitai Touval. He presented his feedback in a welcoming way, and the class kept me so engaged I made sure I was always on time. For one project, we had to analyze how people behave in a store, so we went to Trader Joe’s and analyzed how people moved around the store and interacted with products—like if there’s a new product, do they ignore it, or do they stop and read the nutrition facts? I’d never done that kind of analysis before.

ZN: What’s your favorite place to eat?

JL: I don’t really have one. I just eat, man, I don’t know!

ZN: Finally, what’s a fun fact about you that few people would know?

JL: I took a DNA test recently and was surprised to learn I’m not 100 percent Chinese, as I’d always assumed. It turns out I also have a little Filipino and Malaysian ancestry.

This article is the second in a series of profiles of Zicklin students who appear in CUNY ads.

Categories: Alumni, Alumni News, News, Student News