Ads Are Still Racist?!

The amount of research focused on advertisement, specifically television commercials, is surprising and fairly impressive. Many articles state and reaffirm the broad assumption that contemporary advertisements are still racist in some way. The way in which race is applied and utilized however is very different according to various studies. In keeping with differing trends in articles, certain researchers disagree on which race is manipulated the most for sales. Many studies attempt to observe how many minorities are present in either television ads during prime time hours or the most popular magazine and billboard announcements. More advanced studies consider not only the amount of times minorities are present in ads but what their roles are and the product or idea they are representing.

While research studies from over two decades ago may not be as relevant today, the ideals and explanations behind the role race plays in advertisement are certainly still applicable. Some racist tactics that were popular 100 years ago are still being used in today’s advertisements. The goal for this blog is to analyze the different points of views that articles bring up about racism in advertisements. To make progress, one must be aware of and understand the history of the topic and how influential ads can be. The end goal is to better understand if advertisements have improved over time or if they have just changed their methods of racism. The hope, of course, is to find that companies are at least making some significant strides to righting their previously controversial and offensive ads. However, the harsh reality is that old school methods about race and class may still be leading the way in the advertisement business.

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In Previous Centuries…

Racist advertisements are not a new development in the United States. The use of race to persuade consumers is an old trick that has been studied for many decades. Mehaffy (1997) took the opportunity to go farther back than the studies of Aunt Jemima or the Cream of Wheat Chef and discovered incredible stepping-stones of advertising in the late nineteenth century illustrated advertising cards.

These were the most popular “mass commercial images,” (Mehaffy, p. 132) that introduced newly named products to potential consumers. Analysis of these cards showed that they promoted White consumers and traditional gender roles. In fact, there is almost no need for analysis because of how visibly racist these cards could be. There are many incorrect stereotypes present on these cards that victimize multiple different ethnicities, but unsurprisingly African-Americans are the most frequently displayed characters. A very common scene consists of an unrepresentative image of an African-American woman either working for or somewhere behind a White woman.

These types of advertisements perpetuated the idea that Blacks were not as deserving or important as Whites. Their roles in the ads represented their roles in life. They represented background characters that were less influential in inferior to another race, which was supposed to embody White superiority that was so widely accepted during this time. Racism no longer looks like this. It is not acceptable to be this overtly intolerant of a race or group of individuals. However, through her investigation of nineteenth century trading cards, Mehaffy (1997) was better able to depict a history of racism that exceeds popular and well-known research topics.

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Mehaffy, M. M. (1997). Advertising Race/Raceing advertising: The feminine consumer(-nation), 1876-1900. Signs, 23(1), 131-174.

The 90’s Aren’t So Different From the Nineteenth Century

It appears as though the 1990’s had many fundamental similarities with the late nineteenth century. Coltrane and Messineo (2000) make many analytical descriptions about the way race is portrayed in television advertisements and commercials during the 1990’s. These researchers found that White women are still seen as sex objects, indefinitely subjected to household chores. Female African-American characters are simply not as important as other characters. Dissimilar from the previous article, it appears that African-American men were not always negatively stereotyped but instead were given roles of power and independence according to Coltrane and Messineo, although many such characters were given aggressive or dangerous tendencies.

These articles emphasize different factors when analyzing advertisements of different time periods. Mehaffy focuses on one specific type of ad (advertising cards) while Coltrane and Messineo incorporate multiple different forms, which proves how normal and common the use of racist images were. The latter researchers also discuss the influence of social inequality and institutional racism before deeming the 1990’s as an overall improvement in ads since the 1950-60’s. However, both articles agree that there was an exclusion of other cultures and races outside of Whites and Blacks. In this is another layer of racism, by only including African Americans in the most minimal and derogatory way possible. A century did not change much in the racist methods of advertising.

