Ethnic Minority Representations Within Television Advertisements

This research explores racial representations in advertising by observing how ethnic

minorities are represented within television advertisements displayed in the UK. Television

content is to a larger extent unsolicited and therefore scholars and practitioners are often

concerned with the content displayed through this media outlet. Previous research into this

topic has shown an underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in the UK; and current literature

in both the UK and US report on the portrayal of ethnic stereotypes and the exclusion of

certain ethnic minorities.  This report aims to evaluate this problem from an ethical marketing

perspective. This paper is an attempt to answer the following research question: “How are

ethnic minorities represented within television advertisements shown in the UK?”

Race and Television Advertisements

Typically, the literature evaluating race and television advertising observes three factors: (1)

Visibility/frequency of ethnic minorities, (2) Representation and stereotypes and (3) Status of

role. It is important to also note that most of the research that looks into racial representations

in advertising and in particular television advertising has been conducted in the US. However,

much of UK television programming comes from the US and the vast majority of brands

advertised on television are American brands. Therefore, the American literature published on

this topic can also be applied to the UK, as there are strong parallels between the two

countries. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that there are still significant cultural

differences that exist between the two countries; and as a result there is a gap in the literature

published in the UK.

Visibility/ Frequency of Ethnic Minorities.

There are few UK industry reports that analyse the lack of diversity in UK television

advertisements. The Institute of Practitioners Advertising (IPA) is one body that researches

this topic. In 2012 the IPA published ‘2012 Multicultural Britain’. This report was an audit of

the appearance of black and minority ethnic (BME) actors in television advertisements in the

UK. It found that only one in 20 (5%) of all ads made in 2011 featured any ethnic minority

actors at all (Institute of Practicing Advertisers, 2012). The data showed a declining trend

since 2010, suggesting that BME’s are appearing less in adverts on a yearly average.

However, these figures are criticized to be an underestimate since the agencies voluntary

report their data. In more recent years, US literature has shown that the number of African

Americans shown on advertisements in the US have exceeded their real world demographic.

However, there was still an under representation of other ethnicities (Henderson & Baldasty

2003; Li-Vollmer, 2002; Mastro & Stern, 2003; Merskin, 2008; Taylor & Stern, 1997). Li-

Vollmer (2002) and Taylor & Stern (1997) suggest that token African Americans were

included into more advertisements to give an impression of diversity.

Representation

Research also suggested that although in some cases the amount of racial minority characters

that appear in the media is increasing, there are subtle biases and stereotypes that occur in the

portrayal of ethnic minorities (Entman & Rojecki, 2000; Li-Vollmer, 2002; Mastro & Stern,

2003; Coltrane & Messineo, 2000; Henderson & Baldasty, 2003, Shabbir et al, 2014).

For example, studies suggested that African Americans usually play the role of an athlete or

entertainer (Li-Vollmer, 2002) and that Asian characters were usually portrayed in technology

advertisements (Mastro & Stern, 2003). Mcdonald (1992) described stereotyping in marketing

2

communication as “the fear of upsetting the white consumer”. Grey (1995) suggests that race

representations in media legitimate and maintain stereotypes in the real world.

Status of the Role

Research in this area shows that ethnic minorities do not get as many leading roles as their

white counterparts (Li-Vollmer, 2002; Henderson & Baldasty; 2003; IPA; 2012). Li-Vollmer

(2002) also suggested that minorities were in lower status roles, and never spokespeople,

imitators of action, or problem solvers. Minority characters were passive and less likely to

give orders (Coltrane & Messineo, 2000; Merskin 2008). The most recent UK based research

also found that only 1,130 advertisements from the total of 34,499, used minority actors in the

leading role (Institute of Practicing Advertisers, 2012). Research conducted by Li-Vollmer

(2002) and Henderson & Baldasty (2003) was adapted to develop a suitable content analysis

method for this report.

Ethical Marketing Theories and the Representation of Ethnic Minorities in UK Television

Advertisements

Ethical theories are used to help managers determine right and wrong for a given situation

(Crane & Matten, 2010). There are several theories of marketing ethics that marketers use to

tackle ethical implications that may arise as the result of their decisions. These vary between

ethical theorists. However, there are some common theories within existing literature. The

ethics of justice theory posed by John Rawls (1975 as cited in Crane & Matten, 2010) is a

normative theory in business ethics. It is generally associated with economic concepts.

