Really good stereotypers
Recently, I’ve been working on a minority-focused campaign, and it’s done nothing but made me ask lots of questions. Now, for a typical white guy working in the ad industry, I am blessed to both work for a minority-owned firm and have very candid relationships with several black people I work with, which means they will give me nothing but honest feedback on whether or not an idea is treading too close to that mythical line of offensiveness. And for our whole creative team, that’s an invaluable asset. But this process has made me analyze the way other brands flail in their attempts to market to segments by ethnography instead of demography. All that’s to say: I don’t think anybody is getting minority-targeted marketing right.
For me, it doesn’t matter if I see the KGB spot where the highly stereotyped beauty shop conversation occurs, or the way over the top Popeye’s spots that have the arrogant aura about them that say “trust us. we know the black people.” Or just think about anything Kool cigarettes has done in the past quarter century, and you notice that there’s really not an ounce of strategy. It’s just ads that play to really bad stereotypes of black people. In fact, I bet that among all the ads in the past 15 years, there aren’t 10 marketing pieces targeted at black folks that don’t have one of the following elements: rap music, dancing, sassy women, family reunions, basketball, a black VO or Tyler Perry. And the only reason I noticed this is that every time I see a spot on TV that reportedly targets African Americans, it treads WAY too close to stereotypes and has little to do with the actual merits of a product.
Then, I started thinking about the reverse of this: isn’t all marketing just based on really broad stereotypes? Isn’t what we call “targeting” really just drilling down to a very specific stereotype? Take the new Target spots, for example. The older Millennial moms out there are strong, tough, sexy, determined and love to multi-task. Huh? Does that describe anyone you know or is that just the worst mash up of things that the latest demographic stereotyping service told you about your target audience? And I know the whole “give the audience something to aspire to,” but in an age of brutal transparency and a thirst for honesty from the brand we trust, would a warts and all approach not be better than something hyper stereotyped and dramatized? Oh, wait. You mean like the Microsoft spots? Yes. All fake and totally opaque.
We depict white men playing tennis or golf, white women talking about feminine hygiene, black women as advice givers and black men as overweight. Am I wrong? I think we’ve kind of checked out brains at the stereotype door, despite living in a culture that fears calling out cultural differences. You can make fun of white males as stupid buffoons all day long, but insinuate a woman or a minority is lacking in mental faculties, and you’re a dead man. I think we’ve gotten so PC in our approach to everything that certain stereotypes have just become acceptable in marketing. But, just once, I’d love to see a TV spot that felt like it really painted the image of a culture well. Take Southern black culture, for example. Nothing in the greater ad world addresses it, especially not the work for ANY QSR brands or automotive brands. I’d love to see it. Heck, I’d love to do it. If there’s a brand out there who’s consumer base is primarily made up of Southern African-Americans, I’d be willing to bet my creative team could outdo what you’re currently doing, simply because it wouldn’t be trite, stereotyped or involve Tyler Perry. It would be real, an idea that’s all but lost in the biz. I say this not out of pride, arrogance of a statement of superiority, rather I say it from a point of view that’s noticed how bad the work we all are doing is.
Huh. So how’s about you show us one example of truly original, “real” minority advertising that you’ve done before. If your opinion on what constitutes great minority focused work is to be trusted, then it’s because you’ve done some yourself.
One thing I’ve learned in this business is that just about anyone can tear down other people’s work, but very few of us can do something better. So let’s one example of something you’ve done that’s better.
While I did say I was working on something in this genre, I didn’t say I had produced anything. And while I throw criticism at the industry as a whole, I of course lump myself into it. Prior to my epiphanic episode, I willingly created a lot of work that skirted around this very concept. Show black guy, white woman and we’re all set.
But in a recent brainstorming session, we kind of had this eureka moment. It started with the idea that all Southern advertising is intrinsically bad; then the discussion wandered even further toward how all minority work is actually pretty bad, too. And this wasn’t just one white man’s opinion. I had it backed up by some pretty good minds, namely the CEO of my company who happens to be a 75 year old black man. He’s been preaching this very idea for years: people are people, and the things we create should reflect that.
Once my awesome new campaign is done, then I’ll share. But other than that, I can’t put up the goods, per your request.
Thanks for reading, though.