We’ve all seen the numbers. America is becoming increasingly diverse and business leaders are exploring ways to address their changing workforce, communications, customers and supplier base. One of the most unsophisticated responses from the marketing arena is for brands to settle for using casting as a way to connect with the growing multicultural population. This trend is being exacerbated by a desire to cast ethnically ambiguous talent that will hypothetically resonate across ethnic lines. Marketers should know that casting ethnically ambiguous talent is not a winning strategy for navigating the cultural landscape of the new America.
Firstly, to cast mostly ethnically ambiguous talent is just an ineffective and lazy attempt to try to connect with everyone. Leaning on casting alone is a shortcut that enables marketers to forgo the work of uncovering cultural insights and nuances that will make creative assets more valuable to specific audiences. It is also incredibly presumptuous to believe that ethnically ambiguous talent provides the best ethnic access point for people of all backgrounds to connect. Brands that do this are essentially relying on the lowest common denominator, a strategy that has consistently been proven to not work. After all, the age-old saying is still very much true today: try to connect with everyone, and you will wind up connecting with no one.
Secondly, to build a portfolio of work that leverages mostly ethnically ambiguous talent is to build a brand story based around a fictitious and inauthentic notion of America – a fantasy America where there are no ethnic differences, where a “perfect blend” has transcended ethnicity and where one’s place of origin is irrelevant. The reality is that ,despite some blurring of ethnic boundaries on culture, we remain an extremely heterogeneous population and our unique ethnic heritages are still used to define a piece of who we are. The most skilled marketers will learn to tell stories that can live within this reality.
And finally, moving towards a place where casting ethnically ambiguous talent becomes the norm is to forfeit our opportunity as advertisers to advance the race and ethnicity conversation. As individuals and organizations with tremendous influence on mass media, we are presented with a chance to “do good” with our ad dollars and evolve the culture of the moment. Casting a majority of ethnically ambiguous talent is a form of modern day tokenism that contemporizes old conversations around socially constructed notions of beauty. Ethnically ambiguous tokenism in ad culture magnifies certain physical attributes that social constructs have assigned a higher value, such as light skin and long hair.
Is casting someone who is ethnically ambiguous a problem? Absolutely not. The problem arises when we begin to think that casting ethnically ambiguous talent is a strategic decision and a silver bullet for adapting to the changing American landscape. Inauthentic marketing messages won’t work no matter how hard we try. Instead, we should develop work that reflects and celebrates the beautiful diversity of the new America.
-Detavio Samuels
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/613445810/in/photostream