However, its basic principles can be used to address the ethical dilemma of ethnic

misrepresentations in advertising. This theory is underpinned by the basic assumptions of

justifiable right and wrong. Justice is defined as the simultaneous fair treatment of individuals

3

(Crane & Matten, 2010). This theory suggests that all humans should be treated equally

through society.

Marketing exclusion (Crane & Matten, 2010) is another concept within marketing ethics that

suggests that brands deliberately do not create marketing and sales activities towards certain

groups.  This concept is also used as a theoretical background for the analysis of the results

gained within this report. Furthermore, social learning theory (Bandura , 1997)  suggests that

we learn stereotypes from our social environments. This suggests that media is one way

stereotypes can be formed. Research on ethical theories can seem to be indefinite. As

consumers become more fascinated with ethical marketing practices, new theories and

concepts and refinements of older theories are inevitable.

Methodology

The ethnic minorities observed within this study were the black, Asian, mixed races and other

ethnic minorities (BAMEs). A content analysis was conducted to observe the relative

visibility, status and roles of BAMEs in UK television advertisements. The study took place

over a ten-day period. Each day, for two hours all non-program content on a television

channel was observed and evaluated based on three categories; visibility, representation and

status. A different channel was observed each day to obtain results that better represent what

the nation are exposed to. Where an advertisement was played more than once, the data for

that advertisement was only recorded once.

The Quantitative data from the content analysis was analysed using simple descriptive

statistics. These statistics were compared to previous research. General trends were also

gathered from the observed advertisements.

4

A semi-structured focus group was also conducted, in order to provide qualitative data; to

gain an insight into different opinions from a wide range of cultures. Before the session,

participants were given time to meet each other and the study started with ice breakers, in an

effort to decrease the level of intimidation between participants and reduce the chance of

members conforming to dominant opinions. Quota sampling method was used to gain the 10

participants; 2 from each of the ethnic backgrounds considered within the scope of this study.

Although this sample size is not able to represent the entire UK population, it can give an

insight into how different ethnicities view various advertisements.

As racial perceptions are a sensitive topic, the focus group was informal in an effort to make

participants feel more open to share honest opinions. This increased the credibility of the

results. The session was recorded so that notes could be made after the interview and general

themes and perspectives from the session were concluded at the end. Six television

advertisements were shown; two that contain only white actors, two that contain only BAME

actors and two that contain a mixture of ethnicities.

Limitations of Methodology

There are several limitations within this study. However, these do not contradict the findings

presented. There were problems associated with the identification of ethnicity. Ethnicity was

determined by visual signifies like skin/eye colour, hair type and by accent. Where cartoon

human characters were presented, their presumed ethnicity was also considered. Ethnicity can

often be seen as subjective self-identifying measure and thus it was sometimes difficult to

determine. Another limitation was that many of the advertisements shown on the UK

5

networks featured American advertising content. Thus influencing the validity of the results

against the given research question.

Data Analysis and Discussion

Visibility

A total of 402 commercials were observed within the ten-day period. The overall racial

breakdown for the visibility of each ethnic minority is stated below (figures are rounded to the

nearest percentage). Visibility was measured by evaluating whether there was any actor at all

of each ethnicity within the advertisement. Thus, the frequency would not measure up to 402,

nor will the total percentage be summed up to 100 percent as more than one ethnicity could

have been present in given commercial.

Table 1 - Visibility of each ethnicity within the observed advertisements

Ethnicity Visibility/Frequency

Percentage (%)

White 395 97

Black 111 27

Asian 16 4

Mixed 24 6

Other/ Unidentified 20 5Any ethnic minority at all 116 29

Source: compiled by the authors, 2014

The results gained from this study illustrate that marketers within the UK are under-

representing some ethnic minorities in comparison to their real world demographic and over-

6

representing others. According to the most recent UK Census, White is the majority ethnic

group at 48.2 million in 2011 (86%). Thus, the ethnic minority consists of the remaining 14%,

with the largest group being Asian/Asian British (7.5%) (Office for National Statistics, 2012).

