Ad-vocating Racism?

Yesterday (October 28, 2014), when I mentioned the GAP ad in one of my other classes, I was stunned to find that not a single person in class was aware of this event that took place last year! Did this ad come to my notice only because the person being victimized in the ad was an Indian? Or was it because I view and read articles about ads more frequently? Does it really matter how and why just ME? Was I being targeted?

I am not really sure about that. But, a few weeks back when I was going through an online journal article on "Racialized Campaign Ads", I came across a striking revelation, which read, 'Campaign managers craft campaign ads with the intention of evoking certain emotional responses. And, racialized ads (either implicit or explicit) are created to heighten negative emotional response'.

Was the GAP ad created with the same intention of generating a buzz so as to gain more attention from non-whites like me? Maybe or may be not. The company however went ahead and had the ad put up in every GAP store. The company also had its Twitter page's banner logo changed to the original ad. But, I am not sure if it was still just the marketing gimmick to grab maximum eye-balls.

Here's another ad, this time from Intel, who knew that their ad was racist, and still chose to publish it—

Intel 'Racist' Ad

This ad showsBlack men bowing down to a White man, who supposedly is their boss because the copy reads, 'Multiply computing performance and maximize the power of your employees'. Now, they could have had a Black person as the boss and all white people bowing down to him just to break the stereotype. But, instead of going against the norms, they chose to stick to the 'standards of normalcy' in terms of 'Race Representation' set by ads. And, these standards of normalcy in ads require male and female models to be White, at least for all life-style ads. The other races are either under-represented or represented in negative light. And, since the minority population (African-Americans, Latinos & Asians) has increased to 30% of the total American population today, more people are likely to come across such ads and react to them. And, who does it help the most? Of course, the advertisers! After all that is their main purpose—to be viewed, shared and discussed more and more via new media sites and tools. As they say any publicity is good publicity. No matter how bad it is!

I will share more details on Race Representation in coming weeks. Till then, happy reading!

Advertising GAP

When was the last time you saw an American ad that blurred the color GAP and portrayed all the races in the same bright light? I can't think of a single American ad that doesn't cast a single Caucasian. Neither can I think of any ad that casts an African-American, a Latino or an Asian in a powerful role. Before I get into the details of racial GAP (discrimination) in American ads or Indian ads, I would like to dissect and analyze this week the latest campaign by the brand "GAP". The social media campaign came out last year around November with a brown Indian-American turbaned Sikh, posing alongside a white female model. And, you can imagine the public furor!

GAP Ad 2013

New York City, which is one of the world's most diverse cities, in which more than a third of its 8 million residents are born in a foreign country, is expected to be a haven for tolerance. But, when GAP Inc. advertised this ad with the caption "Make Love", some racists decided to scratch the word "Love" and replaced it with "Bombs". Another genius decided to write "Please stop driving taxis" under the advertisement's caption!

Vandalized GAP Ad at NYC Subway Platform

More than anything else, this kind of fury from people of a city which is most diversified in terms of race and culture, proves that we still do not live in a "Post-racial America" since minority groups like South Asians, are often perceived as Muslims. It is really needed for these racist groups to come out of their shell and learn the world geography and most importantly respect people of all the nations irrespective of their color, race and religion.

Personally, I feel ads like these depict the real diverse America that we see today. The recent surveys suggest that the population of Whites is declining and that of Latinos followed by Asians is increasing in this country. By representing such under-represented minorities, brands like GAP are paving a path towards creating One America. But, the major problem lies in the fact that the minority groups do not fit the traditional American notions of beauty, which requires white skin, Caucasian featured models.

More on diversity issues in advertising in one of the coming weeks. Till then, happy reading!

Ads Against Abuse

With a lot of domestic violence cases coming forth from across the world, a lot of effective and powerful Public Service campaigns have been created to create awareness and stop this abuse against women. I have picked three ads, each representative of the country and culture it was created in.