Another way of understanding racism in advertising is to understand that ads represent the way White individuals “envision the place of blacks in their world,” (Grady, p. 235). In this sense Grady (2007) examined many images in LIFE Magazine from 1936-2000 and found different results than Coltrane and Messineo. This researcher found that racist images overall were decreasing at the beginning of the 2000’s. People of color were no longer portrayed as the servants but instead as equal members of whatever scene were being portrayed. Grady argues racism lies in the White individual’s inability to combine these two previously mutually exclusive worlds. He explains that Whites want Blacks to care about them, to trust them the same way Blacks should want Whites to care about their well-being. There is a common denominator between Whites and Blacks and the need to be accepted, recognized, and understood. The issue is achieving this goal through ads that allow Whites and Blacks to share a common world. Another main consideration is the fact that racist techniques have evolved over time but as of the 2000s, they still share similarities. Companies are simply finding newer and more covert ways to implement racist themes in their adverts.

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Coltrane, S., & Messineo, M. (2000). The perpetuation of subtle prejudice: Race and gender imagery in 1990s television advertising. Sex Roles, 42(5-6), 363-389.

Grady, J. (2007). Advertising images as social indicators: depictions of blacks in LIFE magazine, 1936-2000. Visual Studies, 22(3), 211-239.

Mehaffy, M. M. (1997). Advertising Race/Raceing advertising: The feminine consumer(-nation), 1876-1900. Signs, 23(1), 131-174.

All African-Americans are Athletic, Right?

Researchers and their findings often clash and disagree with one other for a number of reasons such as geographical factors, sample size issues, or dissimilar methods of collecting data. Bristor, Lee, and Hunt (1995) make a number of supported claims about Blacks in commercials during the 1990’s that show little to no improvement despite any positive results found in this decade previously discussed. It is also important to note that this study was conducted in three different major cities in North Carolina. Had this study been performed in a more urban area, the results could have been very different. They first acknowledged that the amount of times African-Americans appear in commercials and other forms of advertisements have been steadily increasing. However, they also recognize that those appearances tend to be very stereotypical. The researchers noted that the most popular stereotype seems to be Black individuals portrayed as sporty athletes and discuss the two main ways this can be demeaning towards African-Americans as a whole. First, it encourages the belief that Blacks have the physical strength and brawniness to survive, but are lacking the brains and intelligence levels. This idea encourages Blacks to continue feeling inferior towards Whites. The second way this portrayal is highly racist is the idea that the only way a Black youth will succeed in life is through sports. Their physical strength and hand-eye coordination are their only hopes of rising above poverty. Conversely, Whites in commercials are shown going to school, running businesses, becoming president, etc. Commercials have the ability to give clear messages about the limited life opportunities available for minorities, specifically African Americans.

More significant observations were made by Bristol, Lee, and Hunt (1995) like the simple fact that Blacks were more frequently farther away from the cameras during a commercial, thus keeping them out of the main spotlight. Their characters were figuratively and literally in the background. Another stereotype discussed is the perpetual absent father in African-American families. The researchers only observed a total of two commercials during their study that showed a complete nuclear, Black family of a mother, father, and children.

It seems that some research shows more hopeful and advanced findings than others. Some scholars interpret results differently, thus making different claims. However, there seems to be a common trend among studies of racism and advertisement. Overt racism is decreasing, specifically towards African-Americans, but covert racism remains steady. It is as if it is nearly impossible for advertisements to show Blacks as fully functioning and honest members of society who live virtuously and by the law.

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Bristor, J. M., Lee, R. G., & Hunt, M. R. (1995). Race and ideology: African-American images in television advertising. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 14(1), 48.

This Is a Problem for All Minorities, Not Just African-Americans

African-Americans are typically the primary focus when discussing racism in the United States. It is understandable to place more emphasis on the race that was most publicly harassed, assaulted, and wrongly killed in the last century. They went from being ostracized in ads to just obtaining insignificant background roles. Scholars narrow their studies to learn more about how far the country has come and to understand if the lesson was learned. Obviously Blacks are not considered fractions of a human anymore and (arguably) have the same rights as Whites. But the law can only extend so far outside of the criminal justice system. Society deems a person important or irrelevant. For this reason, not all studies are solely focused on African-Americans. Many understand the importance of studying all minorities and the roles they play in the mass media. Hispanics in the United States have their own trials and tribulations to overcome. It is no surprise that one of the obstacles they face is being misrepresented in commercials and advertisements. Wilkes and Valencia (1989) found that Hispanics were included in half as many categories of commercials as Blacks, but that Hispanics and Blacks both appeared mostly in food commercials more than any other category. The researchers also noted that Hispanic were the background characters in almost all of the commercials they were granted roles. Another similarity between the ethnicities is the fact that when they were included in commercials, they were represented in large groups with no standalone characters. This differs from Whites who often had the privilege of appearing on their own.