As 29 % of all the observed advertisements featured any ethnic minority at all, it can be stated

that overall there is an over representation of the ethnic minority population that accounts for

14% of all people in England and Wales (Office for National Statistics, 2012).These results

contradict the industry statistics presented by the IPA which stated that less than 5 % of UK

advertisements featured any ethnic minority.

However, there was a clear underrepresentation of certain ethnic minorities. Approximately

only 4 % of advertisements featured any actor of an Asian or Asian British background,

however their real world demographic is nearly twice this percentage (7.5%). Contrastingly,

the percentage of Black or Black British actors significantly exceeded their real world

demographic as 27% of commercials contained a black actor. Even though, their demographic

representation is only 3.3 %. This over representation of the black ethnicity is also seen in

earlier research conducted by Henderson & Baldasty 2003; Li-Vollmer, 2002; Mastro &

Stern, 2003; Merskin, 2008 and Taylor & Stern, 1997. Out of the 113 advertisements that

contained ethnic minorities, 111 (96 %) contained a black actor. Previous scholars have

suggested that black actors are incorporated into media to suggest cultural diversity (Li-

Vollmer, 2002). However, ‘are we suppressing creativity by arguing that marketers should

portray a reality?’ We are left to question whether creativity overpowers ethical obligations.

The exclusion of the Asian ethnicity poses an ethical dilemma. The aforementioned concept

of marketing exclusion can be applied here. Marketers may be deliberately excluding the

7

Asian ethnic minority from their marketing strategies because they see Asian customers as a

niche consumer market. However, statistics show that the purchasing power of ethnic

minorities is growing (Malik, 2011). Thus, brands should strive to advertise products for all

consumer markets in an effort to increase profitability.

Representation

The results also affirmed a clear difference in the type of roles ethnic minorities were given.

Current advertising displays a one-dimensional view of the ethnic minority. The majority of

health and beauty advertisements displayed only white actors. Where actors of an ethnic

minority appeared in a health/ beauty advertisement it was generally because he or she was

already famous and endorsing a product, for instance Beyoncé’s perfume advertisement and

Rita Ora’s Rimmel London commercial. An Ethnic minority only appeared in one household

hygiene/cleaning advertisement and ethnic minorities were predominantly seen in

entertainment advertisements and advertisements where they were already present in the cast

of a television series or movie.  It is also interesting to note that all the non-human characters

that represented brands appeared to be of a white ethnicity, for example ‘Mr. Muscle’.

Luxury products and services such as air travel and vehicles were advertised solely by a white

cast.  This alludes to marketing manager’s desires to target the upper class white consumer.

Ethnic minorities appeared in abundance in advertisements that asked consumers for financial

aid. One particular advertisement that addressed the issue of young girls forced into married

displayed approximately an equal amount of each ethnic minority.

Representations of ethnic minorities in certain types of advertisements can lead to feelings of

inequality within the ethnic minority consumer market and may mean that ethnic minority

8

consumers cannot identify with the products or services brands are advertising. This can

ultimately have an adverse effect on the demand of the product.

In sports, 22 out of the 33 advertisements observed contained black actors. Many of these

advertisements featured Olympians such as Mo Farah and Usain Bolt.  This is similar to the

research of Henderson & Baldasty (2003). It suggests that marketers are willing to incorporate

ethnic minorities in roles that do not challenge white social dominance. Other research into

stereotype portrayals affirms that Asians and Asian Americans are more likely to appear in

technology advertisements  (Taylor & Stern, 1997) and that African Americans are more

likely to appear in food advertisements (Henderson & Baldasty, 2003). However, this study

does not reveal these patterns.

Referring back to Bandura’s social learning theory (1977) it is suggested that stereotypes are

learnt from our social environment. This being said, the apparent stereotypical patterns of race

representation that appear in advertisements today can surely influence schemas and

contribute to the longevity of stereotypes. Research has indicated that there are correlations

between media portrayals of ethnic minorities and public perceptions (Lule, 2010).

Furthermore, scholars have proven that young children in particular often have an inability to

distinguish between ads and program content (Ward, 1972; Wartella, 1980). Consequently,

displaying stereotypical roles of ethnic minorities is a clear ethical dilemma for marketers.

