Advertising and the black dollar

I was inspired to write this blog after reading Marissa Miley’s article, “Don't Bypass African-Americans,” in the February 2nd issue of Advertising Age. The article is basically about how marketers have continued to ignore the black market. It states that black people have a $913 billion buying power and will hit the trillion dollar mark by 2013, (2011 according to www.emarketer.com) and we’re being bypassed/overlooked/ignored in the advertising field. It goes on about the Hispanic marketing and how much is spent there and the theory behind it and all that (you can read the article for more details).

What I believe is wrong with black advertising, and nothing I have to say about it is based on anything factual, is that those that do venture into that field they target one-two categories and don’t treat us overall as a whole (which adds a whole different argument). The two categories I believe they spend too much time on are hip hop (which ruined hip hop) and church in some instances. Now, the “hip hop” generation will spend the big bucks on whatever is deemed cool at the time but I do think if they treated us as they treat white America, make it a broader appeal (and not just throw black actors in a white ad, please we know the difference) then they would successfully reach the black audience.

We are not all apart of the hip hop generation, especially the one you see on tv all commercialized, and we do not all congregate around the bible (I guess that is more black on black marketing than non black companies marketing their products for black folks so we’ll leave that one out). We eat McDonald's just like the average white person, and we're not bobbing our heads to a wack/fake hip hop beat in the process.

What I’d like to see, is regular products (and not products made for black people like the relaxed and natural line of Pantene Pro-V) marketed towards brown people. We buy some of the same stuff white people buy and we’d like to know our money is wanted.

There has to be some way that they can market to us without turning us into a caricature. They market to the average joe white person 99% of the time, take that, flip it towards how your product can address our needs and there you go! An ad for a black person who doesn't feel like they need to listen to commercialized rap to enjoy your product! :)


Is that really how we look???

It does seem weird to me in commercials where there is a group of people and it is 4-5 white people, one black or Hispanic/latino, and one asian. We know what that’s saying lol.

Anywho, I can’t think of anything else to say.

Maybe I’ll add more

Maybe not lol