• This Indian ad represents Indian Goddess of Wealth being a victim of domestic violence. The copy reads that a day is not far when not just women but even the Goddesses wouldn't be spared of the abuse. According to Indian culture, birth of a girl child is considered as an arrival of Goddess in the family and hence with this ad the advertiser tries to draw that connect and bring up the issue of domestic violence against little girls and women. There are two more ads under this campaign, 'Abused Goddesses'. The campaign was created by an Indian ad agency called Taproot Media.

Save Our Sisters

• This ad from Saudi Arabia by King Khalid Foundation (KKF), marks an important initiative towards providing women from Saudi Arabia their rights. The women of Saudi Arabia as widely known aren't allowed to drive and are constantly under male guardianship. They are always covered up with a veil or a burqa that exposes nothing except their eyes. The power of this ad lies in its copy, which reads, "Somethings can't be covered". The campaign was created by Memac Ogilvy, Riyadh.

Somethings can't be covered

• This ad campaign from the US, starring American celebrities comes across as a game changer. Instead of playing on the women's emotions to give out the message, it asks women and men suffering from domestic violence and sexual assault to fight back. There are over 60 ads in the campaign, the copy of all of which begin with the words, "No More" followed by a phrase. Every major domestic violence and sexual assault organization in the U.S.—from men's organizations to organizations that advance the rights of women of color and immigrants are behind the "No More" campaign.

No More

Each ad from different nations convey the same message, while sticking to the aspects relevant to their respective culture and mindsets of people. 

Advertisers or Pornographers?

Killing Us Softly 4, is a fourth and the latest American documentary in the series by Jean Kilbourne. First documentary was released in 1979, second one in 1987, third one in 2000 and the fourth one in 2010. With each movie, she takes a fresh look into the unrealistic and distorted ideals of beauty, perfection and sexuality that advertisers these days portray via ads. She talks about images of women in advertising, effects of these images on women's self-esteem, gender stereotyping, and objectification of women in ads.

Killing Us Softly 4 by 1989jkm

In this video, she shows us how the women, who appear to be slim, tall, flawless, wrinkle-free, pore-free, white looking and almost perfect are created using Photoshop by combining different parts of several models combined together to create one single image of a perfect model in an ad. The non-white women or the women of color are usually considered beautiful only if they approximate the white ideal. Light skinned, straight haired, Caucasian featured models are considered to be ideal in ads. And, as if that is not enough these women are shown partially or fully naked as if they were a sex object especially in ads which bear no relevance to them. Sometimes women are turned into a part of a video game, sometimes into a bottle of beer, and sometimes into a car among many such things. And, the worse part is that the way real men feel about the very real women they are with and how they end up comparing them with these unrealistic images of women they see in ads. All these images of women create violence against women. They lead to low self-esteem in women. Women feel more conscious about their body. They starve themselves to death to achieve a supermodel like figure.

Overall, though this video discusses women in American ads, but this video stands true for any given country in the world, for standards of beauty across the globe are more or less similar.

It is shameful, how despite efforts of women like her and several other people, things have barely changed. India is no less behind when it comes to stereotyping women. The only difference being women model in Indian ads are clad a little more than their American counterparts. The rest remains the same.

Do watch this eye-opening documentary and let us spread it in our circle and make people realize how the business of advertising has turned into a business of pornography among several other bad things.

#AdHashtag

#Hashtag, a tool to create a buzz has itself created quite a buzz in social media. First started by Twitterers (Twitter users) to tag their tweets to provide a context to their tweets or designate them as being part of a particular conversation, #hashtags are now widely used by marketers to create a buzz about their brand. From being a mere pound sign, hashtags have turned into hyperlinked verb. By simply placing a '#' sign, right before the keyword/key phrase, you can start a conversation on that topic. And, anybody who wishes to be actively involved in the discussion, must also use the same # in all their tweets as otherwise, you may not know that they have tweeted about the same topic if you are not following them.

Personally, I am not a great fan of #hashtags but the fact that marketers these days use # as a way to market their brand intrigues me. Indeed, it is quite strange and interesting how much can be put into one little #, and the kind of response it generates. 

In the US out of the 54 national ads, which got released during #SuperBowl2014, 31 ads (57%) made use of #hashtags and got people into talking about their brand and current marketing message.