Status

When evaluating the status ethnic minorities were given, this paper looked at the percentage

of ethnic minority actors in a leading or co-leading role. According to the results within this

9

research, only 3 % of advertisements contained an ethnic minority in any form of a leading

role. The majority of ethnic minority actors found in a leading role were of black or mixed

ethnicity. Previous research has also noted a similar trend. Henderson & Baldasty (2003)

stated that although there has been an increasing presence of ethnic minorities in prime-time

television ads, ethnic minorities are still given secondary roles.

One example, in the royal navy reserve advertisement there was a tag line of ‘you earn, you

learn’. Ethnic minorities were displayed within this advertisement but only as secondary

characters and as the children who were learning. This coud suggest subtle racial biases.

White characters played the navy commanding officers. Thus, they were given positions of

power and respect. As aforementioned Merskin (2008) suggested that minority characters are

less likely to give orders.

If we employ the Ethics of justice theory in an effort to understand this occurrence it is clear

that there are ethical issues presented here. The justice theory of business ethics suggests that

all persons should be treated fairly and equally regardless of creed, race and rank (Crane &

Matten, 2010), therefore the representation of ethnic minorities as non-leading characters

displays a view that the ethnic minority group is not equal to their white constituents.

Results from the focus group

The focus group revealed a rich set of qualitative data. Participants were shown 6

advertisements. Participants were asked first to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising.

Participants scored the advertisements out of 10.

10

The advertisement that scored the highest (Save the Children advertisement) scored 8.5/10.

Respondents suggested that it was the imagery and gloomy music imbedded within the

advertisement that caused them to give it this mark. There was no mention of race or

ethnicity. However, the advertisement displayed starving children in Africa. The second most

popular advertisement (Burger King) scored 8/10. Participants liked the fact that it showed

that all types of people eat burger king (referring to both race and social status). They also

enjoyed the layout of the commercial and the music. The commercials that participants

thought were funnier generally scored a higher mark

However, when participants were asked about ethicnic minority representation within the

advertisments both the ethnic minority and ethnic majority participants disagreed with the

lack of diversity within the Nivea commercial, for instance. However, only the ethnic

minorities said it would influence their decision to consider that product.

The majority of the participants admitted that they would still consider a product even if their

race did not represent the brand. The exception to this was in the portrayal of beauty and

cosmetic products. The majority of the female ethnic minority participants felt that advertisers

believe their race is seen to not be beautiful enough to represent certain brands.

One of the comments that brought about the most discussion was:

“Many ads don’t seem to include a range of ethnicities, race, whatever you call it.

However when they do, the Blacks, Asians, Mixed, Latino and all other ethnic minorities

never play the good roles We [the respondent was of a mixed Asian background] are still not

good enough to play the leading part.”

11

The above comment demonstrated how advertising portrayal influences how people perceive

themselves in society. Several other participants, both of an ethnic minority and majority

agreed with the statement. Not allowing ethnic minorities to have a leading role can lower the

self-esteem in these groups and this was evident in the group discussion. Advertisers need to

make a conscious effort to portray all people as equal and to break the stereotypes.

Male participants had less to comment on. However, they did acknowledge the racial

stereotype. Comments were made against subtle racist imagery and biases. Participants

disagreed with stereotypes that put ethnic minorities in a lower status role.

It is important to note in the conclusion of this analysis and discussion that there is no

definitive meta-theory for identifying moral or ethical dilemmas (Musselman, 2010).

However, the aforementioned theories and analysis of the present data can be used in an effort

to increase the ethical environment of this industry. The results of this study are far reaching.

Recommendations

It is recommended that direct marketers take a combination of things into account when

preparing advertisements. Displaying diversity, not only combats an ethical dilemma but can

also lead to a financial gain. Advertisers should not see ethnic minority consumers as a niche

market, nor should they assume that all persons can relate to one specific character. As

aforementioned, current research shows that the purchasing power of the ethnic minority

population is steadily increasing (Malik, 2011). Thus, representing the ethnic minority

population in a realistic and relatable manner can help firms capitalise on the increasing

ability of ethnic consumers to purchase products and services.

