Racism in Advertising

Japanese Ad produced during the '40s

 Racism in advertising has been around since advertising first began in the 1800s. Advertisement produced many racially motivating ads in radio, print, and through television as well. An example of the racism that many Americans were exposed to is this syrup ad from a magazine. This ad depicts the man as sloppy-the way he's dressed, the way he speaks is very unappealing, it shows that the company is portraying this man as a lowly educated man. It is obvious that the United States has history of racial injustice not only to African Americans, but to other people as well. During WWII the US produced many racially offensive ads about Japanese to sell their products. With such an extensive history of racism in the US one question still plagues consumers; Is racism still present in today's ads?

In order to address this question we have to answer three other ones; 

    - Can we justify the racism?

- Is racism in the past?

        - Do advertisers have an ethical responsibility?

Whole Foods received negative 

feedback from this ad. Because 

a picture of President Obama 

endorsing chicken.

Dunkin' Donuts ad campaign that was
pulled due to consumer's negative
response to what they interpreted to
be a racially provocative image. 

I believe that any form or inkling of racism in any ad campaign is not justifiable, because what may be funny or appealing to one group of people can be offensive to another, and then severe repercussions can arise from offending someone-aside from the moral issues of racism. Some people argue that racism is still present today, some ads have received negative feedback from publishing certain ads. 

  In the advertising world I believe that racism is a thing of the past, although today we may get ads either print of electronic that pushes the boundaries of acceptable in regards to what can be considered racist or not, we still aren't exposed to the number of racially explicit ads or to the severity of the ads as what was published even fifty years ago. With that said I fully believe and expect for ad companies to uphold a morally respectable image and to have a sense of ethical responsibility to its consumers and society. Ads send a message to its audiences of what is considered to funny and acceptable in today's day and age and so they have to send a positive message that they won't base their products use or success at someone else's expense.