After studying advertising through certain media outlets, I feel that it is clear that there is a lack of racial diversity in certain publications, although I believe that the television has been doing a better job in 2009 of having a more diverse cast in advertisement. I am not sure exactly why this trend occurs but I do not think it is as they do not want to have minorities in their advertisements rather that they create advertisements to market to a certain group of people. One of the magazines I looked at was Men’s Health. Now, they do not have the most racially diverse ads, but there are minorities present in the magazine. If I was an advertiser and was going to be putting my money into a magazine, I would want to hit home to the readers. I would do this by looking at the subscribers of the magazine. If the majority of them are white then you are going to try and market that percentage of ads towards them. I guess it is like saying that you are going to put ads of all white people on networks such as BET or TeleMundo, or in magazines directed to and main readership is of a minority. Another magazine that I looked at was Elle. IN this magazine I saw one of the most interesting ads. It was for Johnson & Johnson and it appeared on two consecutive pages. The first was a white mother and the picture of her white baby. Then on the next page it was a black mother and a picture of her black baby. Now this how that the company is trying to market equal and the ads both sent the same message about taking good care of your baby, but what I thought was interesting was the white mother was advertised with the original baby wash which came in a pink bottle, so the ad was pink. But the black mother was used for the baby wash with cocoa butter and was a yellow colored ad. Now, I am not sure but I think that the coloration screams racial profiling. Why did they not do it the other way? It seems as if they were trying to say that the cocoa butter wash is for black people which I feel is totally false and think that they should have advertised both products on each ad and had a universal color for the ad Another magazine that I looked at was Lucky Throughout this magazine I saw a majority of white people in the ads. Of course there was you’re occasional minority but there was really no equal comparison. One ad in this magazine was for a company called Curvation which makes bras and underwear for women. And in the ad was a black woman who was over weight but was trying to portray that the underwear and bras can cover up being over weight. I think that they should have included other women, because I can tell you that there are both men and women of every color who are over weight. But I guess throughout the whole thing what the passage said was right and there still exists the presence of racial issues within advertising. Women of color are portrayed as exotic and seductive while on the other hand 80% of the ads that I saw in the publications I looked at were of white people alone. Although I feel that this is not fair and does do a disservice to society, I feel like I am going to have to side with the advertiser’s themselves and not the political correctness of equal representation in ads. I have a business mind set, and have been working since I was 15. The important thing is to sell. If you want to sell market to whom you want to buy your product. In no way does having a white model mean that a Hispanic cant wear this or same for using a black model saying that white people cannot where this. So if Ralph Lauren knows that 90% of the subscribers to Men’s Health or Elle are white, why would they not want to market to the people reading. I know for me it doesn’t matter what color the model, if I like it then I am going to buy it, but I think that as a company you have to do what is best for your company and if that means only using white model’s to make sales then you do it, not because you are racist or insensitive but because you are in a competitive market and you want to make sales, so whatever makes sales is the approach you should take.
Okay,it is the way it has always been, money talks, so status quo hey?
ReplyDeleteBarrett,
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what you said. Although I do agree with you that it is wrong to display all white advertising to a world filled (thankfully) with all types of races and people. But, as business people, especially in advertising, their sole job is to sell a product, thought or idea to the public. They are naturally going to try and cater to what their target audience wants to see. Its like in the African American targeted magazine, "Essence," you don't normally see too many advertisements with white people in them. They are not discriminating, they are merely being smart business professionals. But, besides those distinctly targeted publications, it is EXTREMELY wrong to display whites almost entirely over all other areas of advertisements. Great post. -Molly
Hey Barrett,
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog! I agree with what you said about companies paying for advertisements that are going to capture their Target audience. Certain products are marketed toward certain groups of people. I completely agree with all that. I thought that what you said about the Johnson and Johnson 2 page spread seemed a little contradictory, but I’ve been known to be wrong. Why wouldn’t they market the cocoa butter lotion to the group of people that seem to use it more?
Another thing that I noticed, I saw quite a few cat food advertisements, in print and on television. All of the ads that I can remember featured white women and their cats. This is similar to your clothing ad reference. Are white Americans the only Americans that have cats? I don’t think so.
I completely agree that it is only logical for advertisers to target the public who reads the publication or watches to program most frequently. When I was watching TV for my blog last week I noticed that most of the commercials featured white people. But the more I watched TV I realized that I was watching channels that are viewed most often by the white public. I also have noticed in Men's Health and Forbes that the advertisements target the white public as well. I don't think that is bias in any way, I just think that advertisers are targeting the target audience and the public who will most likely purchase their product. The fact is that when thinking about buying a product being advertised one can easier picture themselves using that product the better they relate to the parson in the advertisement. I also agree that just because a product is targeted to a certain audience doesn't mean that another group cannot purchase the product. You used polo as an example and it is obvious that they target mainly to white people but at the same time all racial groups wear ralph lauren.
ReplyDeleteI love what ads you found. I see mostly Whites on advertisements too. And if I do see a member of the minority community, it's not usually as a family. Furthermore, I've NEVER seen an ad with an interracial family portrayed. Like you said, most Black women are portrayed as seductive.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested what other people thought of the Curvation ad. How does it affect you? Also, I completely agree that allllll races and genders have weight issues (but of course they aren't going to make bras and panties for overweight males).
I really enjoyed reading this blog in particular probably because I agree with most of the ideas you have. It makes perfect sense that if you have researched and found that the demographic for a certain magazine is mostly white people etc. then you would want to target your advertising towards them or if you found that the demographics were mostly Hispanic then of course, you would want to target them. It's just a businesslike frame of mind and when it comes to advertising these days, you really just want to do what you can to make the most money. I've never seen that Johnson and Johnson ad before with the white mom and baby and then a black mom and her baby. I thought it was interesting how you analyzed it and found that each of the ads used different kinds of baby wash with different bottle colors. Once again, just like you, I don't care what color the person is in the advertisement. If I want to buy a product and think it looks interesting then I am going to buy it no matter what. What color a person's skin is doesn't affect me, but once again this is just my personal opinion and doesn't reflect for the rest of society.
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from with the business mindset and taking the side of advertisers. But honestly, this is how the disparities come in. If minorities only watched BET and Telemundo, and only read Latina and Asiance magazines, then we wouldn't have to even have this discussion, right? But speaking as a minority, I can tell you that we watch just as must ABC as the consumer of the opposite race.
ReplyDeleteIf you only market to the majority, you are basically saying that the minority doesn't matter. It is a proven fact that designers like Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger had an enormous minority following in the late 90's, but when studies were done to show the lack of representation in their advertising and marketing strategies, they lost a lot of credibility in minority communities. Especially Tommy H. with his remarks about black people wearing his clothing.
I say all of this to point out that although the numbers say a large percentage of subscribers to a certain publication or channel may be white, that should not exclude the minority following that they have. These numbers are also indicative of the fact that the population is the same way. I will close with an example: Elle and Vogue magazines are two of the most popular women's magazines in America. They have the largest spread in their reader demographics but they still have those advertisements that only show caucasian people. What would be the excuse for this? Business?