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Lesson 2: Race, Culture, and Media in Our Society
"Missed the Mark"
“Missed the mark.” It's the common phrase companies use when they “unintentionally” use racial groups in offensive ways in their marketing efforts.
Is it really unintentional? Most likely. But what’s really happening? How can we explain major companies getting it so wrong?
Select each of the dots in the following slideshow to view real life examples of how major companies "missed the mark." Click on the thumbnail images to enlarge and see details. Click again to collapse.
H & M
The New York Times reports that, in January 2018, the clothing retailer H&M apologized...for an image appearing in its online store that showed a black child model wearing a hooded sweatshirt that said “coolest monkey in the jungle.” The company removed the image...and said it would also pull the shirt from its stores worldwide.
The image was widely criticized online for its reference to a monkey, an animal that has long featured in racial and ethnic slurs. (Stack, 2018)
H&M stressed that the offensive correlation was unintentional. But, as Stack continues, "mistakes like this happen in the world of advertising with some regularity" (2018).
Dove
In October 2017, Dove, the soap company owned by Unilever, apologized for a Facebook ad that showed a black woman removing her brown shirt to reveal a smiling white woman in a crisp white shirt underneath.
The ad was criticized for employing a racist trope that black people could use soap to clean themselves into white people. In a statement at the time, Dove said it was “committed to representing the beauty of diversity” but had “missed the mark” with its ad, which was removed from Facebook. (Astor, 2017)
Nivea - Case 1
In April 2017, skincare brand Nivea pulled a deodorant ad that declared “White Is Purity” after people protested that the slogan is racist, and after others hijacked the ad’s online campaign with comments about white supremacy....
The caption on Nivea’s Facebook post read: “Keep it clean, keep bright. Don’t let anything ruin it, #Invisible.” (BBC News, 2017)
Nivea - Case 2
Time reports that, back in 2011, the same company had run an ad showing a well-groomed black man about to toss what looks like a rubber mask with scruffy facial hair and a large afro. The short-haired model, who is clean-shaven and wearing preppy casual Friday attire, sharply contrasts his former, pre-Nivea-using symbolic self. The text emblazoned over the model: “RE-CIVILIZE YOURSELF.”
The text in particular has been deemed insensitive and racist, as the idea of being “uncivilized” has historically been associated with African Americans, Africans, and pretty much anyone who isn’t white, Western or "first world." (Ma, 2011)
Pepsi
In October 2017, Pepsi featured reality star Kendall Jenner in a commercial appearing to borrow imagery from the Black Lives Matter movement, a grassroots effort created in 2013 to campaign against violence and systemic racism toward Black people. The ad also portrayed nearly every racial and ethnic group in stereotypical ways:
- Asians playing violin,
- Blacks dancing to hip hop,
- Muslim women wearing hijabs, and
- the LGBT community amidst rainbows.
According to critics, the ad, in which Jenner steps in the middle of a protest and saves the day with a soda, "trivialized the widespread protests against the killings of black people by the police," calling both it and the company "tone deaf" (Victor, 2017).
Like the other companies, Pepsi apologized, stating that it had been "trying to project a global message of unity, peace, and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark" (Victor, 2017).
Starbucks
In 2018, on April 12, a white manager at Starbucks [in Philadelphia] asked two black men to leave after they asked to use the restroom despite not having bought anything. When they refused to leave, the manager called the police, who ended up arresting the two men. The apparent charge was trespassing, but Starbucks ultimately did not press charges. (Stalder, 2018)
What did Starbucks do? Apologize.
Unlike many companies before, however, it took another step by closing 8,000 stores across the country in May 2018 to conduct trainings on unconscious bias.
Unconscious, or implicit, bias refers to bias—prejudice—that we’re not aware we hold against a particular group, but that can still affect how we act toward that group. If a store manager sees trouble in Black patrons’ behavior but not in White patrons, or if ad executives use language or images in ads that "unintentionally" offends minority groups, they are demonstrating unconscious bias. In Lesson 5 we will further discuss this case from the stereotyping perspective.
