A convenient, no-cost, business coaching and educational program is now available for small business owners across the nation. The Business Accelerator has been used by many small businesses to get the much-needed business training they require to grow their business, but cannot afford. The program comes out of American Family Insurance’s Multicultural Marketing Division. “American…
When I saw the Cricket transit ad, “Todo el Poder de Android a una Fraccion del Precio,” I knew it said “all the power of Android, at a fraction of the cost.” But as I looked around me—on a busy corner of downtown Chicago during the after-work rush—I wondered how many others did. And if…
My son enjoyed watching this “multicultural” advertisement for the msi notebook x-series when this post first published in 2009. Out of the blue today he asked to see it again, by name, apparently not because he suddenly took an interest in multicultural marketing, but he remembered there was something about butts (note to self for…
There’s so much fodder just looking at stereotypes and unconscious bias in US advertising, that there’s not much time to take a look at ads in other countries, but this ad (thanks to Larry Kolb in Rgober Ebert’s Journal) is a fun peek into advertising appearances by Hollywood stars in Japan. Having been asked at a park in…
My problem with representations of women in advertising is not that they’re beautiful, nor, given my delight with this ad, that they’re scantily clad. Apparently it’s more of a “boys against girls” mentality. I like this ad because, basically, the girl “wins.” She’s smarter, stronger, slyer, and ‘wins,’ while teaching the boys a thing or…
As an international ‘travel purist,’ I have to admit I fall into that category that looks with disdain at those eating at McDonald’s when in another country. “How could they possible travel this far and then eat at…McDonald’s?” I would think with a certain air of superiority. Well, the joke’s on me! Especially as a…
I know I talk about about how important it is in advertising to have characters who reflect/look like your target market, but the young man in this ad for the Chevrolet Aveo captures me perfectly…Just ask any mother (parent) who has tried to get their child off to school on time in the morning! The young/hip guy having this…
Did you hear about the controversy around the “Microsoft Photo Swap” last month? Microsoft turned a black man into a white man using Photoshop to reuse a photo on a website that ran in Polish, intended exclusively for Poland. Not sure of any backlash in Poland, but people in the US found out, expressed outrage, and Microsoft apologized…
Smart Asian Girl…check! Black Basketball Player…check! Hispanic slut in mini-skirt and heels…check! White/blonde cheerleader…check! I was talking to someone earlier this week about the intersection of anthropology and marketing…how to market to people of different backgrounds without perpetuating stereotypes. “How do you do that?” he asked. While marketing should always start with your objective in…
In evaluating multicultural marketing, it’s good to look at who’s doing what (is the black kid the basketball player? The older adult technologically illiterate? The Latina dancing?), or to keep an eye on ‘agency’ (who has the power–is one group making fun of another, is the group represented the way it would represent…
