More TV Ads Project Images of Racial
Harmony
By TODD LEWAN
AP National Writer
 Ever
see an inner-city schoolyard filled with white, Asian
and black teens shooting hoops? Or middle-aged white and
Latino men swigging beer and watching the Super Bowl on
their black neighbor's couch? Or Asians and Latinos
dancing the night away in a hip-hop club?
All it takes is a television.
Yes, that mesmerizing mass purveyor of aspiration,
desire and self-awareness regularly airs commercials
these days that show Americans of different races and
ethnicities interacting in integrated schools, country
clubs, workplaces and homes, bonded by their love of the
products they consume.
Think about one of Pepsi's newest spots, "Refresh
Anthem," which debuted during the Super Bowl. The ad,
which features Bob Dylan and hip-hop producer will.i.am,
is a collage of images from the '60s and today that
celebrate generations past and present.
Whites and blacks are shown returning from war, surfing,
skateboarding, dancing and waving American flags at
political rallies, while a boyish Dylan and a
present-day will.i.am take turns singing the Dylan
classic, "Forever Young," each in his signature style.
Or, take the latest hit spot from E TRADE, which stars
the E TRADE Baby, a 9-month-old white boy, and his
newest buddy - a black infant who, from his own
highchair, agrees with the wisdom of online investing
even in a down economy.
Ads like these are part of a subtle, yet increasingly
visible strategy that marketers refer to as "visual
diversity" - commercials that enable advertisers to
connect with wider audiences while conveying a message
that corporate America is not just "in touch," racially
speaking, but inclusive.
It wasn't always like this. For much of the past
century, "minorities were either invisible in mainstream
media, or handed negative roles that generally had them
in a subservient position," says Jerome Williams, a
professor of advertising and African-American studies at
the University of Texas at Austin.
"Today, you're starting to see a juxtaposition of blacks
and whites together, doing the things people do ... Now,
advertisers are not in a position of pushing social
justice. But to the extent that they can put whites and
blacks together in situations, I think that's a good
thing."
These "multiculti" ads may be evidence of the vitality
of assimilation, America's distinctive, master trend. To
advertisers, though, they're simply smart business - a
recognition of a new cultural mainstream that prizes
diversity, a recognition that we are fast approaching a
day when the predominant hue in America will no longer
be white.
"Going forward, all advertising is going to be
multicultural by definition, because in most states,
majority ethnic populations will no longer exist," says
Danny Allen, managing director at SENSIS, an ad agency
in Los Angeles that specializes in reaching
multicultural audiences through digital and online
media.
Just as the Obama campaign sensed the nation's desire to
reconcile its racial problems, he adds, "advertisers are
also tapping into that same yearning, particularly among
younger Americans, to put racial divisions behind us and
move forward in a more unified way."
And yet, some critics wonder if depicting America as a
racial nirvana today may have an unintended downside -
that of airbrushing out of the public consciousness the
economic and social chasms that still separate whites,
blacks and Latinos.
Even on Madison Avenue, which is generating the
inclusive messages, recent studies find few nonwhites in
decision-making and creative positions within the
advertising industry itself.
Are multiculti ads, then, an accurate barometer of our
racial progress, a showcase of our hopes in that
direction - or a reminder of how far we still have to
go?
---
In the days when Aunt Jemima appeared on boxes of
pancake mix as a servile "Mammy" character - a plump,
smiling African-American woman in a checkered apron and
a kerchief - advertisers aimed largely for the so-called
"general market," code for white consumers, rather than
smaller, satellite "ethnic" markets.
Whites still hold most of the economic clout in the
United States - 85.5 percent of the nation's annual
buying power of $10 trillion, according to a 2007 study
by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the
University of Georgia.
In recent years, though, marketers have been revising
old assumptions and campaigns in anticipation of
profound shifts in the nation's demographics, and in
reaction to changes already under way in what the Selig
Center describes as "The Multicultural Economy."
They note that:
-African-American buying power has risen from $318
billion in 1990 to $845 billion in 2007 - a 166 percent
gain. Whites' buying power rose 124 percent during that
period.
