The lack of diversity in top advertising agencies’ creative positions remains an unresolved issue in the advertising industry, says a study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES). “White Men Continue to Dominate Advertising Agencies,” is the 2011 TIDES report commissioned by the Madison Avenue Project, a partnership between the NAACP and Mehri & Skalet, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, and was released in July. It studied 66 ads from this year’s Super Bowl and classified them into four categories: most offensive, objectification of women to sell a product, stereotypes, and diversity in character depictions and content.
A Pepsi ad that used a negative depiction of Black male-female relationships, abuse and infidelity, along with depicting racial tension between Black and White women, topped the list of five most offensive ads. “Can Thrower” portrays an abusive relationship between a Black man and a Black woman. The ad’s climax shows the Black woman throwing a soda pop can at the man after he smiles at a White woman who sits near him on a park bench. The can inadvertently hits the White woman’s head, knocking her unconscious. The creative director of this ad was a White man. Several male-focused commercials featured scantily-clad women as beautiful props, including an iced tea commercial that used animated depictions of the rapper Eminem along with provocatively dressed women, including a Black woman in high-heeled boots serving him iced tea.
This year’s Super Bowl ads was dominated by those that presented a very unrealistic image of women as overbearing and boring, or extremely sexualized characters, the report says. Only two Blacks, one Asian, one Latino and four women were among the total of 65 creative/co-creative directors who produced the Super Bowl commercials, says the report. Although the number of persons of color as creative director improved from zero in 2010 to four this year, White men still dominate these positions, the report points out. “These agencies are developing ads without minority participation,” Advantage Communications President/CEO Michael Steele, a former Coca-Cola marketing executive, points out. He owns his own multicultural marketing, advertising and public relations agency and is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
“When you have a void of diversity at the table, you end up with [problematic] Super Bowl advertising.” According to Nielsen demographic figures, there were 51.2 million female Super Bowl viewers, an increase of 2.7 million from last year’s game. Also, viewership was up among Blacks (1.3 million) and Latinos (1.7 million) this year. Yet, only eight commercials featured a person of color as leads, keeping intact the fact that advertising agencies still mainly cater their ads toward White males, the TIDES report concludes. The lack of diversity in advertising agencies was first brought to light in 1963 by the NAACP and the Urban League of Greater New York. “It was a mandate some years ago to address this issue,” recalls Steele. “It’s a challenge for these organizations to open their doors and hire minorities.
“The agencies profess that they cannot identify or find minorities to fill” creative directors jobs, says Steele, who adds that his firm is among an estimated 25 that call themselves “multicultural” agencies. “We fill that void because the general market needs to see diversity” in advertising, he notes. He believes that the Black community must speak out more against such ads as the Pepsi commercial. “When we see ads that offend us, we have the responsibility to withdraw enthusiasm around those brands,” suggests Steele.
“We shouldn’t just continue to consume these brands when they ignore us. When you sit there and watch television, listen to radio and pass billboards and never see anyone that looks like you, you have the responsibility to write those advertisers, those companies. “The community should support those brands that recognize us as consumers and should be rewarded. And those that do not should not be rewarded.” Blacks and other people of color “are the difference between profit and loss for many of these companies in this country,” concludes Steele. “Blacks and Hispanics today are 38.7 percent of the U.S. population.
That is 40 percent of any potential brand audience of color. In 10-15 years, that number will be 50 percent. “African Americans and Hispanics are [big] consumers of many products and services. How can you effectively market your brand if it is all non-minorities? That is unrealistic.” The TIDES report on Super Bowl commercials is available at http://tidesport.org: click on “The Madison Avenue Project 2011: Super Bowl Ads.” Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
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