12

However, the wider issue is not the visibility of the ethnic minority population but how they

are represented and the status of the roles they are given to perform. Official marketing bodies

such as the ASA and IPA should attempt to create further research to gather qualitative data

towards this area of study. Marketers will not alter their methods of advertising unless

research is provided by industry specialists demonstrating the negative effects of marketing

exclusion and misrepresentation of ethnic minorities.

Conclusion

To conclude, this report adds to the current literature on race and advertising in the UK.

Although the findings within this report do coincide with the industry statistics they do still

make some valid conclusions. It can be summarized that marketers are severely under

representing certain ethnic minority groups and over representing others.  It is also clear

that there needs to be a balance of fairness within the representation of ethnic minorities as

ethnic minorities are generally not given a leading role and are also seen to play

stereotypical roles.

Furthermore, it is apparent that there is a gap within UK literature surrounding this topic.

Further research may consist of the exploration of ethnic minorities in other forms of

media such as print media and an economic study on the aggregate financial effects of

marketing exclusion and stereotype portrayals in advertisements. Valuable data can also be

gathered from observing the racial representations in advertising media generated for

children as children are seen as a vulnerable group. In addition, longitudinal research could

be conducted to observe the change in representation over time.

13

References

Burton, Dawn. 2010. ‘Ethnicity, Identity and Marketing: A Critical Review’. Journal of

Marketing Management. 16: 853-877

Clearcast. 2010. Analysis of BAME actors in commercials 2010. London: IPA

Coltrane Scott and Melinda Messineo. 2000.‘The Perpetuation of Subtle Prejudice: Race and

Gender Imagery in 1990s Television Advertising’, Sex Roles 42 : 363–89

Crane, Andrew and Dirk Matten, 2010. Business Ethics. 3rd ed. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ.

Press.2012 Multicultural Britain: The Ethnic Media Landscape. London: IPA

Entman, Robert & Andrew Rojecki. 2000. The black image in the white mind: Media and

race on television. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gray, Herman 1995. Watching race: Television and the struggle for "blackness."

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Henderson, Jennifer & Gerald Baldasty 2003. “Race, advertising, and prime-time

television.”. Howard Journal of Communication, 14: 97-112.

Li-Vollmer, Meredith. 2002. “Race representation in child-targeted television commercials”.

Mass Communication & Society, 5: 207-228.

Lule, Jack. 2010. Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass

Communication. New York: Flat World Knowledge.

14

Mastro, Dana and Susannah Stern. 2003. “Representations of race in television commercials:

A content analysis of prime-time advertising”. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media,

47: 638-647.

McDonald , Deborah 1992. Ethnic Differences. New York: Harper Collins. 3rd Edition.

Merskin, Debra. 2002. “Boys will be boys: A content analysis of gender and race in children's

advertisements on the Turner Cartoon Network”. Journal of Current Issues & Research in

Advertising, 24: 51-59.

Merskin, Debra. 2008. Race and gender representations in advertising in cable cartoon

programming. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 10(10) 3-9.

Morgan, David.1997. The Focus Group Guidebook. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Office of National Statistics, Ons.gov.uk. 2014. Ethnicity and National Identity in England

and Wales 2011 - ONS. [online] Available at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-

census/key-statistics-for-local-authorities-in-england-and-wales/rpt-ethnicity.html#tab-

Measuring-ethnicity- [Accessed: 19 Mar 2014].

Richeson, Jennifer and Nicole Shelton. 2005. “Brief report: Thin slices of racial bias.” Journal

of Nonverbal Behavior, 29: 75-86.

Shabbir, Haseeb, Michael Hyman, Jon Reast, and Dayananda Palihawadana. 2014.

“Deconstructing subtle racist imagery in television ads”. Journal of Business Ethics, 123 :421-

436.

Taylor, Charles and Barbara Stern. 1997. 'Asian-Americans: Television Advertising and the

"Model Minority" Stereotype', Journal of Advertising, 26: 47-61.

15

Ward, Scott, David Levinson, and Daniel Wackman. 1972. "Children's Attention to

Television Advertising." Television and Social Behavior. Ed. Eli A. Rubenstein, George

Comstock, and John P. Murray.  Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office,  Vol. 4, 491-

515.

16