How Advertisements Market to Certain Races

        It is no surprise that corporations and companies do surveys to see who is buying their products.  These surveys are then used to target certain audiences, including targeting certain races.  Bell Hooks states this in her essay Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance,

“One area where the politics of diversity and its concomitant insistence on inclusive representation have had series impact is advertising.  Now that sophisticated market surveys reveal the extent to which poor and materially under-privilege people of all races/ethnicities consume products, sometimes in a quantity disproportionate to income, it has become more evident that these markets can be appealed to with advertising.” (Hook, 371)

When one thinks from the point of view of a corporation or company it makes sense that we would use the marketing survey’s to know which audiences to target. Like Hooks said a huge factor in who buys what product is due to ones economic stance.  For example, many fast food companies such as McDonald’s, and soda products such as Pepsi, target African Americans, and especially African American children.  We will look at both of these companies and their advertisements that they have targeting African Americans.

            In Herbert Marcuse’s book One-Dimensional Man during chapter 1 he looks closely at what it is that causes us to buy products, he states that there are “human needs” (Marcuse, 75) that have always been required to be met.  It helps to view human needs as a pyramid; each need in the pyramid must be met, like food, in order to move to the next category of fulfilling a need.  Marcuse also states that many of these human needs are “false needs,” (Marcuse, 76) “Most of the prevailing needs to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to this category of false needs.” (Marcuse, 76) Advertisements use videos or images to play up to their audiences, they make them see themselves in the advertisements and in turn it makes them realize that either they will be happy if they have this product or they will not be fulfilled if they do not have the product.  Society and advertisements make people believe that these needs are true and that they need to have these products to satisfy themselves. “No matter how much such needs may have become the individual’s own, reproduced and fortified by the conditions of his existence; no matter how much he identifies himself with them and find himself in their satisfaction, they continue to be what they were from the beginning – products of a society whose dominant interest demands repression.” (Marcuse, 76) Children are especially acceptable to these advertisements, because at a young age they do not realize that items may not really improve their lives as much as the advertisements lead on.  For children, they see a happy child like themselves in an advertisement and they believe that that is how they will be if they have that product.

            

          The first advertisement that we will look at is Pepsi. During the time that these advertisements came out the slogan that they were using was “now it’s Pepsi-for those who think young.” The image depicts a young boy with a toy plane and a father looking lovely down at his son.  The idea that a child would get by this advertisement is that by having a Pepsi it would allow for them to have a quality bonding time with their father or family member.  This advertisement also play to targeting adults to let them see that if they have a Pepsi then they will be able to act young again. 

            In the McDonalds advertisement we also see a father and son having a good time together.  The two are eating McDonald and spending quality time together.  This advertisement, like that of the Pepsi advertisement, makes it seem to it’s consumers that if they go to McDonald’s then they too will have a great time together.  When we read what the advertisement says we all see how they make it seem like McDonalds is a high-end place by talking about its French fries saying, “They’re made from the finest potatoes and prepared just right.” This lets it’s consumers believe that it is getting something of high quality.

            It has been studied and shown in surveys on obesity rate in children that African American children tend to fall into the obese category more than other races.  One has to wonder if advertisements from fast food and soda companies play a part in this.  It is understandable that advertisers and companies want to target to their audiences that buy from them and in a sense it is good to see oneself depicted in the characters of advertisements.  However, if this is a factor in African American children being obese more often, then one has to wonder the risk that is to market heavily to one group.

Work Cited

Hooks, Bell. Eating the Other; Desire and Resistance

 Herbert. Marcus (2008). One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Boston: Beacon Press.

Reinforcements of Racial Stereotypes Through Advertisements

Reinforcements of Racial Stereotypes Through Advertisements

            ADWEEK published an article titled A Look at Kids Exposure to Ads, which looked at data collected by Common Sense Media in Advertising to Children and Teens, which stated that children and teens are exposure to an average of 25,600 advertisements a year.  The study also found that 40% of those advertisements come from non-children’s shows. Due to this it is vital that regular advertisements be examined to see the effect that these ads could potentially have on children because “the media give us pictures of social interaction and social institutions that, by their sheer repetition on a daily basis, can play an important roles in shaping broad social definitions.” (Croteau and Hoyes, 163) To understand better some of the ways that race is depicted in advertisements. Croteau and Hoyes stated, “One of the principles underpinning of racist ideology is the belief that one race is naturally superior to other.” (Croteau and Hoyes, 167) and many media platforms help reinforce this ideology including advertising.

            Minorities in advertising are severely underrepresented, which can be harmful to minority children because they want to see someone like himself or herself.  However, the problem can become even worse when minorities are represented in advertisements because many times advertisers help reinforce racial stereotypes. This is more harmful to children due to the fact that if they see someone like themselves represented in a certain way enough times, then they too will feel that they must fit into that mold that society has created.  Herbert Marcuse states this idea as “if the individuals find themselves in the things which shape their life, they do so, not by giving, but by accepting the law of things – not the law of physics but the law of their society.” (Marcuse, 83)  He states also how this leads to the individual feeling a sense of alienation from others that are not like them.  This problem does not only affect the group being racially stereotyped, but it also affects the way that other groups see that specific group. Again this is especially true for children because they are impressionable and no child is born knowing the difference between skin colors. It is only through reinforcements of racial stereotypes that they learn as they grow up to view skin color as being a quality that makes them different from someone else. It also helps to reinforce the ideology that Croteu and Hoyes talk about that makes us identify one race as being more superior to the other. In the advertisement that we are going to examine it will depict how an advertisement can reinforce negative stereotypes, that normally don't represent a group as a whole.

