Slow Fade to Black ?

The present study examines the portrayal of Black men and women in the images and texts of advertisements featured in Black-oriented magazines. A comparative content analysis is conducted on ads featured in Essence and Jet magazines for 2003 and 2004. Quantitative and qualitative data analyses reveal that Black people are portrayed both positively and negatively. Ideologies of racism and White supremacy continue to pervade advertisements featured in Black magazines, and this is problematic because new images and texts concerning Black people will be based on such negative attitudes. It is not enough to increase the number of positive portrayals of Black people; negative portrayals must also decrease and eventually be eliminated altogether.

Proceedings of the Conference on Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing, 2017

Purpose-This research tracks how blacks specifically and minorities more generally are viewed by society in response to cultural change. Methodology-It does this via a content analysis of black male advertising images culled from over 60 years of issues of two male-targeted magazines. Findings-The analysis contextualizes the imagery in African-American history and general media portrayals periodized into seven historical phases. Results indicate that the number of black male advertising representations has exploded in the past thirty years from virtual invisibility to over 20% of all male ad images. Roles have migrated from representations of black ad models as servants and porters to a wide range of images of black men in professional and romantic contexts. Implications/limitations-The disproportionately large number of black male depictions as athletes and sports celebrities is indicative of remnant racism and minority stereotyping in American society.

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 14725860701657134, 2008

John Grady is Professor of Sociology at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. He has co-produced numerous documentary films, among them Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston, a story of neighbourhood change, and Water and the Dream of the Engineers, a study of the politics of the physical infrastructure of settled life. His current research interests include examining the evidentiary status of visual data and the role of visualization in the social sciences.

Journal of Marketing Research, 1979

The authors report the results of a 2 X 3 factorial experiment which measures high and low prejudice white consumers' evaluations of ads for which models' race is manipulated. The study disconfirms the results of a previous study which differ substantially from those of the general body of literature on the effects of black models. The response of consumers to black models is found to be consistent with previous research findings. Consumers' Level of Prejudice and Response to Black Models in Advertisements Research measuring the reaction ofwhite consumers to black models appearing in promotional material has been conducted since 1964. The impetus for this research was marketers' wish to design strategies to appeal to the growing black market without alienating the dominant white market. Also, as minority groups became more influential, the threat of boycotts and lawsuits forced marketers to use more black models in promotional materials. Unfortunately, the research findings on the effects of black models in promotional materials have not been entirely consistent. For example, white consumers have responded to black models in promotional materials positively, neutra~y, and even negatively. However, though a few studies have demonstrated these slight differences, enough research has been conducted to date to allow theoretical statement-"white consumers do not react negatively to black models." Major negative reactions to black models have been found in only one study (Cagley and Cardozo 1970). Because the findings of this study are inconsistent with those reported in the rest of the literature, and because the study contains several methodological flaws, the present study's purpose is to remedy the methodological weaknesses and to replicate the experiment.

2017

Psychology is dominated by White Westerners. Subsequently researchers have minimised or ignored Black women’s body dissatisfaction. This study sought to account for the intersection of racism and body dissatisfaction by coding the representation of Black women, the number of appearance adverts and articles across 8 issues of mainstream women’s magazines (Elle, Vogue) and Black women’s magazines (Essence and Ebony) from 2015/16. The majority of Black women featured in the magazines (N = 539) were young (83 per cent) slim (62 per cent), had light skin (66 per cent) and straight hair (60 per cent). Compared to the Black women’s magazines, Black women were rarely represented in the mainstream women’s magazines (N = 64, 11 per cent) and when they were represented generally had straighter hair, narrow noses and lighter skin tones. This study underscores the need for psychology, including body dissatisfaction researchers, to recognise (and challenge) the intersections of racism with other ...

