The Good (Black Girl) News This Week: We’re Forcing Advertisers To Show More Of Us

June 29th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

We may not need more black people on TV or in magazines to validate our worth but that doesn’t mean we still wouldn’t like to see a lot more color a little bit of everywhere. Finally, a new coalition of leaders in black media is putting their money where their mouth and not just talking about the need for more images of us in television advertising, but trying to force advertisers to do so.

The New York Times reports:

BET Networks, Black Enterprise, Johnson Publishing (the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines), the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and others will join with media-buying agencies to introduce a campaign intended to educate advertisers about the importance of black media and its increasingly deep-pocketed audience.

Called #InTheBlack (using the Twitter hash tag), the campaign will begin with print advertisements in major newspapers (including The New York Times) and trade magazines like Broadcasting & Cable and Adweek. It will expand to a long-term joint effort that includes social media and direct outreach to marketers.

The Times points out the irony of so many outlets these days pushing to create Spanish-language channels, radio, TV, and print promotions due to the population shift, while simultaneously overlooking the $1.2 trillion projected buying power the black community is expected to have by 2015.

Pointing out that most advertisers figure black people will get the message anyway without being specifically targeted, Debra L. Lee, chief executive at BET Networks, said:

“Any well-developed media plan should include both [generic and targeted advertising]. Black media has a special connection to black audiences.”

Hopefully this #InTheBlack effort will penetrate the masses. It’s great to see us doing more than complaining about this well known problem. What do you think?

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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  • Alexandria

    It’s not about us “spending too much already”, it’s about our faces and voices being seen and heard in more than rap videos. They do need us in their commercials, Tv shows, films etc. We have just as much influence in this country as other races in a lot of ways. I will say that these comapnies may be doing this with selfish intent but in the end, it can only benefit the black community and we can infiltrate mainstream media…finally.

    • Papillon

      I suggest reading the NYT article that is linked if you haven’t done so already. There’s no mention of putting more Black faces in commercials, only of advertisers spending more on Black media. And just because they advertise on Black media, doesn’t mean they have to put Black faces on their advertisements. So how will more advertising on Black media help us cross over into mainstream media?

  • Brittany

    I think our culture tends to be to materialistic as it is… I don’t mind Black people not being advertised to as much either.

  • Papillon

    If advertisers are trying to reach me they won’t reach me through typical Black media. I never watch BET and only rarely TVOne. I haven’t read Ebony/Essence in ages. However I do watch a ton of Food Network and Cooking Channel. I’m not going to be where they expect me to be.

    Call me skeptical, but I don’t think this coalition is about diversifying advertising. Who benefits from more advertising on Black media? BET, Johnson Publishing, and the other members of the coalition, that’s who. And personally, I don’t mind Black people not being advertised to as much. We spend too much as it is. We certainly don’t need encouragement to spend even more.