Viewer Responses to Character Race and Social Status in Advertising: Blacks See Color, Whites See Class

Abstract

Research on minority appearances in advertising has suggested that racial minorities need to be not only more numerically represented but more appropriately portrayed in a variety of social class contexts. While studies have explored the impact of character race on viewer responses to advertising, little empirical work has been done to understand the impact of characters' social status portrayal on viewers' identification with advertising characters. This article focuses on how the social class portrayal of black and white characters influences advertisement evaluations and identification with advertising characters. Character race and social status is manipulated in print ads to examine differences in viewer response. Results indicate that black participants use race as the primary cue in evaluating a character, while white participants use social class as the primary cue. These findings are consistent with identification and distinctiveness theories. Additionally, evidence is found suggesting blacks use social status and whites use race as secondary cues. Implications for advertisers and the social impact of social class portrayals are discussed.

Acknowledgments

This article was accepted by Claude Martin and James Leigh, previous editors of the Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising.

An earlier draft of this article was presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association in Chicago, IL, May 2009. The authors thank the reviewers for their helpful comments in editing this article.

Notes

Note. Means in the same row with a different a–b after them are significantly different at the p < 0.05 level.

Note. Means in the same row with a different a–c after them are significantly different at the p < 0.05 level.

Note. Means in the same row with a different a–c after them are significantly different at the p < .05 level.

Note. Means in the same row with a different a–c after them are significantly different at the p < .05 level.