Diversity in Marketing

Commercials have come along way in the last decade. Prior to 2010 the likelihood of finding a company that would take a chance to feature anything else but a “traditional family” was hard find. Hearken back the olden days when “Father Knows Best” and “Happy Days” were television’s biggest hits the marketing back then was predominantly White, Anglo Saxon, Protestant driven (WASPs). These days it’s a different set of cards as it is estimated the United States will become a “majority-minority nation” by 2043 according the U.S. Census Bureau (2016). By the year 2060 the U.S. will be “more racially and ethnically diverse” with 128.8 million Hispanics, and 34.4 million in the Asian population – doubling in size from the last census taken in 2012 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2016).

Reporting’s from Penn State University find that over the last thirty years many Fortune 500 companies have increased efforts in marketing towards a more diverse audience (Austin, nd) yet when it comes to on-air commercials the change has come as recent as the last six years.

According to Marketing-Schools.org (2016) the definition of diversity marketing “involves acknowledging that marketing and advertising must offer alternative ways of communicating to these diverse groups.”Companies like Allstate, Disney, General Mills, Saturn, Target and Nike to name a few that have re-branded their focus and re-branded their commercials to be more inclusive featuring a broad range families and actors regardless of race, gender, religion, age and sexual identity.

In the last few years as television has embraced onscreen transgender actors, digital ads have followed suit, being equally inclusive, especially companies like Nike. Part of Nike’s Unlimited Courage campaign coinciding with the 2016 Summer Olympics, featured Chris Mosier, the first transgender athlete to make the United States men’s national team. The ad depicts Chris running/training and answering  a series of questions like, “…how would you know the team would accept you?” Chris responds to all of the questions with “I didn’t”.

In 2013 General Mills product Cheerios was met with both commendation and condemnation when they released a series of commercials for Super Bowl featuring a mixed race family. According to Goyette (2013) the YouTube comments had to be disabled as hundreds of people spoke out opposing seeing a white mother, a black father and their mixed race daughter.

However General Mills did not back down as they’re commercials still continue to be inclusive regardless of race, gender, religion, age and sexual identity. “Again,” another Cheerios commercial released eight months ago features a compilation of videos, one of which is two mothers playing with their daughter has received over 2 million views.

General Mills also continues to run numerous marketing campaigns that appeal to older consumers of their cereal products. The commercial below features a wife who is driving her elderly father home to live with her and her husband and child.

In the last few years Disney has embraced the online commercial that is almost a mini-movie advertising their different destinations throughout the world. Last year Disney released a digital commercial advertising their Aulani resort located in Oahu, Hi, however the family that was being focused on was two fathers and their three kids. The comments on the YouTube video are all positive, showcasing a “win” when it comes to Disney’s marketing tactic.

Disney and General Mills aren’t the only companies that acknowledge the buying power of both the LGBT and black community. Love reports that the black community are making great strides in professional careers geared toward science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) which is only accelerating their income. Subaru and Absolut vodka are two companies that don’t want to lose the $800 billion the LGBT community has in their pocket to spend annually (Fuller, 2013). As the United States continues to evolve into a one united country, fully accepting differences these commercials won’t seem to be that big of a deal, but for right now it’s pretty amazing to see such diversity spotlighted on televisions and computer screens thanks to the bravery and marketing thinking caps of these companies and marketing agencies.

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