-The combined buying power of African-Americans, Asians
and Native Americans was $1.4 trillion in 2007, a gain
of 201 percent since 1990. Meanwhile, the economic clout
of Latinos rose by 307 percent, to $862 billion, over
that span.
-The number of black-owned companies rose 45 percent
from 1997 to 2002 - 4 1/2 times faster than the national
average - and their receipts grew slightly faster than
all others. Native American-owned businesses increased
by 67 percent, Asian firms 24 percent, Latino companies
31 percent.
-The black population grew 27 percent from 1990 to 2007,
compared to 15 percent for whites and 21 percent
overall. And the percentage of multiracial citizens,
though just 1.6 percent of America's 302 million people,
is swelling at 10 times the rate of white population
growth.
If current trends continue, demographers say, nonwhites
will be in the majority in America by 2042 - a prospect
not lost on advertisers, says Melanie Shreffler, editor
of Marketing to the Emerging Majorities, an industry
newsletter.
Marketers "aren't turning out multicultural ads for the
good of society," says Shreffler. "They recognize there
is money involved. If you skip out on a group that is
going to be half the population by 2042 - good heavens,
who are you marketing to?"
Which, perhaps, explains a couple of other current ads:
A black-and-white commercial produced by Spike Lee for
Gatorade Mission G features close-ups of white, black
and multiracial athletes, staring straight into the
camera to tell viewers about heart, hustle and soul; a
spot promoting Cash4Gold.com has two famously bankrupt
celebrity pitchmen of different races, Ed McMahon and
rap artist MC Hammer, explaining how easy it is to
liquidate gold cufflinks, golf clubs and the like.
Karl Carter, chief executive of the Atlanta marketing
agency GTM Inc. (Guerrilla Tactics Media), calls this
the "Benetton Approach" since it echoes a 1980s campaign
by United Colors of Benetton that pictured interracial
close-ups, such as a white woman and a black woman
hugging an Asian baby.
Such ads often depict, Carter says, "a bunch of
different races playing along, side by side, Kumbaya."
The ads may play well now, but Carter wonders how long
they will be effective - particularly as America
"beiges" and race becomes less essential to how
individuals self-identify. Over the long run,
advertisers would do better, he says, to focus on a
cultural approach with versatile images and campaigns
easily adapted to highly individualized tastes. Put
another way: How do hip-hoppers feel? What are the
common desires of surfers, or skateboarders, or
kayakers?
"With young people who've grown up biracially or
surrounded by different cultures and races, it's more
about what connects them."
Pepsi appears to have digested the message. Though its
"Refresh Everything" ads include people of multiple
races, "We're targeting anyone who embodies optimism and
the spirit of youth," says Nicole Bradley, a Pepsi
spokeswoman. "It's more about a mind-set than a
demographic."
In these times, multiculturalism is cool - and likely to
get cooler, says Sonya Grier, a marketing professor at
American University who is studying how consumers of
different races respond to multicultural ads and
"ethnically neutral" models in ads.
The Obama presidency, in her view, will have enormous
impact on the industries that set out to mold our
desires at a subconscious level.
"Advertising has to reflect reality, to some degree,"
she says. "So, now that the president is
African-American, I think companies that were once
afraid to put members of multiple ethnic groups in their
ads might see a chance here to go ahead and take a risk,
or even see it as necessary."
---
Four men in suits and ties are eating in a Holiday Inn
Express breakfast bar when they see a pretty white woman
enter.
"We're going to send her a plate of bacon," says the
black member of the group.
His white colleague suggests a cheese omelet. No, an
English muffin would be more proper, advises an older,
white friend. How about a hot cinnamon roll, asks a
fourth man, who looks multiethnic.
"Cinnamon roll?" the black man asks, incredulously.
"That's something you send your sister. I'm going to
send her some bacon." He hands a plate of bacon to a
waitress, who delivers it to the young woman -
"Compliments of those guys."
