It's Not Black and White: Advertising and Race in Cultural Context

ABSTRACT

Studies in the United States have found that matching an advertising model's race to the target audience is an effective marketing strategy. However, race is a cultural construct and little research has been conducted on race and advertising effectiveness outside of the United States. This study, conducted with female consumers in Brazil, found that advertisements were not more effective when the subject and the model were of the same race. To better understand the psychological processes triggered by race, this study explored two related but distinct conditions of identification: similarity and liking. It found that in conditions of boundary permeability between groups, liking is more important than similarity in determining advertising effectiveness in the target sample. A general model is proposed.