Racial Sterotypes in Advertising : Equality, Acceptance and Laughter

A recent article in The New York Times covered African-American stereotypes in advertising. The particular controversial example was a fat black lady. She was an obvious caricature. But she was funny and effective in promoting the Dairy Queen Company. Some in the advertising field said that the ad was degrading to blacks and a set back for gains made from the Civil Rights movement.

It seems the bigger and more appropriate question should be whether caricatures are a good way to go when advertising.? Put another way, would a company who was about to spend millions on ads want the ad to be remembered or not remembered ? Caricatures, humorous distortions and exaggerations are clearly more provocative and memorable.

Civil Rights activists are still fighting the wars of inclusiveness and acceptance some 40 years after the landmark legislation. These activists will have to learn that inclusiveness and acceptance means allowing others to laugh at and with you within the norms of our society. It goes with the territory of equality. Anything short of a sense of humor about the human condition necessarily breeds hate and exclusion.