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Archive for March 30th, 2010

Majority To Minority

The year was 1999. The place: Texas. You couldnt turn on the TV or walk by a newsstand without seeing a certain male Hispanic singers face. Everyone was Livin La Vida Loca or knew someone who wanted to be.

Everyone that is except my hayseed 40 yearold agency Creative Director.

Whos Ricky Martin? he asked.

I realized that theres a bigger issue facing our business than just staying in touch with trends. Were in the middle of a seismic cultural shift.

Youve heard it all beforethe face of America is changing blah blah blah. A report just came out saying that Hispanics now represent Americas largest minority group. And advertisers know they spend lots of money.

But our industry still faces a major problem adjusting to demographic shifts. Advertising and Corporate America in general remains largely in the control of middleaged white guys or other conservative people who act like middleaged white guys.

Will the faces in the ad biz ever really reflect America? Will the faces of our clients?

For all the talk of the need for diversity and onetoone marketing advertising lumps people into groups. Demographics psychographics target audiences whatever youd like to call it we dont have a grasp on the wideranging makeup of our audiences.

Once again it comes down to cash.

If your client only has the money for one TV spot or one photograph in a print ad what are the odds theyll want to choose a really fat Tanzanian lesbian couple to portray their typical consumers? You can tell Im really not trying to offend anyonemy readership is really low among fat Tanzanian lesbians.

Most likely clients who need to use people in their ads gravitate toward using a pseudodiverse looking crowd shotwith at least one AfricanAmerican one white one Hispanic and one Asian. Or even better a few who look ethnically vague.

When I see these types of ads I automatically imagine the conversations held during the casting sessionswhere everyone expresses the need to cover all the possible ethnic bases. I bet you can too.

Inevitably though the efforts look hollow. The reality is we will never truly treat consumers as individuals in our efforts to reach them. It simply costs too much to create a dialogue thats uniquely relevant to each consumer.

So we target just enough different groups to make it cost effective. But even when large clients parcel out portions of their accounts to socalled minority agencies the creative that gets produced may differ widely from the general market creative. Segmenting the messages conflicts with the widely held notion that all communications related to a brands need to reflect a singular tone and vision. Ultimately it may hurt the brand.

But advertising will have to find in both the people entering the industry and the work we produce an effective way to stay culturally relevant manage accounts with everchanging audiences and still remain profitable.

Im not sure white guys like me will be up to the task. Im not middleaged but I feel the creep of cultural ignorance starting to wash over my brain which may affect my future in the business.

Ill leave you with one example.

As a writer the gradual incorporation of hiphop language into everyday media is not something I can ignore for long. 20 years ago such language was not considered appropriate English.

Now I might have to start writing killuh adz 2 B successful in da biz.

And doesnt that make me sound really white?

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Branding. Religion. Censorship. Office politics. Global politics. Sexual politics. And getting drunk during a job interview.
Since 2002 Danny G. a.k.a. Dan Goldgeier has been writing the most provocative advertising columns ever published. They’re all witty thoughtful and probing and a must read for those who want a perspective rarely seen in traditional industry publications.
An Atlantabased copywriter and ad school graduate Dan has worked at shops big and small. He reads incessantly about advertising and is a whiz at rock roll trivia. Learn more about him by visiting his copywriting website or AdColumnist.com the View From The Cheap Seats Archive website. You may also find articles by Danny G at TalentZoo.com.