ZUR 589o:
Cultural History of Advertising
E. Seiter,“Different Children, Different Dreams”
ETHNICITY IN ADVERTISING
Outline:
1. Black Lives Matter / Race in America
2. History / Images of Blacks in Early Advertising
3. Contemporary Images
http://
blacklivesmatter.
com/
http://
gawker.
com/
unarmed
-people-
of-color-
killed-
by-
police-
1999-
2014-
1666672
349
http://
www.usatoday.com/
story/news/nation/
2015/06/17/
charleston-south-
carolina-shooting/
28902017/
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/12/campus-protest-roundup/417570/
https://
www.washingtonpost.com/
news/grade-point/wp/
2015/11/23/kansas-professor-
under-investigation-for-using-
racial-slur-that-left-students-in-
tears/
early images of people of color
in advertising
reliance on stereotypes to create:
a. associations
with the
“primitive”
(product as a
representation
of civilization
and culture)
b. associations
with
productive
labor
performed
by “others”
Productive labor
includes blacks
as servants
1954 1955
c. associations with
product “origins”
d. associations
with the “exotic”
early roles for blacks in
advertising
NOT as consumers,
except for tobacco
both black labor
and black taste
and style featured
1800s
1950s
1970s
racism:
“washing the Moor white”
• “can’t change the Ethiopian’s skin or the
leopard’s spots”
• The expression takes “the fundamental
intellectual step in the direction of racism:
mixing and confounding biology and culture
[or] nature, in the sense of heredity, and
milieu” (Pieterse 196).
racism
• “In the socio-cognitive perspective in which
‘clean,’ ‘white,’ ‘fair,’ ‘light,’ ‘good’ go together
as the foundation of aesthetics and
civilization, it is obvious that ‘dark,’ ‘black,’
‘dirty,’ ‘sinful,’ ‘evil’ will be grouped together
as well” (Pieterse 196)
• soap becomes a symbol and a yardstick of
civilization: “money bleaches.”
Ad copy reads: “The
consumption of soap
is a measure of the
wealth, civilization,
health, and purity of
the people.”
rum, coffee, cocoa, chocolate
(sugar and cola)
• all formerly products of slave labor as well
as luxury items (later delicacies for general
consumption due to slave labor)
• close association between commodity and
producers--to the point where blacks
become the product (e.g. edible, assorted
chocolates)
fruit
• “Fruit was the classic symbol of plenty,
commonly used to denote the natural
fertility of the tropics, and hence the
‘natural laziness’ of blacks” (Pieterse 199).
• assimilation of blacks into the Western
consumer universe has meant, among other
things, that black men be represented
differently than black women
• black men are desexualized
• black women are hyper-sexualized
black men
“The primary condition for the commercial
representation of black men is that they be shown
as non-threatening, in clearly recognizable, usually
marginal positions” (Pieterse 189).
• servants
• entertainers/performers (includes athletes)
• savage turned gentleman (e.g. dandy)
servants
entertainers
and performers
(includes athletes)
savage turned
gentleman, aka
“dandy”
(but still a
“performer”)
black women
• “The sexualization of blacks and the use of
blacks as sex objects still goes on” (Pieterse 207)
• light-skinned black women (with Eurocentric
features) dressed according to white
norms
• darker-skinned black women in animal prints
• black women depicted as dangerously
seductive (black vamp, femme fatale) with
unlimited libido
• black women as aggressive
“The key question with
regard to current
commercial imagery is
whether stereotypes are
being recycled or whether
they and the mental sets
or schemas underlying
them are being
broken” (Pieterse 201)
charities
• appeal of children and victim: allows the
viewer to maintain a position of
superiority and dominance
• camera angles shot from above helps
reinforce the idea of the passivity,
helplessness of aid recipients
E. Seiter on children:
different children, different dreams
• white children primarily represent
• go-getters
• adventurers
• “bright” or intelligent
white children and nostalgia
• school setting / classrooms
• home setting / domestic sphere (secure
within the “cozy, golden glow of family”)
children of color
• orphaned in outdoor setting (or studio
setting / plain white background)
• “primitive” or clownish
• represent what is cool, hip, modern, trendy,
--but not “classic”
• passive
direct comparisons