International Journal of Advertising, 2023

As brands and advertisers worldwide are claiming to be reviewing the ways they represent race, this conceptual piece provides a call to action for international advertising researchers to also reassess how they engage and analyze race. Our goal is threefold: 1) provide an abbreviated assessment of the current body of advertising literature involving race and advertising and summarize its insights and lacunae; 2) expand the conceptualization of race currently held in advertising research by proffering a racial aesthetics framework that examines what race is and how it is reified through advertising (i.e. white supremacy; racial respectability; racial pride; race as biology; colorblind/post-racial; hyper-racial) and 3) illustrate how our conceptualization can support a more robust and informative body of research. Our intention in these three endeavors is not to provide an exhaustive accounting, rather we purposely paint with broad strokes to invite fellow researchers to deepen, broaden, and reimagine future research on race and advertising.

2020

Throughout the history of media, minority groups have been on the losing end of representation, with racist, stereotypical portrayals, or in many cases, no representation at all. This study analyzes the current representation of black men in modern television commercials. To answer the research questions posed about how black men are represented in commercials, a content analysis was conducted. A systematic sample of television commercials was taken from an online directory of television commercials, and the sample (N = 117) was analyzed using a coding instrument to determine the level of involvement and characterizations of the black male characters featured in the commercial. Of particular interest was the role played by black characters, ranging from background or token roles to major characters. The results showed that the black men had major roles more than any other option, and that compared to past studies, background roles had largely decreased. However, the study also found that stereotypical roles and token roles for black men were still present, even in modern media. Based on the data from the study, despite some positive change, advertisers still have work to do to eliminate negative representation for black males.

Abstract Utilizing advertisements and some pictures from The Chicago Defender, The Crusader, The Crisis, The New York Amsterdam and Ebony this paper explores the extent to which the Black press supported the use of chemicals to bleach the skin of African American women between 1915 and 1950.

2018

The Black woman has gone through various physical transformations in terms of her body and shape but for this paper specific attention will be on her hair which has passed through transformations in terms of shape, length and texture. The mass media through the entertainment industry has over the years visually presented and verbally described the Black woman in terms of her hair through adverts, celebrities and the fashion industry. Exposure to such mass media messages for many is a leisure exercise which nevertheless, has created symbols of Black identity while re-enforcing concepts such as political and social class. Through the images and words of mass media channels such as magazines, Black women all over the world have been exposed to messages that promote a desire and craving to change the shape and form their hair takes; a shape that has ensured the Black hair care industry stays alive and thrives. Through the leisure reading activity of Black hair care magazines, Black women are encouraged to use various haircare products to transform their natural hair texture into one that is long and straight in order to better 'manage' and have a more 'acceptable' image/identity. This paper considers the prominent South African Black hair care magazine, Drum Hair Magazine as a case study to better understand how this leisure reading activity can make a reader feel relaxed and entertained while influencing their construction of the identity and social class of Black South African women. This is done through a content analysis of the words and images of six on-line editions of the selected magazine. The result of the analysis brings to the spotlight the aim of the on-line tabloid to encourage the readers to see Black hair transformations and the use of various haircare products as an incentive for social acceptance on the one hand; and feelings of happiness, confidence and success on the other. This is despite the harmful effects such transformations have on the health of Black women and their hair.

Journal of Advertising, 2004

We explore the dynamic nature of society's memories for and value ascribed to advertising materials from the past. Specifically, we examine the active negotiation of the meanings of promotional materials containing stereotypical personifications of African Americans created and disseminated between I860 and I960. To describe and interpret how the cultural meanings and economic, symbolic, and aesthetic values associated with these marketing materials evolved, we use group level theories, the sociological framework of collective memory, and rubbish theory from social anthropology. These promotional materials were transformed from acceptable mass-produced commercial advertisements, to despicable representations of a group of people that were "hidden" or destroyed, to highly desirable collectibles commanding top dollar on the secondary market. Collective memories as recorded in the print press for three decades are examined to illustrate attitudinal and value shifts among Americans.