India is no far behind when it comes to making optimum use of this new form of advertising. Be it Instagram ads or Twitter ads, #hashtag seems to be the second most used word after 'Selfies'.  Have a look at the following Indian ads which have used #hashtag as a tool to get people into talking about their brand. 

While #hashtags are highly interactive form of advertising, it's reach doesn't seem deep enough in the Indian market because at least half the population doesn't have access to proper internet connectivity. 

Twitter and more recently Instagram, being key platforms used by many celebrities and market professionals, have helped brands acquire much more than what Twitter or Instagram were meant for or were expected to. The trend is really catching up among youngsters owing to its succinctness. But it hasn't caught on with Baby Boomers yet.

Let's see how long this newbie lasts in the advertising world. Till then keep reading until we meet next week with something more interesting.

Advertising Colors Across the Cultures

Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by the color box. Every visit to a stationery shop had to result in purchase of at least one set of sketch pens or crayons or pencil colors. As I grew up, this love for colors got transcended into the clothes I bought, food I ate and eventually as an advertising professional, the ads I worked on. However, it doesn't really matter what colors I prefer in ads or even in general. But, what matters is how my choice of colors (being a representative of one strong culture) varies from the the choice of colors of a local American (who is born and brought up in America) or for that matter any person representing a particular culture.

Colors have variety of associations within North American culture alone, and can mean radically different to Indian or Japanese or Middle Eastern viewer, where color meanings are much more specifically defined. In western countries (America & Europe), a white colored wedding dress is worn by a bride on the auspicious day of her wedding, while in Indian and several Asian countries, white colored clothes are worn during the inauspicious occasions like death. Coming back to colors in ads, cultural beliefs play a major role and hence define the color preference in all aspects of life including ads. 

Following is the list of basic hues and the associations:

Red

Western Culture (North America & Europe)

• Passion
• Excitement
• Danger
• Love
• Power
• Christmas (With Green)

Eastern & Asian Culture

• Happiness
• Joy
• Celebration
• Brides
• Wedding
• Luck
• Long Life
• Purity (In India)
• Danger (Japan)
• Anger (Japan)

Latin American Culture

• Religion

Middle Eastern Culture

• Danger
• Caution
• Evil

Around The World

• Chinese New Year
• Luck 
• Good Fortune
• Prosperity

Example: Mc Donalds

Orange

Western Culture (North America & Europe)

• Harvest
• Autumn
• Start of Fall
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Warmth
• Citrus Fruits
• Royalty (Netherlands National Color)

Eastern & Asian Culture

• Saffron (Indian Spice)
• Renunciation
• Courage
• Sacrifice
• Love (Japan)

Latin American Culture

• Sunny
• Earth Color

Middle Eastern Culture

• Mourning
• Loss

Around the World 

• Religion
• Gluttony (In Christianity)

Yellow

Western Cultures (North America & Europe)

• Bright & Cheery
• Warmth
• Summer
• Hospitality
• Taxis & School Buses
• Envy (Germany)

Eastern & Asian Cultures

• Royal'
• Sacred
• Imperial
• Commerce (India)
• Food (India)
• Courage (Japan)

Latin American Culture

• Death
• Mourning

Middle Eastern Culture

• Mourning (Egypt)
• Happiness (Other Middle Eastern Countries)
• Prosperity (Other Middle Eastern Countries)

Around the World

• High Ranked People (African Countries)
• Gold
• Money
• Quality
• Success

Example: Lipton uses Yellow to market worldwide but there are changes in what people are wearing in ads aimed at different countries.

Blue

Western Cultures (North America & Europe)

• Bank
• Trust 
• Authority
• Masculine
• Boy
• Calming
• Soothing 
• Peaceful
• Depression or Sadness (In Some Places)

Eastern & Asian Cultures

• Immorality
• Krishna (Popular Hindu God)
• Sports (India)
• Strength
• Feminine (China)

Latin American Culture

• Religion
• Virgin Mary's Robe or Headscarf
• Emotional Stir
• Mourning
• Trust (Mexico)
• Serenity (Mexico)
• Soap (Colombia)

Middle Eastern Culture

• Safe
• Protecting
• Heaven
• Spirituality
• Immorality

Around the World

• Friday (Thailand)
• Most Positive (Globally)
• Safest (Globally)

Example: Skype, the web-based International Telephone Company uses blue color Internationally.