This study is far removed from more relevant research that applies to advertising today. However, they made strides to incorporate a larger variety of minorities. They recognized that unfortunately, racism extends much farther than just white-on-black discrimination. Bowen and Schmid (1997) conducted a similar study about a decade later and found similar results. The use of Blacks in advertisements was slowly but steadily increasing at the time while Hispanics and Asians were largely missing from most of the ads they observed. In fact, they found a slight decrease in the amount of ads that included minorities other than Blacks. The United States was and still is mainly made up of Whites so many corporations and brands argue that they are appealing to the majority of their consumers. However, those corporations and brands neglect to represent the other, smaller percentages of consumers and readers. According to these studies, not much changed between the 1980’s-90’s. Hopefully studies show more change in the next decade.

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Bowen, L., & Schmid, J. (1997). Minority presence and portrayal in mainstream magazine advertising: An update. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 74(1), 134-146.

Wilkes, R. E., & Valencia, H. (1989). Hispanics and blacks in television commercials. Journal of Advertising, 18(1), 19-25.

Have We Completely Forgotten American Indians?

In keeping with the idea of racism in advertisements towards minorities other than Blacks, Merskin (2001) attempts to explain the misrepresentations of American Indians on four logos still used today. First the scholar explains that not only are these logos inaccurately characterizing individuals, but they are also making a connection for consumers to shape the way they view American Indians. The inaccurate logos on these four brands become “signs” that stereotype this race and alter their consumers’ opinions and beliefs about them. American Indians are represented even less than Blacks and Hispanics and are never portrayed in an honest way.

The first brand Merskin analyzes is Land O’ Lakes butter and its depiction of a young, “Indian Maiden.” Its name is supposed to highlight all the beautiful lakes surrounding its flagship factory in Arden Hills, Minnesota. The logo, however, emphasizes the innocence and the youthfulness of American Indian women. It inaccurately stereotypes Native American females as pure and harmless. Merskin (2001) compares this depiction of a young, safe girl to the female depicted in the Sue Bee Honey logo (formerly Sioux Bee, altered to make the correct pronunciation clearer). Both advertising companies are using the images of young, Native Americans girls to emulate nature, health, and purity. In turn, the White buyers have a picture in their mind of what female, American Indians should look and act like.

The last two companies Merskin discusses are Monitor Sugar Company and Crazy Horse Malt Liquor. Both brands have logos that depict a strong Indian man who embodies nature, power, and strength. There are conflicting messages being conveyed through these designs. It is unknown whether he is more of a natural being, helping to create sugar or if he is a born tribal leader with a violent side. The American Indian man on Crazy Horse Malt Liquor products is a chief wearing a specific bonnet that symbolizes a medicine wheel.

He is supposed to emulate the art of healing as well as a man of power and savagery. Consumers see the image of a “crazy” American Indian and hope to act like him when consuming the liquor. Merskin also argues that all of these representations are those of the past. American Indians have certainly changed over the past 100 years. Name brands are taking stereotypical qualities of the race and producing them in mass media to sell their products. As an outcome, consumers perpetuate the stereotypes and continue to see female American Indians as harmless and pure, male American Indians as leaders and vicious fighters, and the entire race as outdated and irrelevant.

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Merskin, D. (2001). Winnebagos, Cherokees, Apaches, and Dakotas: The persistence of stereotyping of American Indians in American advertising brands. Howard Journal of Communications, 12(3), 159-169. doi:10.1080/106461701753210439

This Is a Problem for All Minorities, Not Just African-Americans Part 2

Racism is in general a negative word. It suggests mistreatment, discrimination, and unfair disadvantages. Being called racist is considered an insulting word to most people today. There is no pride in actively discriminating against someone because of his or her color or their heritage. But racism can go in another direction as well. For example, many Asian Americans in the United States are widely known as being very smart and technologically advanced individuals. Asian American students are typically viewed as the smartest pupils in the class and the most likely to continue their educational careers farther than the norm.

