Multicultural Advertising: Offensive Or A Successful Marketing Strategy?
Fifty years ago, there were hardly any African-Americans actors or models in television advertisements. Actors and models used in ads were white rather than an accurate reflection of a multicultural nation. America’s advertising “Golden Age” (circa the 1920s-’50s) were adorned with clean-cut, apple pie eating, baseball watching Americans, showing little if any trace of the minority population of that time.
Coca-Cola Ad (Circa 1940)
Within the last twenty years however, there has been a major influx of minorities in television commercials, no doubt a direct effect of the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s and an increase in racial tolerance throughout the general American population. More and more corporations are using multicultural advertising strategies to appeal to minority consumers, exhibiting acceptance and an ability to relate to an array of demographics.
These companies often use generalizations (a.k.a. stereotypes) to capture the black audience. Generalizations have bad connotations, because they’re insensitive to the individuals of said generalized group but they’re also rooted in truth. For example, it is said that black people love chicken, Kool-Aid, and watermelon but, it is wrong to assume that ALL black people do.
A couple of years ago, I recall watching a television ad for Kool-Aid. The ad depicted a basketball game in an urban neighborhood between black people. Then the Kool-Aid pitcher appears, joins the game and all is well in the “hood.” After watching this commercial I didn’t know whether or not I should be offended because black people love basketball and Kool-Aid but is it okay for an advertising agency to say it?
At first, I was delighted to see that a company identified with the African-American community, but after some thought it troubled me that this was the strategy used by Kool-Aid’s advertisers to attract black consumers.
