Increased public attention to racial justice following the killing of George Floyd has led to a noticeable shift in how racial diversity in television ads affects potential consumer spending, a study finds.
Northeast researchers Koen Pauwelsdistinguished professor of marketing, and Jacob Bartassociate professor of marketing, measured the effect of racially diverse television advertisements on consumer purchase intentions (average willingness to buy a product or service) with co-authors Gijs Overgoor of the Rochester Institute of Technology and Gokhan Yildirim of Imperial College London.
“Television remains an important and influential medium for persuading consumers,” says Bart. “And there's been a lot of discussion in the media industry about the importance of responding to consumers' desire to see more racial diversity in media content.”
While the importance of diversity from a social perspective is clear, researchers wanted to understand how increasing diversity in visual marketing communication affects consumer attitudes toward brands and companies' profits.
To conduct this study, the researchers developed pre-trained deep learning models that could recognize the faces of people in TV commercials and classify the race of each actor. They then quantified the frequency of black actors appearing for each viewing of an ad.
An important factor in the analysis was Floyd's deatha black man killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. This event sparked a renewed social justice movement and raised awareness of inequality and racism.
Researchers found a marked change in the relationship between racial diversity in television ads and consumers' willingness to purchase a product or service before and after Floyd's murder. They showed how this relationship depends on how consumers process the ads.
Sometimes consumers watch the entire commercial, enabling them to think carefully and deliberately about the message it conveys. This is called central processing.
Other ads may only be shown for a few seconds before consumers change the channel or turn off the TV. In this case, the ad is processed peripherally, superficially and emotionally, says Bart.
The study shows that before Floyd's murder there was a positive relationship between higher representation of black actors in ads and consumers' likelihood to buy from the brands — but only for ads that were more likely to be regionally edited.
“Consumers saw some black actors [in the commercial] and said “Well, the brand probably thinks so [racial diversity]Bart says. “And we want to support that.”
What surprised the researchers most was that consumers were less inclined to buy from brands with a higher representation of black actors in their ads when they engaged in central processing.
Bart and Pauwels hypothesize that brands' desire to include more black actors in their ads has potentially backfired. Consumers who watched the ads more closely saw them as inauthentic and genuine, but rather motivated by the perceived change in sociopolitical agenda and context.
“Under such heightened scrutiny of television ads, the impact of racial diversity on consumer purchase intention is less likely to be positive,” the study concluded, “because consumers are more likely to perceive the brand's ad as authentic, effective or dishonest effort. to capitalize on public attention to racial inequality.”
Advertising is seen as much more genuine, Pauwels says, when brands consistently consider racial equality outside of special occasions like Black History Month and Juneteenth.
“In general, I would say, if this is something you really believe in as a company or a brand, then you should do it consistently, and not just when it's in the public eye,” he says.
“What really matters is that it's important to understand the intricacies, the nuances of what happens when brands increase diversity in their marketing communications,” says Bart. “It's not as simple as, 'hey, let's bring in more black actors.'
In the future, Pauwels and Bart plan to focus on the impact of diversity, equity and inclusion more broadly and explore the impact of higher visibility in marketing communications of other underrepresented groups, based on race, gender, sexuality and social class .
“This expanded focus would help create a more inclusive and authentic representation in advertising, further challenging stereotypes and promoting positive social change,” the researchers conclude.
Alëna Kuzub is a reporter for Northeastern Global News. Email her at a.kuzub@northeastern.edu. Follow her on X/Twitter @AlenaKuzub.
