African American Representation in Advertising The subliminal nature of advertising affects our perception of the society around us, and when this advertising reinforces dangerous racial stereotypes, it becomes problematic, especially because we cannot control the types of ads we see nor can we control how frequently we see them. Specifically, the one-dimensional portrayal of African Americans in advertisements on television and in print encapsulates them, subconsciously limiting their success to assigned stereotypical roles and thus affecting African Americans’ attitudes towards themselves, as well as negatively influencing the general public’s perception of minority groups. Early African American representations in advertising was confined …show more content…
But the success of these efforts was limited, and African Americans remained nearly invisible in major advertisements. The table below notes that out of all people in advertisements, only 3.2 percent were black. This proved that advertising agencies were still hesitant to associate their products with African Americans, as this could deter potential consumers and negatively impact their business. Another study observed that 57 percent of blacks in Business Weekly advertisements were depicted as inferior objects of concern (Kern-Foxworth 141). When ads do include people of color, agencies are sure to reinforce the lower status of black Americans to maintain good relations with their predominantly white audience. The fact is “mass circulation magazine advertising reflects the value of white America”, and it must do so in order to successfully sell a product (Colfax and Sternberg). Positive consumer response will always be prioritized in advertising, and as a result, addressing issues of inequality and racist depictions becomes a risky business choice that advertisers will want to …show more content…
In 1984, the first episode of The Cosby Show aired, a sitcom following the lives of the Huxables, an all-black, middle-class family (Flanagin). A huge hit in the 80s, the show is acclaimed for showcasing a different aspect of African American life in mainstream media, different from the expected tropes of poverty and gang violence, and it was a beginning for African American characters on mainstream television. The show’s overwhelming success gave Bill Cosby influence and power, and he became the spokesperson for major brands, such as Coca-Cola and Jell-O (Lang 9). Although these ads endorsed by Cosby contributed to a positive shift in black stereotypes in advertising, it is important to also note the overrepresentation of black entertainer roles at this time and the consequences of this overrepresentation. Taylor wrote: “If African-Americans are often depicted as athletes or entertainers, children may see role models whose achievements are not realistic for most of the population”. Overrepresentation in specific roles and underrepresentation in others send implicit messages that black people are not capable or worthy of certain jobs or certain lifestyles, and thus stereotype and limit African
The first chapter on ‘Account Planning’ deals with issues of racialization and biopolitics that have historically informed representations of Asian Americans in advertisements. With changing social and economic conditions, it navigates the emergence of ‘Asian American’ from being a census category to cultural and linguistic representations that are iterated through multicultural advertising. The category of Asian American is presented through historical examples and textual analysis of advertisements. Further, this chapter not only reflects on the historical naturalization of race for the community when projected as excellent consumers but also for such a broad term enveloping several nationalities and differing ethnicities, it underscores how Asian American advertising attempts to construct such representations separately from other racial and ethnic communities, like African American and Latino consumers, within the United
Since its start, the television industry has been criticized for perpetuating myths and stereotypes about African-Americans through characterizations, story lines, and plots. The situation comedy has been the area that has seemed to draw the most criticism, analysis, and disapproval for stereotyping. From Sanford and Son and The Jefferson’s in the 1970s to The Cosby Show (1984) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990s, sitcoms featuring black casts and characters have always been controversial. However, their significance upon our American culture cannot be disregarded. During the 1950s and 1960s, 97% of the families were Caucasian. In the first five years of the 1990s, nearly 14% of the television families were African-American (Bryant 2001). These statistics obviously show the substantial impact our American culture has had on African-American television families.
Most of these images are always negative; in fact, when most of us turn on the television to watch a sitcom, we will often see African- Americans acting as if they have little or no sense at all. Frequently African-Americans would be depicted as being extremely melodramatic in all that they say or do, and it tends to send the wrong message to people in the United States; as well as, people all across the world. For example, on the television sitcom ‘Good Times’ viewers observed a black family living in a Chicago housing project in poverty. Sitcoms of African Americans who did not live in poverty were uncommon until the 80’s. The Huxtables introduced me and everyone else to a new image of living as an African American. ‘‘The Cosby Show’’ enlightened me to a new sense of self-confidence and pride. Throughout its broadcasting years, the Huxtable family candidly crushed the stereotypical images of the African-American family. The show displayed the African-American family in a way that was never before seen or grasped by the American public. In fact, during that era most of the mass media programs depicted African-American television families as hard working lower class poor citizens, many of which constantly used slang or terrible grammar. Likewise, the broadcasting community endorsed the idea that African-American people were connected to
I chose this video because it raised my awareness by questioning the difference between positive role models, such as The Cosby Show, and positive images for all African-Americans. The issues discussed and comments made by the cast piqued my interest and helped change my perspective on the history of African-American representation in the media, especially in the realm of television. Color Adjustment contains more than just endless ‘talking heads’ – it has elements of fact, history, and professional opinion all blended together in an engaging format. It was extremely exciting to hear the TV producers like Hal Kanter and David Wolper talk about their own productions in retrospect. Most importantly to me, Color Adjustment changed my perspective on African-American representation in the media by challenging me to think about images...
portraying two comedic black men. When the show was transferred to television, two African American men were cast in the roles, acting as buffoons. The popularity of the show was overwhelming. This was the initial image of African Americans in television, which reached mainstreams Caucasian America and was the foundation for which future stereotypes were created. A new image of African American families was presented in the eighty’s with the Cosby Show. The Huxtable’s were a successful African American family with a life similar to the accepted and established Caucasian mainstream. This show was not accepted fully because it failed to represent the full cultural scope of African Americans. The current...
