Citations and Annotations

Time for some critical thinking.

My topic: The prevalence of stereotypical representations of minorities, specifically Asian Pacific Americans, in modern advertising and their consequences on ethnic identity. Here are a couple of the thought-provoking articles/studies that I found.

1) Forehand, Mark R., and Rohit Deshpande. "What We See Makes Us Who We Are: Priming Ethnic Self-awareness and Advertising Response." Journal of Marketing Research 38.3 (2001): 336-348.

The authors, researchers at the University of Washington and Harvard Business School, hypothesize that the process of ‘ethnic self-awareness’ occurs when people are exposed to a ‘prime’ that compels them to categorize themselves as members of a certain ethnic group. For example, the strategic use of verbal or visual cues, such as the presence of a spokesperson of the same ethnicity or the direct naming of an ethnic group, in targeted advertising may prompt this self-awareness. The researchers conducted two experiments in which they varied the appearance of targeted advertisements, the targeted audience being Asian Americans, among a diverse group of participants. Their hypothesis was strongly supported; Asian Americans were more likely to respond positively as well as more likely to self-report themselves as a certain ethnicity when they were exposed to the prime. However, ethnic self-awareness cannot be confused with ethnic identity. Ethnic identity is the already existing tendency to identify oneself as being a member of a group, whereas ethnic self-awareness is characterized by its momentary effect. Viewers with a low sense of ethnic identity may still become temporarily self-aware if prompted. Therefore, this study has important implications. Advertising agencies should be made aware of this phenomenon because for Asian Americans who many not have a strong ethnic identification, advertisements, especially those that contain positive and/or negative stereotypical images, may skew their sense of self-awareness.

2) Appiah, Osei. "Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian American Adolescents' Responses to Culturally Embedded Ads." Howard Journal of Communications 12.1 (2001): 29-48.

The researcher from Iowa State University looked at how adolescents responded to advertisements, specifically whether the presence of racial minorities and cultural cues had a positive effect on their viewing. Cultural cues are the values, symbols, traditions, etc. that are indicative of a certain racial group. Research indicates the most effective ads are ones that contain characters viewers perceive to be most similar to themselves, and will therefore identify with them and believe the ad is intended for them. Viewers will also be more affected by ads that are strongly culturally embedded with cues that pertain to their racial group. Further, the Distinctiveness Theory posits that ethnicity has a much more profound effect if the group is considered to be the numeric minority. This study differed in that the researcher looked at how Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, and Asian Americans responded to print ads only targeted to Blacks. These ads varied in Black models and Black cultural cues. Results supported research in that the similar race of the character was the most important predictor of the adolescents’ responses to the ads. Cultural cues did have an effect only if they were believed to be relevant to the lives of the audience. Hispanics and Asian Americans, although not the target audience of the ad, still responded favorably because they related to groups that were also considered to be the minority. The study pertains to my topic in that the theories can be applied to ads that specifically target Asian Americans and will hopefully produce the same results. Future advertisements should consider the amount of racial models and types of cultural cues present if they hope to produce the desired affect on the audience.