In an attempt to address the cultural needs of ethnic niches, the advertising industry is reinforcing stereotypes. An Organic creative director discusses the issues and solutions.
I recently came across a banner ad for LowerMyBills.com. The sequence depicts a young Black woman in an office setting. She's dancing in her work area -- yes, dancing at work -- supposedly unaware of the camera that's capturing it all. We see the surprise on her face as she realizes she has been caught on film.
Is this a poor, stereotypical attempt to reach a niche? Or is it just good fun in a banner? Why is this Black woman shaking her thing at the office? Shouldn't she be focused on work? Is that why she needs to lower her bills?
As a Black man in the advertising industry, I find myself struggling with the ethnic marketing question. In today's era of consumption, most consumer needs (both retail and beyond) are cross-cultural. Sure, there are products produced for specific ethnic groups; when you're selling relaxer designed for African American hair, niche marketing is appropriate and necessary. But even then, such campaigns don't have to revolve around tired clichés and lowest-common-denominator stereotypes. And in broader consumer marketing, there's just no excuse.
Consider a typical, general market minivan ad: a Caucasian soccer mom dropping kids off at the game. Now replace the White faces with Black ones and insert an R&B soundtrack. Instead of a soccer game, let's have that van pull into a huge family reunion with fried chicken as far as the eye can see. Voila. Now you have an "African-American" minivan ad. Starting to feel uncomfortable? You should be.
Beyond the shades of minstrelsy in such campaigns, the problem is that this approach assumes consumers are incapable of any kind of empathy for those of a different ethnicity; that people cannot move beyond depicted scenarios involving a product to envision scenarios more suited to their own lives. If you want to reach Black consumers, you'd better make sure your ads are "good and Black;" likewise for Hispanics and Asians.
These are bad assumptions that lead to bad advertising. Nonetheless, they have clearly driven strategy and creative direction on countless campaigns, from the typical monochromatic fast food ad to tire commercials featuring, once again, dancing Black people (and dancing is relevant for tire buyers because ...?)
Of course, no one ever apologizes for success. At some level, right or wrong, enlightened or retrograde, ethnic niche marketing seems to sell product. This approach started in our fairly recent past when Madison Avenue acknowledged the spending power of minority groups and the need to tailor messaging to those groups.
In theory, ethnic marketing could give a voice and a face to the disenfranchised; in theory, it might even have addressed the specific cultural needs of a particular ethnicity. In practice, though, it more often than not reinforces cultural stereotypes and puts the spotlight on differences; differences that feed back into those stereotypes. And on a practical level, maybe these ads aren't as effective as we think they are, or as the alternative might be.
Think of the large Hispanic family, complete with matriarchal abuela and manly, authoritative papa seated at the table for a Sunday family dinner. Does this cultural stereotype actually reflect the Hispanic community in America? Yes and no. Yes, differences do exist across cultural lines, and the image of a large, tightly knit Hispanic family seated at dinner did come from somewhere. But many Hispanic consumers today would tell you that their dinner table landscape looks a lot different, and they resent being shoehorned into the same old tableau time and again, instead of being addressed through campaigns that acknowledge both the diversity within their own community, and the many commonalities they share with other Americans across ethnic lines.
So how do marketers of niche target products, as well as marketers of mass target products, avoid the ethnic marketing trap? Someone might raise a hand here and say "focus groups." I think the solution is a lot bigger than that.