However, when a group of people other than whites who appear in an advertisement is primarily “appear in toke roles, limiting their own visibili...
being black and being a woman. Scholars convey that African American women are involved in what’s called the “double threat” where membership in more than one oppressed social group results in cumulative risk outcomes (Brown 2000; Chavous et. al 2004; Childs 2005; Steele 1992; 1997). Black women may also experience stress due to unrealistic stereotypes. For example, research has revealed that black women experience “double threat” when they apply for housing from a white landlord. Results conclude that white landlords perceive black women as the “black single mother” stereotype, therefore they refuse to provide them with adequate housing (Iceland and Wilkes 2006; Roscigno et al. 2009). Black women actively seek to resist the positive and negative stereotypes for fear that embodying them will result in validation of those categorizations (Chavous et al. 2004; Fries-Britt & Griffin 2007; Rollock, Gillborn, Vincent & Ball 2011; Settles 2006; Steele 1997). Black women may not have intended to perpetuate stereotypes in the presence of others, but are subjected to social pressures to normalize these stereotypes for others and pigeonhole themselves in counteractive representations of black women (Childs 2005; Wilkins 2012). Steele (1992) described this process as “stereotype threat” which occurs when individuals perceive that negative stereotypes about their group as
Americans have long since depended on a falsified ideology of idealized life referred to as the American dream. The construct of this dream has become more elusive with the emergence of popular cultural advertisements that sell items promoting a highly gendered goal of achieving perfection. In “Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon states that ads are creating a “symbolic association between their products and what is most coveted by the consumer” to draw on the consumer’s desire to outwardly express high social standing (544). The American dream has sold the idea of equality between genders, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds, but advertisements have manipulated this concept entirely through representations
American’s and people in general are an audience targeted for various commodities, advertising being a major contributor. The world of advertising has become a multiplex science, as mentioned in “What We Are to advertisers,” Twitchell divides consumers into 8 categories and Craig, in “Men’s Men and Women’s Women,” concludes there are specific times of day for advertisements to be displayed to reach specific audiences. “Mass production means mass marketing, and mass marketing means the creation of mass stereotypes,” claims Twitchell. These stereotypes of men, women, and humans in general are how advertiser’s reach their targeted audiences.
This is due to what we have been spoon fed by the media, I don 't agree or like how people of color and gender are stereotyped but this article made me much more aware of how the media still has such an enormous impact on our racial decision. Whites were portrayed in a positive way just due to color and were provided so much more then blacks, such as schooling, reading, treatment and so much
The media intents on trying at times not to be bias or favorable but when prompted to in accordance to time figure, “…gender and race often interact in how people are portrayed in the media” (Hazell and Clarke 9). With time it has been shown that the implications of mediated ideologies have improved but can still be portrayed as one ideal if one happens to take a closer look. In the early 1900’s, “Colfax and Sternberg found that in 54% of the magazine ads, Black people were portrayed in lower status occupations, ...
In the essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. While using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts the aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She claims that there has been a paradigm shift the media with the theory that not just women are being objectified in the public eye, but also men too. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men have started to become more dehumanized and regarded as sex symbols. In a similar fashion to how Bordo describes gender, race plays a similar role in the media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are being categorized into an oversimplified and usually unfair image by the media over basic characteristics.
Vanessa Hazell and Juanne Clarke. “Race and Gender in the Media: A Content Analysis of Advertisements in Two Mainstream Black Magazines.” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Sep., 2008), pp. 5-21
Essay 1: WRITE A COHERENT ESSAY IN WHICH YOU ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN THE USE OF BLACK ICONIC IMAGES (AND OTHER ETHNIC IMAGES) TO SELL PRODUCTS AS THE ECONOMY OF MASS CONSUMPTION EXPANDED IN THE LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURY. YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO INCLUDE IMAGES IN YOUR PAPER! During the 19th and 20th century, America –mostly white collar, middle class Americans- saw a great increase in salaries and a huge rise in mass production which paved the way for the modern American consumerism which we know today. The advertising scene saw a dramatic boost during that period and tried to latch on to this growing pool of emerging consumers. Although only limited to print, advertising during this pivotal period showed panache and reflected American society and popular culture.
Racism is a repulsive issue that is becoming more and more evident to the people living in America. It is not something that is taken lightly in society today, and it can be extremely offensive to many. Even though everyone reacts differently to it, it is important for all people to make an honest effort to respect others regardless of their racial and ethnic backgrounds. People must change their stereotypical thoughts about others and help decrease or end racism by addressing any issues in which racism is concerned. Results in response to different approaches to confront the situation have occurred, but it still remains very real within our world today. Although some changes have been seen, racism in advertising is still tremendously evident due to very weak, offensive comical attempts, the unawareness of advertisers, and the depiction of society’s ideal person.