America the Beautiful...

Despite the rancor and ugliness of primary season, there are many things of Beauty here in the good ol' USA.  Whether it be spacious skies, amber waves of grain, or purple mountains majesty - we got it.

No other industry has as much influence on our collective definition of beauty than the advertising industry.  While ads are designed to sell us stuff - cars, smartphones, breakfast cereal, etc... - they also sell us an idealized, normalized, aspirationalized picture of the world, and our place in it.

While Covergirl (illustrated above) does a fairly good job of projecting a racially, ethnically, and even body-type diverse image of "beauty," advertisers more generally create a monolithic image - white, thin/muscular, and affluent.

(MIS)REPRESENTATION
Even though great strides have been made in the overall frequency of racial & ethnic minorities in mainstream media advertising - especially in terms of the inclusion of Blacks - white, heterosexual frames still dominate, and important differences between how whites and blacks are represented can be noted.

Hollerbach (2009), for instance, studied the advertising on television shows that were most highly viewed by Black, and general audiences.  The study found that 43% of ads on both shows - those highly popular with Black audiences, and those highly popular with general audiences - contained "African American depiction" (ie: inclusion of black models & "characters).  This inclusion rate is substantially higher than those found in the past - 10% in 1969; 13% in 1974; 26% in 1989; 35% in 1993; and 33% in 2000.

THE SILENT TREATMENT
Despite inclusion, Blacks still tended to play a subservient role in the they appeared in, remaining silent in most cases, while their white counterparts ran dialogue.  In ads designed to reach black audiences (ie: aired on shows highly popular among blacks), whites spoke 2.5 times longer than blacks; in ads designed to reach general audiences, the silence grew deafening, with white speaking time ballooning to 5 times the length of black speaking time.

While things may seem bad for Blacks in mainstream advertising, they are much worse for other "minority" groups like Asians, Hispanics, or LGBT folk.  Included, but silent, would be considered a victory for many of these groups, as they are far more likely than blacks to be left out of ads completely.

Informal research on the inclusion of LGBT depictions in advertising aired on ABC's "Modern Family" (a show popular with LGBT audiences for its' inclusion of a "same-sex" family as one focal point of the story-line) yielded few, if any, images that would be considered LGBT centric to LGBT or general audiences.  In many cases, it is even hard to find LGBT imagery in ads on LOGO - the cable network specifically designed to deliver "gay" content to "gay" audiences.

SOMETIMES, SILENCE IS GOLDEN
The inspiration for this post did not come from an interest in the representation of Blacks in mainstream advertising, or the representation of LGBT folk - a line of research the BrandDR is currently working on - but rather from a segment on The Today Show, on January 10, 2012.

Today's "Professionals" - including Advertising Guru, Donny Deutsch - discussed Target's inclusion of a boy with Down's Syndrome in a recent ad.

Target Ad

To be fair, the same model also played a role in a Nordstrom's campaign.

The segment, and the ads, got me thinking about how many "minority" groups are left out of mainstream advertising, and how this exclusion maintains gaps in power, social status, and recognition in our society.  Lack of representation leads to lack of familiarity, which leads to that feeling of awkward surprise when we do see these images in the media, or even these people in real life.  Matt Lauer begins a strong social critique when he commented 

"the fact that it is even a subject is a bit of a sad commentary... in 2012 it should be the accepted norm."

Both retailers chose to include the model, without fanfare, or self congratulations.  They placed the individual in a context familiar to kids - hanging out and having fun with other kids.  They drew no contrast between the Down Syndrome child and the other children.  While children with Down Syndrome have different needs, or distinct challenges, they are still kids and share a whole lot more in common with non-DS kids than they do differences.  

These ads say little, but in their silence still manage to say a whole lot.

Donny Deutsch heard the discourse of inclusion in the silence, proclaiming:  "all you're saying is 'we're inclusive of everyone.'"

Rick Smith, who writes the blog "noah's Dad" in honor of his son with Down Syndrome, outlined "5 Things Target Said By Not Saying Anything."

What these retailers are doing is showing us a real, and diverse America.  The America in which we live, and the America which, if portrayed more accurately and fairly by advertisers and the media, is indeed America, the Beautiful.  As Target and Nordstrom's receive positive feedback from their approaches, we can only hope that other brands will begin to value inclusion of all America's beauty and include more diverse imagery in their ads.   

Bandwidth Gluttons Make Usage Stats Deceiving

Think your digital campaigns are reaching your target market?  Think again.  The New York Times reported on January 5, 2012 that the

Top 1% of Mobile Users Consume Half of World's Bandwidth

WHAT THIS MEANS
Despite the bullish news coverage of digital as a platform, and the seemingly bottomless pit of apps, QR codes, and social ads - marketing communicators may have put the proverbial cart before the horse, beating customers to technology and over assuming their adoption/usage.


While the usage of bandwidth hints at the "traffic" of digital media, past estimates of overall usage and number of users has failed to explain the nuances of usage on a user by user basis.  That is, there was no ability to categorize users based on their bandwidth behaviors.


The current study, conducted by the English firm Arieso, is itself far from nuanced in how it describes such users but is still a step in the right direction.  The study distinguishes a group of "extreme" users - who make up 1% of the mobile market - as the source of half of all bandwidth activity.  This means that a remarkably small group of people are responsibility for much of the digital usage around the world.


While the study seems designed to help mobile operators better manage their networks, there is also a huge learning moment for IMC: marketers using digital platforms as a main channel of communication may find their messages are not reaching the large number of consumers they assume.


A MORE CAUTIOUS APPROACH
Industry reports suggest that marketers have gotten carried away with the "shiny new toy" of digital.


Ad Age continues to critique the use of QR Codes by many marketers as off target and ineffective.  Questioning campaigns by Red Bull and American Airlines, which put QR codes where lack of cell phone service would render them useless - in the subway, and inflight magazines respectively - evidence of blindly adopting this execution abounds.


Recently, Marc Browenstein of Ad Age lambasted marketers for making the "mistake" of shifting all, or most, of their media dollars online.  Citing evidence of how his wife and kids watch TV -  "often with a mobile or tablet device on their laps" - while not scientific, is right on.  This "multiscreening" behavior has been cited by several researchers in much more scientific studies.


As digital media matures, traditional media evolves (or doesn't), but still brings in audiences and eyeballs.  Nothing really has changed from a planning/strategy perspective.  Knowing your customer, and their media consumption behavior is key; and integrating your message across a media mix tuned to this behavior will pay dividends in the battle for the hearts and minds of consumers.