Blog 4: Racial Stereotyping in Ads

I think it's fair to assume that no one is going to say it's "right" to use racial stereotyping in ads. That's just asking for a fight. However, no one can say that it isn't still very prevalent in advertising. Not just television and print, I find that radio ads are very clearly targeted at certain audiences on specific stations. I listen to a lot of hip hop and rap; every announcer, host, and commercial speak with a very obvious ethnic tone. Clearly they're using an already established stereotype that only African Americans listen to hip hop, and that they must be using slang and ethnic speech patterns. It's stupid but you can catch it in every medium.

Is morality on the hands of advertisers? Well I don't know, did they take some sort of oath in business school to uphold the values of equality? Not to my knowledge. As humans and equals, we can all hope that these business minded and capitalist driven advertisers are seeking a balance between making money and contributing to society, but to say that's their responsibility is a stretch in my opinion. Should we ask more of ourselves and of others? Definitely. But don't assume that it's on their plate to make the world a better place, they're paid by a business to make that corporation money.

However, smart businesses understand that if you appeal to humanity, if you make a connection, and if you make an impact with your company message and advertising, your dollar is going to stretch long past a one time consumer. You're going to make a client for life. But, there are places that want a quick buck and those easy to digest, stereotype based messages don't require too much thought on the consumer's end.

An article on the ethics of advertising states this:

"Due to market saturation, the similarity of products on offer and characteristic aggressive competition, many advertisers use methods that are not entirely honest to achieve their market objectives. As a result of this behavior that often violates the established regulation, advertising looses credibility not only as a business tool used against competitors and in terms of market fair play, but also as a communicative activity with society in general."***

People understand that marketing and advertising isn't always fair and they don't always tell the truth. I think it falls on the consumer to take marketing and advertising with a grain of salt and understand that at the end of the day, they are all working for a bottom line and will occasionally use whatever stereotypes they can to make it easier to sell a product to a certain demographics or audience.



***MUELA-MOLINA, C., & PERELLÓ-OLIVER, S. (2014). Advertising self-regulation. A comparative analysis between the United Kingdom and Spain. Comunicación Y Sociedad, 27(3), 1-18.