Racism in Advertisements 2 Racism in Advertisements: Racism in commercials is so thick that one would have to live in an airtight vacuum not to choke on it. When you watch the Super Bowl, did you notice how few African Americans and Hispanics were in the commercials. These are the same commercials that have come to signify American democracy and pride throughout the world. Many commercials have portrayed blacks as cheap non-resourceful human. The effect was that advertising treated African American citizens as through they were invisible for many years, and they included them, grudgingly, for a long time almost exclusively, in massive advertising of unhealthy products such as fast food, tobacco, and alcoholic beverages. There is a clear indication that the advertising companies target the black consumers because they would profit their industry, which in return humiliates blacks. The African Americans image created by white decision makers inside the industry focus on the image that African American practitioners sought to establish as they and black activist outside the industry fought to developer their own views of how the black oriented market should be targeted.
As many people have seen, most often the portrayal of blacks in advertising showed an insensitivity to the African America consumers, and a lack of understanding the market. Advertisers believe when blacks appear in commercials to help assist the whites in reaching other black consumers. In an influential article, Morry Roth, Racism in Advertisements 3 "Blacks Inroads Broadcasting"�(1985) argued that Afro Americans would advertise deodorant these days, as well as sanitary napkins , bras and just about anything else you can imagine. These products pitch is more revolutionary than you might think. Thirty years ago, as inside civil right movements joke was that Americans would have almost totally recovered from racism when black...