Multicultural Articles

The highly anticipated ads of Super Bowl XLVI have, once again, provoked commentary from marketing experts who target Hispanic, Asian-American, African American, LGBT and other ethnic/niche consumers. MMR asked these top experts, listed in our annual directory, The Source Book of Multicultural Experts, to provide their analysis of the Super Bowl ads from a multicultural perspective.

Insights from the Experts

By Lafayette Jones, CEO, SMSi-Urban Call Marketing Inc., Publisher, Urban Call
"Stinky" for Procter & Gamble's Downy Unstopables: In case you missed it, "Mean Joe Greene" was back with a passion.  Procter & Gamble made over the iconic '80s commercial to feature their Downy Unstopables.  It was aired in the pregame ads of Super Bowl 2012. This time the retired Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle was featured along with comedian Amy Sedaris who stepped in to offer the limping football player, not a Coke, but the product that would freshen up his football jersey.  Insistent as the little African-American boy with the Coke, Sedaris succeeds in tossing the Downy scent booster to Mean Joe, and he in turn tosses her his smelly jersey.  The comic twist, of course, is that she is not as exuberant as the little boy and quickly tosses it back.  The original commercial, one of the highest rated of all Super Bowl ads, was revolutionary on its first airing because it featured an African-American father figure and a boy - roles not often portrayed in major advertising campaigns none the less the Super Bowl. It also lifted this black man to the status of Super Hero and tugged at the heartstrings of both general market viewers and evoked great pride in Black families.  Now with Black men in many leadership capacities, including the U.S. presidency, and the very visible professional NFL player group, the remake's humor is well played.  Like many advertisers, P&G released the ad online to get "more bang for their buck" said the Wall Street Journal noting that many marketers spent  "$3.5 million for a 30 seconds of commercial time - the equivalent of $116,667 a second."  Ad Week says that airing the spot in pre-game time was a smart media buy. A mere $1 million dollars.  And the talk value continues. For more information on this expert visit http://multicultural.com/multicultural_markets/african-american.

Tari Hartman Squire, CEO, EIN SOF Communications, Inc.
As the NY Giants take a victory lap, most of the imaginative commercials fumbled a chance to score a slice of an emerging market by excluding disability-savvy images. Super Bowl ads can increase sales 3 - 9% one month after the broadcast. Smart advertisers might want to consider pursuing customers with disabilities...after all people with disabilities account for 20% of the population. 54 million Americans with disabilities have purchasing power of $220 billion PLUS brand-loyal family, friends and colleagues. Best Buy's "Choose Phone Freedom" spot was "spot on" with choosing Ray Kurzweil as one of its mobile technology pioneers.  In highlighting Kurzweil, Best Buy wove an accessible welcome mat for this oft-ignored market ... "I'm Ray Kurzweil"...and the smart phone says, "I gave your words a voice." It's true!  Kurzweil invented text-to-speech, great Universal Design technology that allows blind (and sighted) people to hear written words. He also helps millions with learning disabilities to level the playing field and increase productivity at school, work and in the community.  The NY Giants won Super Bowl XLVI, and I'm voting Best Buy as MVP for its good field position to tackle the competition when it comes to disability-inclusive diversity and savvy messaging. For more information on this expert visit http://multicultural.com/multicultural_markets/disability.

Saul Gitlin, EVP Strategic Services, Kang & Lee Advertising
While there was, thankfully,  nothing very controversial about the Super Bowl advertising this year, many of this year's spots stood out for their wholly unremarkable attention to diversity - admittedly, with a few noteworthy and laudable exceptions: Budweiser, Pepsi, Audi (diversity of vampires!), and just one or two others. For most of the rest, brands were largely used or endorsed by 'mainstream' (read, 'white') talent in otherwise expected 'mainstream' settings and situations. The net result: many missed opportunities to connect with consumers, especially given the exploding multicultural demographics of the country overall, within the home geographies of the two competing teams, and among football fans specifically. For more information on this expert visit http://multicultural.com/multicultural_markets/asian-american.

