This article explores the persistence of stereotypical representations of Native Americans as brand images and situates a call for change within an ethics of representation. American Spirit Cigarettes are used as an illustrative case study to demonstrate that these representations cannot be relegated to less enlightened times, rather endure because naturalization is part of commodified racism. The present essay argues for engagement in representational ethics on the part of communicators to interrupt the contribution of stereotypes to the maintenance of colonial ideologies.
American Indian Mental Health Association of Minnesota (1992) Position statement regarding the use of team mascot/namesakes that convey an image of the Native people of this land, Minneapolis, MN: Author.
BorgersonJ. L.SchroederJ. E. (2005) An ethics of representation for international marketing communication. International Marketing Communication22(5): 578–600.
10.
BorgersonJ. L.SchroederJ. E. (2008) Building an ethics of visual representation: Contesting epistemic closure in marketing communication. In: MorlandM. P.WerhaneP. (eds) Cutting edge issues in business ethics, Boston, MA: Springer, pp. 87–108.
11.
Burnham, P. (1992, May 27). Indians can’t shake label as guides to good buys. The Washington Times, p. E1.
12.
BurnsL. (2008) Identifying concrete ethical demands in the face of the abstract other. Philosophy & Social Criticism34: 315–336.
13.
CaiazzaA.ShawA.WerschkulM. (2004) Women’s economic status in the states: Wide disparities by race, ethnicity, and region, Washington, DC: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, pp. 1–48.
14.
CinamonG. (2000) Rudolf Koch: Letterer, type designer, teacher, New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press.
15.
CoombesR. J. (1998) The cultural life of intellectual properties: Authorship, appropriation, and the law, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
16.
CorteseA. J. (1999/2008) Provocateur: Images of women and minorities in advertising, New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield.
17.
Darian-SmithK. (2002) Material culture and the “signs” of captive white women. In: CreedB.HoornJ. (eds) Body trade: Captivity, cannibalism, and colonialism in the Pacific, London, England: Routledge, pp. 180–194.
18.
DomashM. (2004) Selling civilization: Toward a cultural analysis of America’s economic empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers29(4): 453–467.
19.
DoxaterM. G. (2004) Indigenous knowledge in the decolonial era. American Indian Quarterly28(3/4): 618–633.
20.
EdgertonG. (1994) A breed apart”: Hollywood, racial stereotyping, and the premise of revisionism in The Last of the Mohicans. Journal of American Culture17(2): 1–20.
21.
EllwoodI. (2002) The essential brand book: Over 100 techniques to increase brand value, London, England: Kogan Page.
22.
FranzenG.MoriartyS. E. (2008) The science and art of branding, New York, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
23.
FrengA. (2007) American Indians in the news: A media portrayal in crime articles. American Indian Culture and Research31(1): 21–37.
24.
Frieden, T. R. (2011, January 14). CDC health disparities and inequalities report: United States, 2011. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 60, 1–114.
25.
GanjeL. A. (2011) Marketing the sacred. In: RossS. D.LesterP. M. (eds) Images that injure, New York, NY: Praeger, pp. 91–106.
HallS. (1997) Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices, London, England: Sage.
32.
HorneD. A. (1999) Contemporary American Indian writing: Unsettling literature, New York, NY: Peter Lang.
33.
JohnstonC. B. (2000) Screened out: How the media control us and what we can do about it, New York, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
34.
KingC. R. (1998) Spectacles, sports, and stereotypes: Dis/playing Chief Illiniwick. In: KingC. R. (eds) Colonial discourse, collective memories, and the exhibition of Native American cultures and histories in the contemporary United States, New York, NY: Garland, pp. 58–41.
35.
KingC. R. (2001) Easy Indians: Creating and contesting Native American mascots at Marquette University. In: KingC. R.SpringwoodC. F. (eds) Team spirits: Essays on the history and significance of Native American mascots, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 281–303.
36.
KingC. R. (2004) Borrowing power: Racial metaphors and pseudo-Indian mascots. CR: The New Centennial Review4(1): 189–209.
37.
KlopotekB. (2001) “I guess your warrior look doesn’t work every time”: Challenging Indian masculinity in the cinema. In: BassoM. (eds) Across the great divide: Cultures of manhood in the American West, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 251–273.
38.
Koch, W. (2011, July 27). Cigarette ads have tobacco foes fuming. USA Today, p. 3A.
39.