            Feed a Child is an organization that fights to leave no child hungry.  The organization relies on using advertisements to promote people to help the charity feed children in South Africa. However, this advertisement draws the wrong kind of attention.  The situation depicted through this advertisement is of a young boy from South Africa and a wealthy woman. The problem with this advertisement is the way that the boy is depicted as being a dog.  This can be determined through a few moments such as; the boy laying on her lap while being fed, getting a treat for bring the newspaper, and begging under the dinning room table, etc.  One of the issues here is that one of the racist comments made about African Americans is that they are like animals.  This comment is one that is very offensive, so by having an advertisement reinforce this idea it creates a huge issue.  This commercial also works to reinforce the idea that the white wealthy woman is superior to that of the South African child. Now imagine if you were a young African American child and you saw this commercial air. One could imagine the hurt that they would experience.  This could make a child believe that this is the way society as a whole views them and because of that they could feel that they must feel that way about themselves. Marcus refers to this effect as “mimesis: an immediate identification of the individual with his society and, through it, with society as a whole.” (Marcus, 82) Because of this effect it is important to avoid any advertisements that might cause a child or anyone to feel that they must identify themselves that way.

            When creating an advertisement one must not only be cautious about the way the advertisement will be taken by adults, but it must also be aware of the impact that it could have on a child. Due to this advertisements should try at all costs to avoid reinforcing any negative stereotypes of a certain groups. As well as they should avoid depicting one race as superior over the other. Instead we must work to create an environment that celebrates diversity and views all as equal.

Work Cited

Alien of a Higher Intell. (2014, July 11) Feed A Child The Most Racist Advert Ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f_M9mC4Rbw

Croteau and Hayes (2002) Media and Ideology

Herbert. Marcus (2008). One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Boston: Beacon Press.

Moses. Lucia (2014, March 11) A Look at Kids Exposure to Ads. ADWEEK http://www.adweek.com/digital/look-kids-exposure-ads-156191/

The Influence of Space on Advertising (Blog 1)

The Influence of Space on Advertising

            We all inhabit spaces, whether that be the country one lives in, such as the United States of America or smaller subdivisions such as urban, city, country etc. “every society – and hence every mode of production with its subvariants (i.e. all those societies which exemplify the general concept – produces a space, its own space.” (Lefebvre, 31)  These spaces help advertisers tailor their advertisements towards their targeted audiences. One of these audiences that advertisements work to target is children. They target not only their age, but also the spaces (geographic area) that they reside in.  Another concept that Lefebvre considers is that of “social space,” which “contains specific representations of this double or triple interaction between social relations of production and reproduction.  Symbolic representation serves to maintain these social relations in a state of coexistence and cohesion.” (Lefebvre, 32) To analyze how advertisements are targeted to children through space we will look at advertisement placement and how social spaces works through targeting boys and girls by symbolic representation.

              Advertisers must pay close attention to the social class of children they are targeting for not only the benefit of the advertisements influencing a purchase, but also for ethical reasons.  For example, by having an advertisement air to a low income neighborhood for an expensive electronic toy, it is unethical since these children shouldn’t be influenced to spend hundreds of dollars on something they don't need.  And also because children, especially young children rely on their parent’s income, and their parents will probably not be influenced to buy something that isn't a necessity because of an advertisement. On any given day US citizens through the spaces they inhabit encounter hundred of advertisements a day, many people don’t even notice them because of the overload on advertisements. Children are a bit harder to target then the average adult, due to their literacy levels.  Because of this Sandra L. Clavert from Princeton University “explains that paid advertising to children primarily involves television spots that feature toys and food products…. Newer marketing approaches have led to online advertising and to so-called stealth marketing techniques, such as embedding products in the program content in films, online, and in video games. “ (Clavert, 1) This shows how the spaces that are most effective for children advertisements are through not only television commercials, but also through product placement.  Product placement has become increasingly common, because children look at characters that they admire and see what they have and in turn want that as well.                                      

Like stated above within social spaces there is certain symbolic references that are used to identify things, such as whether something is a product intended for a girl or a boy. An example of this is how children’s advertisements use symbolic references, such as pink or blue. Crayola Virtual Design Pro, uses symbolic references to indicate whether it is the version for girls or boys.  This is done by having one be drawings of cars and the other being drawings of fashion.  The way these two commercial are designed also helps to reinforce these stereotypes.  For the boys they are pretending to talk on walky-talkies and are shown driving the car in an adventurous way.  They only mention designing a new car; they don’t mention anything about the designs that they choose.  Whereas, the girls talk about pok-a-dots and describing colors by not just blue, or yellow, but rather “aqua” and “lemon yellow.” They also talk about whether the designs they are designing are still in style or not, which reinforces that girls are concerned with there looks.  Representing commercials in such a gender specific form has taken heat from many parents and critics in recent years.  Many believe that advertising should take a more gender natural stance, especially toward younger children. Because of this it would be advised for companies like Crayola to take a different approach.  One of the ways the company could go about redoing their advertisement, would be to have one that represents both a girl and boy playing together with both the fashion collection and the car collection, that way they aren’t targeting just male or female audiences, but rather both.

As one can see, advertisements are everywhere within the spaces that we live in and these spaces not only help determine how advertisers go about targeting their audiences, but also how they choose who to target. 

Work Cited 

Calvert, Sandra L. (2008) Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing. Future of     Children, 18. https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/18_01_09.pdf 

Crayola (2014, Sept 3) Virtual Design Pro - Fashion Collection Commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqdy-2JW3bk

Crayola (2014, Sept 3) Virtual Design Pro - Car Collection Commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFnvAyExjXo

Lefebvre, Henri (1991) The Production of Space. (Nicholson-Smith, Donald Trans.) Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. (Original work published 1974)