Laura Sonderup, Managing Director, Hispanidad
Over the past few years, the commercials that run during the Super Bowl seem to be anticipated almost as enthusiastically as the game itself!  While some of this year's commercials fell flat, I was impressed with the racial and ethnic diversity that several companies featured in their ads. Specifically, my favorite was the spot highlighting the work of Ronald McDonald House Charities and little Anastacio Cuevas. The :30 spot focused on the touching story of a child beating leukemia, with his family by his side. And how delightful to discover that the placement was paid for by McDonald's Corporation! A close second was the Suzuki Kizashi spot - I loved the integration of indigenous language in what was a well-executed, witty commercial. For more information on this expert visit http://multicultural.com/_webapp_4062578/Laura_Sonderup.

Candace M. Kennedy, Director, Sales and Marketing, Ethnic Technologies, LLC
I thought NBC and their sports coverage team's short stories on the players cultural heritage was a nice touch. They covered Victor Cruz's and Aaron Hernandez's Hispanic roots, they also did a short story on the Giants Mathias Kagimu Kiwanuka Ugandan heritage and last but not least during the game the shot of Jason Puierre-Paul's Haitian immigrant father in the stands watching his son play in the game. All of the ads had a very mosaic coverage in regards to the multicultural community. Audi, Budweiser, Toyota, Xbox and Pizza Hut all showed a multicultural presence but none were specifically targeted to one segment of the population. This could be attributed to area specific advertising. I felt the Chrysler ad, with Clint Eastwood, hit a home run not only showing the great  Diversity of the population but touching on something important to every American.  Fiat did a wonderful job showing their new Abarths Italian roots with the girl speaking in Italian but still was not targeted towards one segment on the multicultural community. For more information on this expert visit http://multicultural.com/resources/direct_marketing.

Roshini Rajkumar, Speaker & Communication Coach, Roshini Performance Group
Kia --This ad is creative and full of surprises. Of all the car ads this season, it appears to actually focus on women as much or more than on men. Its fairytale quality with a male "prince" still maintains a level of male-appeal. Many of the Super Bowl 2012 spots are hugely male-focused so it's refreshing to see Kia intentionally include prospective women clients-many of whom are football fans. Chevy Sonic --This ad was super boring. Not only does this spot solely focus on a male audience, it manages to make extreme sports seem uninteresting. This spot is highly exclusive-of women, of non-extreme sports types, as well as of some men who are would-be Chevy Sonic buyers but might be turned off at how flatly this ad was executed. Chevy loses a great opportunity to open up some key female potential customer markets as well as target some additional men. The Dictator Trailer --The producers of this movie trailer are banking on the fact that everyone who watches the trailer understands this movie star's brand of comedic humor. If viewers don't get it, watch out because trailer makers will get labeled "racist" or "highly-offensive." Even those who understand this particular actor's brand of comedy might feel uncomfortable with how a Middle Eastern figure gets portrayed. At a time when political unrest in the Middle East is by no means near its end, this trailer risks inciting a racial divide. For more information on this expert visit http://multicultural.com/_webapp_3798630/Roshini_Rajkumar.

Ron Campbell, Pres./CEO, Campbell-Communications
This year's Super Bowl XLVI advertising was the least strategic, memorable and multicultural in recent memory. If nothing else they were the least diverse with a few exceptions. Xbox and NFL Play 360 along with Toyota had diverse casting. However, this should not be mistaken as being multicultural. Samsung also had diverse casting and in my opinion their approach could backfire because the diversity casting in the Samsung spot had very little reason to exist. Diverse casting alone, with no credible reason for its existence, based on the message platform and communications strategy, can create a brand deficit and may even be seen as insincere by the viewer.  Coca Cola typically a very good multicultural advertiser hid behind their cute iconic polar bears. At least it was entertaining unlike most of the other commercials. It was hard to phantom that advertisers with multiple spots felt that reaching multicultural America was not a prime goal for them. Using athletes doesn't count. I can't imagine one or more ethnic segments aren't a target for their automobiles. Even more disheartening was the continued use of stereotypes for African Americans as seen in the Cars.com Super Bowl commercial. Sadly, after decades multicultural consumers are ringing the doorbell waiting for it to be answered and the door opened. For more information on this expert visit http://multicultural.com/_webapp_3197031/Campbell,_Ron.