The Role Of Minorities In Advertising

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We live in a digital and technology age filled with information junkies, where there are media sources and outlets everywhere. Compared to fifty years ago, media has greatly evolved past television and now includes sources such as movies, radio, music, internet, social media, print media, and local/national news. Fortunately, media today has become more open to gender and race. Sadly, our media revolves around the sensationalism and discrimination of information, race, gender, and social class. We have moved past the happy nuclear family on television and are instead constantly bombarded with advertisements, product placements, sensationalized news, and voyeurism into the lifestyles of the wealthy. And with that, we can begin to observe the …show more content…

The upsurge and inclusion of minorities in commercial advertisements doesn’t resolve or clear up racial prejudice, especially when it doesn’t reflect our reality. Marketers will argue that the development of multicultural advertising is supporting the trending idea of assimilation in America, but it is contrastingly implanting the idea that our racial issues have been fixed. The portrayal of minorities in television advertisements still get categorized into stereotyped product pairings; or if included in a multiracial cast, their characters will be defined by stereotypical behaviors and habits. Additionally, the inclusion of minorities in more upscale commercials misrepresents the poverty that disproportionately affects certain racial …show more content…

A great example of television advertisement is from the 1980’s campaign by United Colors of Benetton that then got termed the “Benetton Approach.” This commercial featured several close ups of people of different races with the objective of, “a bunch of different races, playing along, side by side, kumbaya ("Companies Reaching Up and Out for Powerful - and Plentiful Black Dollars" 2)”. Marketers and corporate companies handpick their cast and commercial situations that falsely represent social interrelationships, which undermines the public awareness about the social controversies that separates different ethnic groups. Basically, Corporate America is presenting false images of itself, to itself ("Mayor's Committee Report" 1). Nonetheless, cultural elements can help make advertising more relevant to minority groups, but they need to be used as a tool to make the message more relevant, be relevant to the brand/product, and be well integrated into the storyline of the commercial to make real sense to the consumers (Burgos 178). Members of the Mayor’s Committee, Theodore Kheel (chairman) and James J. McFadden (executive director)

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