RACIAL STEREOTYPING IN ADVERTISING

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Since the 1950s, a great deal of attention has been paid to eradicating discrimination across the world. In contrast, efforts to level the playing field in the marketplace have been largely neglected. Today, consumers of every race expect to be treated fairly and represented accurately in consumer transactions that often begin with advertising.

In the days past, white people were given supremacy, they were thought of as “better” than people of color. Although today’s laws prohibit racism to safeguard individual liberties, many of the messages we receive in advertising are inferentially racist. We absorb them into our own individual value systems without even noticing. This influences how we view certain segments of our community. When you imagine you house or car being broken into, do you visualize a white or black person as the culprit?

Advertising is considered one of the most powerful forms of communication due to its pervasive and persuasive nature. It is connected to rules that aim at making the advertising companies socially responsible and thus making them review, rectify and even self-censor messages that are deemed prejudicial to the society. It is critical for advertisers to maintain ethical standards and practice socially responsible advertising because what was once a “free, swinging unchecked business” is today a closely scrutinized and heavily regulated profession. Disgracefully, most advertisers have evidently discarded their ethics and totally disregard their social responsibility.

Racial stereotyping is still recurrent as witnessed in the recent Clicks and TRESemme saga. On their website, Clicks published an offensive advert that caused an uproar and protests. The advert is of two women, black and white, the latter’s hair is described as fine & flat and normal while the former’s hair is described as frizzy, dull, dry and damaged. This is not only offensive but derogatory as well, it nullifies all efforts put into changing the narrative about black women’s hair.

Generally, the media (advertising included) performs a function of Agenda Setting. How they portray ideologies or segments of the society influences and shapes people’s views on them. Men are often portrayed as gangsters and trouble makers in movies, white families are portrayed as intact and successful, the result of this is a biased and divided society.

PS: Stand Up, Speak up, let’s change the narrative.