"Ohhh," the woman exclaims, uncomfortably, and with an
awkward smile and a sheepish shrug, holds up what she
really wants for breakfast: "Yogurt?"
This 2008 spot is clever not only for its humor, but
because it gingerly tests one of several racial
boundaries most advertisers are still loath to cross:
The presentation of interracial courting or romance.
"It's still one of the three taboos in the industry,"
says Williams, the University of Texas advertising
professor.
Each semester, he hands a Valentine's Day ad to his
students that depicts a black man presenting flowers to
a white woman in a romantic setting. Most of his
students don't see anything wrong with it.
However, he adds, "When I ask them to take it home to
show their parents and grandparents, the reaction I get
is still, 'We're not quite ready for that yet.'"
Other no-nos?
There aren't many ads depicting multiracial families or
biracial couples interacting normally at home, whether
having supper or watching a movie. And in ads that
depict professional settings, people of color rarely
appear in charge - as CEOs, say, giving presentations to
their board of directors.
"Every now and then you see something that bucks the
trend," says Williams. "But when you do content analyses
of ads, you are astounded by how much stereotypes are
still part of the advertising we all digest."
One reason that racial distortions persist may be the
relatively low numbers of blacks in the $31 billion
advertising industry, and a dearth of blacks in
positions of power.
A report released in January by the Madison Avenue
Project, a coalition of legal, civil rights and ad
industry leaders, found dramatic levels of bias in the
industry, with African-American professionals lagging in
pay, hiring, promotions and assignments.
Some findings:
-Black college graduates earn 80 cents for every dollar
made by their equally qualified, white counterparts, and
salaries of $100,000 are disproportionately less likely
for African-American managers and professionals.
-Sixteen percent of large advertising firms employ no
black managers or professionals; in the overall labor
market, 7 percent of companies are without blacks in
those positions.
-Blacks are only 62 percent as likely as whites to work
in the powerful "creative" and "client contact"
functions.
Numbers are not the only reason black voices go unheard
as ads are made. Says Grier, the marketing professor at
American University: "I often have former classmates and
MBA students who are in brand-marketing or
advertising-related functions call me and say, "My
company showed an ad, I thought it was stereotypical,
but I was the only one in the room and did not know how
to bring it up.'"
Despite their flaws, it would be hard to argue that the
multicultural messages of today aren't vastly more
dignified and realistic in their portrayal of minorities
than those that appeared a few decades ago.
And yet, might today's ads also be implanting false
assumptions that our race problems have been fixed, that
all Americans are living comfortable, upper-middle-class
lifestyles in racially harmonious settings?
Charles Gallagher, chair and professor of the sociology
department at La Salle University, worries about just
this.
"If you were to come down from another planet and watch
TV, you'd think that all of these human beings share a
lot of intimacy, regardless of the way they look,"
Gallagher says. "But the reality is, people of different
races don't share social space like that."
An ad showing Latinos and Asians eating potato chips at
a softball game or whites and blacks sporting pricey
watches while dining out can, he says, "hide the fact
that poverty disproportionately affects certain groups."
Indeed, African-Americans' median income is just 61
percent that of whites, and blacks are nearly twice as
likely to be unemployed, government figures show. Whites
65 or older receive 25 times as much income from
retirement investments as elderly blacks, and poverty
rates for black children are 2 1/2 times higher than for
whites.
About 80 percent of whites live in neighborhoods in
which 95 percent of their neighbors are also white, and
census data shows 90 percent of the neighborhoods that
were predominantly or exclusively black in 1990 remained
that way a decade later.
"My students always say to me, 'Isn't it better to have
these ads? It's kind of a fake-it-'til-you-make-it kind
of thing,'" Gallagher says. "The problem with that, I
tell them, is that distortions and false impressions
never do anyone any good."
Shreffler, the ad industry newsletter editor, says
marketers aren't sociologists and in the end green - not
black or white or brown - is often the most important
color.
"Advertising is aspirational," she adds. "It's who we
want to be, a lifestyle we want - not always who we
are."
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