Four Decades Of African American Portrayals In Magazine Advertising

Abstract

This paper examines the frequency of black portrayals as well as the occupations and racial compositions employed in ads depicting blacks in four mass circulation consumer magazines over four decades The portrayal of African Americans in advertising has been of interest to marketers for more than half a century. However, few studies have spanned multiple decades and very few have been extended into the 21st century. This study extends a previous paper (Stevenson 1999) addressing the portrayal of blacks in the consumer print media. Through the use of content analysis, more than 1500 ads were analyzed in these magazines for the years 1975, 1985, 1995, and 2005. Findings indicate that there were significant increases in the numbers of blacks portrayed in the magazines analyzed in this study. It was also determined that where blacks were portrayed in occupational roles, most depictions were “above skilled labor” and that most portrayals utilized mixed peer rather than non-mixed peer depictions. Findings are compared to previous studies, managerial implications are considered, and suggestions for future research are offered.