LarsonC. (1937) Patent-medicine advertising and the early American press. Journalism Quarterly14(4): 337–339.
ManringM. M. (1998) Slave in a box: The strange career of Aunt Jemima, Charlottesville: University of Virginia.
42.
MansveltJ. (2005) Geographies of consumption, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
43.
McClintockA. (1995) Imperial leather: Race, gender, and sexuality in the colonial contest, New York, NY: Routledge.
44.
McCrackenG. (1993) The value of the brand: An anthropological perspective. In: AakerD.BielA. L. (eds) Brand equity in advertising: Advertising’s role in building strong brands, Matwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 125–140.
45.
McLaughlinJ. (2000) Writing the urban jungle, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
46.
MerskinD. (1998) Sending up signals: A survey of American Indian media use and representation in the mass media. Howard Journal of Communications9: 333–345.
47.
MerskinD. (2001) Winnebagos, Cherokees, Apaches, and Dakotas: The persistence of stereotyping of American Indians in American advertising brands. Howard Journal of Communications12: 159–169.
48.
MerskinD. (2004) The construction of Arabs as enemies. Mass Communication & Society7(2): 157–175.
49.
MerskinD. (2010) The S-word: Discourse, stereotypes, and the American Indian woman. Howard Journal of Communication21: 345–366.
50.
MihelichJ. (2001) Smoke or signals? American popular culture and the challenge to hegemonic images of American Indians in Native American film. Wicazo Sa Review16(2): 129–137.
51.
MihesuahD. A. (1996) American Indians: Stereotypes and realities, Atlanta, GA: Clarity Press.
52.
MillerA.RossS. (2004) They are not us: Framing of American Indians by the Boston Globe. Howard Journal of Communications15(4): 245–259.
53.
NagelJ. (2000) Ethnicity and sexuality. Annual Review of Sociology26: 107–133.
54.
O’BarrW. M. (1994) Culture and the ad: Exploring otherness in the world of advertising, Boulder, CO: Westview.
55.
ObolerS. (1998) Hispanics? That’s what they call us. In: DelgadoR.StefancicJ. (eds) The Latino/a condition: A critical reader, New York: New York University Press, pp. 3–5.
56.
PerryB. (2002) From ethnocide to ethno violence: Layers of Native American victimization. Contemporary Justice Review5(3): 231–247.
57.
Ramírez BergC. (1990) Stereotyping in films in general and of the Hispanic in particular. Howard Journal of Communications2(3): 286–300.
58.
SaidE. (1978) Orientalism, New York, NY: Pantheon.
59.
SanchezJ. (2003) How American public schools using down-linked news media shape American Indian identity. Howard Journal of Communications14: 39–48.
60.
SanchezV. E. (2012) Buying into racism: American Indian product icons in the American marketplace. In: CarstarphenM. G.SanchezJ. P. (eds) American Indians and the massmedia, Norman: University of Oklahoma, pp. 153–168.
61.
SchmittB.SimonsonA. (1997) Marketing aesthetics: The strategic management of brands, identity, and image, New York, NY: The Free Press.
62.
SchroederJ. E.BorgersonJ. L. (2005) An ethics of representation for international marketing communication. International Marketing Review22(5): 578–600.
63.
SchwarzM. T. (2013) Fighting colonialism with hegemonic culture, Albany, NY: SUNY.
64.
SigelmanL. (1998) Hail to the Redskins? Public reaction to a racially insensitive team name. Sociology of Sport15(4): 317–325.
65.
Smith, A. B. (2000). Shooting cowboys and Indians: Silent western films, American culture, and the birth of Hollywood (PhD dissertation). University of California, Los Angeles.
66.
StaurowskyE. J. (1998) The Cleveland Indians’ use of the Louis Francis Sockalexis story. Sociology of Sport Journal15: 299–316.
67.
StaurowskyE. J. (2007) “You know, we are all Indian”: Exploring white power and privilege reactions to the NCAA Native American mascot policy. Journal of Sport and Social Issues31(1): 67–76.
68.
StricklandR. (1997) Tonto’s revenge: Reflections on American Indian culture and policy, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
69.
Summary of the APA resolution recommending the immediate retirement of American Indian Mascots. American Psychological Association press release. (2014). Retrieved fromhttp://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/indian-mascots.aspx.
70.
TovaresR. (2002) Mascot matters: Race, history, and the University of North Dakota’s “Fighting Sioux” logo. Journal of Communication Inquiry26(1): 76–94.
