The history of advertising can be dated back to the 19th and 20th century which was the period of human civilization. Advertising at this particular period of time was the main force behind capitalism. In the 20th century compared to the 19th-century advertising grew as a result of new technology. For instance, the introduction of radio, internet etc. Industrialization increased the supply of the manufactured product hence leading to increasing in the advertising sector. This paper addresses the use of certain iconic ethnic images in advertising products.
The use of images in advertising was primarily used. But racism and ethnicity are as well seen in the advertising sector. White people dominated the industry whereas black people were denied the chance. White people and the product related to the white were culturally as well as socially accepted. Black people had to follow a long procedure known as the hierarchy of skin (Marable, 2015) .
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In the 19th century, many large corporations of that time ignored black market and their products. Hence if I could use black iconic images at this era, the ethnic stereotype could have largely affected my marketing. It could be hard for me to sell my products since the majority is the whites and they ignore the black product. Due to racism, they could think that the products were only meant for black and it was not proper for their consumption. Beauty whitewashing was another obstacle to the black to access the ad agencies. Mostly the woman who appears in beauty products seems to be more whitened, and the hair is for a white woman. This discriminates the black population who has the beautiful black women as well. For instance, Beyoncé iconic image was whitewashed, it received a lot if black lush and criticism since the image were not real. It also created a racial aspect of beauty that a black woman cannot be seen beautiful until she is whitewashed (Arnold, 2001) .
Whites and the middle class population highly contributed to the advertisement sector compared to the minority individuals. Later in the 1960s after black icons like Aunt Jemima came out as black figures in the advertisement sector the stereotype reduce to some point.
Levy’s bread company used an ad that made ethnic diversity a selling point. The company understood the importance of diversity in selling their products. They used individuals from different ethnics with the headline that promoted ethnic diversity. The heading read” You don’t have to be a Jewish to enjoy levy’s” Therefore with the use of ethnic icons it reduces marketing of various products.
During the 1970s the ethnic aspect and racism in the advertising sector reduced due to the meeting of AAAA that was hosted by various civil right leaders in order to respond to the criticism. Due to the research that showed black were not represented in the ad sector many agencies pick up and start hiring new Black Americans as the employees as well as new black-owned agencies came up (Marable, 2015) .
Hence the use of any black icon images at this particular time could not hinder you from accessing the markets. Women especially are the most significant consumer population. Therefore, they were well represented. Consequently many black women iconic images were used and these change the men perception on women as domestic workers but also working in ad agencies. The use of black pictures in the ad agencies showed a black customer and a confident individual who can enjoy the good products like the white. Black despite the fact that they are the minority, but they are also consumers too. Therefore, gone unrepresented make them lose confidence in the product. For example, if a body cream has a picture of a white woman the black woman may not use in fear that it might not work on her skin.
Beauty products and soaps are susceptible in the use of ethnic images in advertising. These are as a result of marketing; the type of ad one will use will determine its marketing. Therefore, I would advise the use of all ethnic images in order to promote marketing of a product. It will build confidence in the consumers that it is not only meant for this race but it is good for all. For instance, the pears soap ads contain an image of both black and white children in the bathroom. The state of the bathroom is highly hygienic, and it therefore means that proper hygiene is for all whether white or black. Hence after the ad campaign for proper representation, it could be easy for one to use black images and the products will be able to access markets.
Black markets have expanded, and the racial stereotypes on the products have reduced to certain rates, hence using a black icon in the ad agencies. It is clear that the world has grown to be diverse where we no longer need to target a certain demographic to create a market for our products. The market is multicultural, and advertisers should target all the races and cultures. For me to use an iconic image that is related to ethnic, I should use the audience-centered approach that will help me identify the people I am targeting in marketing the product. Targeting certain individuals by identifying their culture and diversity will reduce the stereotype, and by providing consumers with the knowledge of these stereotypes in order to look back on the effects, it has on the production industry (Black & Veloutsou, 2017) .
In conclusion, the use of a certain iconic images is being stereotypic and would not access market compared to when one uses different ethnic iconic images on the same product. The best approach is to target a multicultural audience and different ethnic and races.
References
Arnold, R. (2001). Fashion, desire and anxiety: image and morality in the twentieth century . IB Tauris.
Black, I., & Veloutsou, C. (2017). Working consumers: Co-creation of brand identity, consumer identity and brand community identity. Journal of Business Research , 70 , 416-429. Press.
Marable, M. (2015). How capitalism underdeveloped Black America: Problems in race, political economy, and society . Haymarket Books.
Rhodes, J. (2017). Framing the Black Panthers: The spectacular rise of a Black Power icon . University of Illinois