Paek and Shah (2003) discuss different ads that stereotype these individuals as business savvy individuals. Some commercials include a State Farm ad that depicts a male Asian American professor dressed very scholarly and a female real estate agent who can easily search the web to find what she needs to make her personalized business card. Researchers argue that while some Asian Americans are well educated and affluent, there are just as many who are in poverty and struggling to stay alive in the United States. The researchers also point out that lumping all Asian Americans together under one stereotype neglects to recognize the individual nationalities present in this country. Not all Asian Americans have Chinese descent and it is incorrect to assume that they all share a common homeland. Another aspect brought up is the idea that Asian Americans are the “model minority,” (Paek & Shah, 289). They are in a position to be hired and fired at their managers’ digression because of their passive composures and their history of being good workers who almost never complain. Asian Americans are often viewed as quiet workaholics who require little attention. Advertisements perpetuate this stereotypical and racist view by continuing to give Asian Americans the roles of the smart and professional character.

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Paek, H. J., & Shah, H. (2003). Racial ideology, model minorities, and the “not-so-silent partner:” stereotyping of Asian Americans in U.S. magazine advertising. Howard Journal of Communications, 14(4), 225-243. doi:10.1080/10646170390248982

How Does Racism Help Sell More?

When analyzing the advertising industry, it is easy to say that racism is used as a tactic to sell more products. After all, it is all about maximizing the opportunity to acquire more money. But how does the use of racist images and characters lead to a large corporation receiving more money? Crockett (2008) explains how marketing blackness allows the viewer to perpetuate typical and incorrect stereotypes and the marketer to profit more by playing on these stereotypes. In one aspect, representing an individual in an ad with a typical “blackness” allows the viewer to feel similar to or different from the character, depending on what product is being sold. For example, an ad may be manipulated so that the viewer feels differently than the character when portraying a “deadbeat dad.” Another way including blackness in an ad can be used to appeal to potential consumers is through the progressive notion of cross-cultural interactions. Essentially, people today (or even people five years ago) are supportive of the idea that all individuals should be accepting of each other despite any racial differences. Including multiple ethnicities in a commercial shows that the company is not racist but sees everyone as equals, therefore one should buy their product. Grady (2008) makes many valid points as to how including individuals of color in a commercial or advertisement may be a step in the “right direction” on the outside but after analysis, could just be another act of racism. In summary, the inclusion of stereotypical representations of Black characters in ads further perpetuates the negative personality traits that they are known for.

While it is obvious that non-white individuals are in fact present in many advertisements today, it is important to recognize which products they are representing. Henderson and Baldasty (2003) make the claim that people of color are typically involved in commercials and ads that attempt to sell lower quality goods while White individuals are given the task of promoting expensive, high quality merchandise. This perpetuates the misrepresentations of minorities and individuals with any ethnicity differing from “Whites.” The researchers involved in this study observed a number of commercials in 1991 presented on popular channels such as ABC, NBC, and CW. Their hypothesized relationship between race and certain types of ads was proved to be true. They found that the unhealthier or more inappropriate the commercial was, the more likely an individual of color would be playing the main character. Non-whites were more likely to represent the unhealthiest foods and the most taboo products that White individuals are the least likely to purchase. Conversely, an attractive White individual mostly promoted the more sophisticated and healthier products attempting to be sold. This analysis shows that people of color are still sectioned off into a lower, less important category in comparison to Whites, at least in the mass media world. Bluntly, they are portrayed in advertisements as not good enough to use or buy, let alone advertise a certain “high-quality” product. Henderson and Baldasty (2003) make it clear that on the social rankings of today’s society, White individuals are still among the highest who deserve the better products that the large corporations have to offer.

These articles explain how race is incorporated in many different ways to all kinds of advertising. They also demonstrate a history of racism in advertising and how old tactics are still in some ways being used. Racism looks different in today’s society. It is not acceptable or considered “cool” to be openly prejudiced. However, marketers still find it lucrative to use non-white characters in their ads in prejudicial ways to sell goods.