Green

Western Cultures (North America & Europe)

• St. Patrick's Day (Ireland)
• National Color (Ireland)
• Nature
• Environment
• Green Business
• Green Household Cleansers
• Christmas (With Red)
• Progress
• Envy (Except Germany)

Eastern & Asian Cultures

• Nature
• New Life
• Faith (India)
• Fertility (Fertility)
• Youth
• Exorcism (China)
• Infidelity (China)
• Cheating (Wearing a Green Hat indicates Cheating in China)

Latin American Culture

• Death

Middle Eastern Culture

• Islam
• Strength
• Fertility
• Luck
• Wealth

Around the World

• Money
• Jealousy
• Military (Olive Green)

Purple

Western Cultures (North America & Europe)

• Royalty
• Cloaks & Robes of Kings and Queens
• Modernism
• Wealth
• Fame
• Honor
• Purple Heart (Military's Highest Award)

Eastern & Asian Cultures

• Wealth
• Nobility
• Mourning (Thailand)
• Widow (Thailand)

Latin American Culture

• Sorrow (Brazil)
• Mourning (Brazil)
• Death (Brazil)

Middle Eastern Culture

• Wealth
• Virtue (Egypt)

Around the World

• Sacred (Light Purple - Amethyst)
• Buddha (Tibet)
• Rosaries (Tibet)

Pink

Western Cultures (North America & Europe)

• Feminity
• Daughter
• Sweetness
• Candy
• Cake
• Childhood
• Fun
• Gay
• Breast Cancer

Eastern & Asian Cultures

• Feminine
• Marriage
• Trust (Korea)
• Breast Cancer

*The color was non-existent in China until the increase in Western influence.

Latin American Culture

• Architecture
• Famous Color for Buildings

Middle Eastern Culture

• No Distinct Meaning

Around the World

• Prison Holding Cells
• Mentally Stimulating
• Calming

Brown

Western Cultures (North America & Europe)

• Earthy
• Health
• Barrenness
• UPS (US)
• Packaging (US)
• Food Containers (US)
• Stable 
• Dependable
• Wholesome
• Grains

Eastern & Asian Cultures

• Mourning (In Some Countries)
• Earth (India & China)

Latin American Culture

• Doomed Sales (Colombia)
• Disapproval (Nicaragua)

Middle Eastern Culture

• Earth
• Comfort

Around the World

• Non Color
• Neutral
• General

Black

Western Cultures (North America & Europe)

• Finality
• Death
• Formality
• Mourning
• Powerful 
• Strong
• Control 
• Force

Eastern & Asian Cultures

• Masculinity (China)
• Boys (China)
• Wealth
• Health
• Prosperity
• Evil (Thailand & Tibet)
• Inauspicious (Some Parts of India)

Latin American Culture

• Masculinity
• Men's Clothing
• Mourning

Middle Eastern Culture

• Symbiotic (Both Re-birth & Mourning)
• Evil
• Mystery

Around the World

• Magic
• The Unknown

White

Western Cultures (North America & Europe)

• Purity
• Peace
• Bride
• Clean
• Sterile
• Hospitals
• Holiness
• Funerals
• Chrysanthemums

Eastern & Asian Cultures

• Death 
• Funeral
• Sterile
• Mourning
• Unhappiness
• Misfortune

Latin American Culture

• Peace
• Purity

Middle Eastern Culture

• Purity
• Mourning
• Holiness (Iran)
• Peace (Iran)
• High Rank (Egypt)

Around the World

• White Flag symbolic of Truce

Thus, above are some of the major colors and their significance in each culture. Depending on what sentiments are associated with a particular color, advertisers create ads so as to come up with the most effective way to market their product. Having moved from India to US, my color preferences have slightly changed in accordance with the current ongoing trend in US and is quite evidently witnessed and experienced by me when it comes to appreciating certain print or an online ad/campaign, or even buying/shopping preferences at a shop etc.