The Conundrum of Diversity for Marketers and Advertisers

In today's world of heightened awareness of the importance of diversity - ethnic, religious and gender - what role should marketers and advertisers play? The answer seems obvious. Contribute positively to the portrayal of diversity and the surrounding discussion it creates. In a 2016 survey by Shutterstock, one of the most striking of the study’s findings was that 88 percent of U.S. marketers in the survey agreed with the statement “Using more diverse images helps a brand’s reputation.” (read more about this study on Adweek.com)

Some brands have been successful in spite of initial backlash - think of the Cheerios TV spot that showed an endearing family that just happened to be bi-racial - which General Mills refused to pull in spite of all of the controversy. (watch this related video on the KIds React channel - it gives me great hope for this generation of kids growing up)

And General Mills is not alone. Target has run ads featuring gay couples and even WPP agency Grey is requiring all staffers who work on creative for a client to answer this question: How can we make the idea reflect and respect the world's diversity?

But, (and this is a big but) there are many sectors, brands, and companies who have failed to address this issue at all or addressed it poorly. (Full Disclosure: I live in Southern California) I asked my millennial-aged daughter what she thought of the need to show diversity in marketing messaging. Her response, "First, you are asking the wrong demographic (ever the marketer's daughter, I made her draw up a business and marketing plan for her lemonade stand when she was five) and second, when I do see diversity it is only as a token attempt.".

Think about it for a moment. When have you ever seen travel marketers and publishers use imagery other than that of fit, young Caucasian people? I am not trying to pick on any one industry, this is only a single example of which there are many.

When I was working in the toy sector there were many discussions about diversity that ended up going, well, absolutely nowhere. If it was a gender neutral product the imagery always had to use a boy because boys only can envision themselves using the product if it reflects the male sex, while girls were more open-minded and didn't have that bias (I never saw any research to prove or disprove this theory). Models need to be generic enough (aka - white) to sell in the middle of the country. International markets demanded imagery that reflected the bias' in their territories.

In this era of #blacklivesmatter, #metoo, and #oscarssowhite do we as marketers and advertisers follow our moral compass or do we cave into corporate/industry traditions, fear of potential criticism, and the old white man's world? I believe we can make this a better, more diverse and more tolerant world.