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Crockett, D. (2008). Marketing blackness: How advertisers use race to sell products. Journal of Consumer Culture, 8(2), 245-268.

Grady, J. (2007). Advertising images as social indicators: depictions of blacks in LIFE magazine, 1936-2000. Visual Studies, 22(3), 211-239.

Henderson, J., & Baldasty, G. J. (2003). Race, Advertising, and Prime-Time Television. Howard Journal Of Communications, 14(2), 97.

Racism in Sports Advertisements

The potential for racism extends to all genres of advertising. Popular athletic brands and their attempts to gain more buyers use different racially charged techniques to attract certain potential buyers. Soccer is a just rising sport in the United States in comparison to European countries where it is widely accepted and followed. However, athletic companies are helping the sport gain more fans by carrying and promoting relevant equipment. Mueller, Zoonan, and Roode (2008) argue that companies will defend their racist advertisements were unintentional and they are as much victims of the outcome as those who are offended. Recently, anti-racist campaigns have acknowledged the larger companies that have embraced contemporary sports culture. This creates incentive to continue producing advertisements that encourage equality and respect of all races.

Nike is one of the most influential and prevalent sporting equipment brands in the world. Their clothing and shoes are all proudly marked with their check mark logo. They have created an anti-racism publicity campaign that attempted to bring racism in the European soccer world to light. They aired a number of commercials and created a black and white wristband with their campaign’s name, “Stand Up Speak Up,” and their standard logo. The wristbands’ profits were given to local anti-racist groups.

They hoped to encourage soccer fans to focus on the simple love of the game rather than the race of the players or other fans. Nike wanted its buyers to stand up for themselves and others by speaking out against any racist individuals they encountered starting with those in the soccer realm. The campaign proved to be successful, gaining the support of five million coaches, players, and fans (Mueller, Zoonan, & Roode, 2008). It was also effective in publicly taking a stand against racism when other major athletic companies had made the issue less important. Their commercials and advertisements may not be perfect or completely free of racist representations, but they are on the right track with their efforts to change.

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Muller, F., Zoonen, L. v., & Roode, L. d. (2008). We can’t ‘just do it’ alone! an analysis of nike’s (potential) contributions to anti-racism in soccer. Media, Culture & Society, 30(1), 23-39. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0163443707084348

Have We Learned Our Lesson?

So what do advertisements look like today? Has the world as a whole made any great strides towards significant progress by removing racism from one of the largest components of mass media? Studying the history of this topic is necessary and helpful, but what really matters is if that history has successfully taught a lesson. Shabbir, Hyman, Reast, and Palihawadana (2014) make an attempt at answering these questions and discovering if there are still large amounts of subtle racial biases in advertisements today. They explain that subtle racial biases are based on “priming elements in ads, namely appeals that mask underlying racial bias,” (Shabbir et al., 2014).

After reviewing mass amounts of U.K. advertisements, the researchers found that there was a significant decrease in racial biases in product category. They found that minorities were not as frequently subjected to a limited number of ad categories and were shown as many different types of professionals.

Conversely, previously reported data about stereotypical characters in favor of Whites were still in tact.

Ki-Young and Joo (2005) found that while Asian Americans are still frequently cast as well educated professionals in ads, they are just as frequently viewed in household atmospheres. They also noted that the percentage of Asian Americans observed in advertisements in the U.S. was higher than the actual percentage of Asian Americans in the country. However, despite the main focus of their study being on Asian Americans, they found it impossibly disheartening at the lack of Hispanics present in ads. The basic number of times of a minority group is present in advertisements is the first step towards determining how much they are discriminated against in the industry. This means Hispanics are a long way from being fully included and accurately portrayed in a non-stereotypical manner. It appears that there have been steady but small steps towards fully removing racism from all kinds of advertisements. This is better news than observing no change at all.

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Ki-Young, L., & Sung-Hee Joo. (2005). The portrayal of Asian Americans in mainstream magazine ads: An update. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 82(3), 654-671.

Shabbir, H. A., Hyman, M. R., Reast, J., & Palihawadana, D. (2014). Deconstructing subtle racist imagery in television ads. Journal of Business Ethics, 123(3), 421-436.