The Impact of the 2020 BLM Resurgence on the Racial Representations of Ads and Ad Evaluations: Analysis of Super Bowl Ads

Abstract

Arabic

Spanish

French

Chinese

Using ads from four Super Bowl broadcasts (2019–2022), we examined the impacts of the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) resurgence on the ad representations of diverse racial groups and the evaluations of ads featuring Black models. Findings show increases in quantitative representations (number and duration) for Black ad models, but this improvement was not linked to qualitative representations (portrayal, prominent role, and hierarchy status). Findings also show the limited influence of the 2020 BLM resurgence on evaluations of advertisements featuring Black models. We also examined how the impact of the 2020 BLM resurgence on advertising shifted from 2021 to 2022.

Keywords

Black Lives Matter (BLM)2020 BLM resurgence racial representations in ads social cognitive theory macromarketing cosmetic colorblindness Super Bowl

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alcorn

(2021, February 9). Aunt Jemima finally has a new name. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/09/business/aunt-jemima-new-name/index.html

Aubrey

J. S.

Miller

Bond

B. J.

Roberts

(2023). The lessons will be televised: Examining television portrayals of sexual consequences by gender. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 100(1), 172–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990211073953

Bacon

(2023, March 1). Today’s civil rights movement is so different from the ’60s. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/01/black-lives-matter-sixties-civil-rights-movement/

Bailey

A. A.

(2006). A year in the life of the African-American male in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 35(1), 83–104. https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-3367350106

Bandura

(1977). Social learning theory. Prentice-Hall.

Bennett

W. L.

Segerberg

(2012). The logic of connective action: Digital media and the personalization of contentious politics. Cambridge University Press.

Black Lives Matter. (2020). About. https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/

Blumer

(1969). Symbolic interaction. Prentice-Hall.

Bonaparte

Y. L.

(2020). Meeting the moment: Black Lives Matter, racial inequality, corporate messaging, and rebranding. Advertising & Society Quarterly, 21(3). https://doi.org/10.1353/asr.2021.0000

10.

Buchanan

Bui

Patel

J. K.

(2020, July 3). Black Lives Matter may be the largest movement in U.S. history. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html

11.

Clark

M. D.

(2019). White folks’ work: Digital allyship praxis in the# BlackLivesMatter movement. Social Movement Studies, 18(5), 519–534.

12.

Clark

P. W.

Martin

C. A.

Bush

A. J.

(2001). The effect of role model influence on adolescents’ materialism and marketplace knowledge. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 9(4), 27–36.

13.

Clayton

D. M.

(2018). Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights movement: A comparative analysis of two social movements in the United States. Journal of Black Studies, 49(5), 448–480. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934718764099

14.

Cohn

Quealy

(2020, June 10). How public opinion has moved on Black Lives Matter. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/10/upshot/black-lives-matter-attitudes.html

15.

Covert

J. J.

Dixon

T. L.

(2008). A changing view: Representation and effects of the portrayal of women of color in mainstream women’s magazines. Communication Research, 35(2), 232–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650207313166

16.

Della Porta

Diani

. (2006). Social movements: An introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.

17.

Draper

(2021, February 9). Super Bowl ratings hit a 15-year low. It still outperformed everything else. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/sports/football/super-bowl-television-ratings.html

18.

Dunivin

Yan

Ince

Rojas

(2022). Black Lives Matter protests shift public discourse. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(10), e2117320119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2117320119

19.

Dunklin

Jennings

(2022). “Where’s the outrage?”: An analysis of #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackTransLivesMatter Twitter counterpublics. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 99(3), 763–783. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990221109236

20.

Edrington

C. L.

(2022). Social Movements and Identification: An examination of how Black Lives Matter and March for Our Lives use identification strategies on Twitter to build relationships. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 99(3), 643–659. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990221106994

21.

Ernst

(2010). The price of progressive politics: The welfare rights movement in an era of colorblind racism. New York University Press.

22.

Gan

Chen

H. T.

(2023). Sex, race, and femininity: Young Chinese females’ responses to lingerie advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 43(2), 234–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2023.2179283

23.

Garza

(2014, October 7). A herstory of the Black Lives Matter movement. The Feminist Wire. https://www.thefeministwire.com/2014/10/blacklivesmatter-2

24.

Grant

Jenkins

Cabas-Mijares

(2022). Selling Breonna: Twitter responses to Breonna Taylor on the covers of O, The Oprah Magazine and Vanity Fair. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 99(3), 784–801.

25.

Humphrey

Schuman

(1984). The portrayal of Blacks in magazine advertisements: 1950-1982. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 48(3), 551–563.

26.

Hunt

(1981). Macromarketing as a multidimensional concept. Journal of Macromarketing, 1(1), 7–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/027614678100100103

27.

Ince

Rojas

Davis

C. A.

(2017). The social media response to Black Lives Matter: How Twitter users interact with Black Lives Matter through hashtag use. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(11), 1814–1830.

28.

Jennings

(2020). The love note that launched a movement. ASA Footnotes, 48(4), 15–16.

29.

Johnson

G. D.

Grier

S. A.

(2011). Targeting without alienating: Multicultural advertising and the subtleties of targeted advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 30(2), 233–258.

30.

Kadirov

(2018). Towards a theory of marketing systems as the public good. Journal of Macromarketing, 38(3), 278–297. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146718767949

31.

Kean

L. G.

Prividera

L. C.

(2007). Communicating about race and health: A content analysis of print advertisements in African American and general readership magazines. Health Communication, 21(3), 289–297.

32.

Lee

(2021, February 12). The Super Bowl 2021 ads were diverse, but did people of color even notice? Reach 3. https://www.reach3insights.com/blog/super-bowl-2021-advertising-diversity

33.

Levin

, (2021, March 7). These US cities defunded police: “We’re transferring money to the community.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/07/us-cities-defund-police-transferring-money-community

34.

Macionis

(2001). Sociology (8th ed.). Prentice Hall.

35.

Mai

Haytko

D. L.

Taillon

B. J.

(2022). How advertisements mixing black and white actors affect consumer intent: Perceived authenticity can strengthen responses to interracial advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 62(3), 252–270. https://doi.org/10.2501/JAR-2022-013

36.

Mastro

D. E.

Stern

(2003). Representations of race in television commercials: A content analysis of prime-time advertising. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47(4), 638–648.

37.

McCafferty

(2011). Activism vs. slacktivism. Communications of the ACM, 54(12), 17–19. https://doi.org/10.1145/2043174.2043182

38.

McCarthy

(2020, December 7). Advertisers expected to tackle serious issues in Super Bowl spots. Front Office Sports. https://frontofficesports.com/super-bowl-advertising-black-lives-matter-racial-justice-nfl/

39.

McDonald

R. E.

Laverie

D. A.

Manis

K. T.

(2021). The interplay between advertising and society: An historical analysis. Journal of Macromarketing, 41(4), 585–609. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146720964324

40.

Medina

(2020, July 3). Latinos back Black Lives Matter protests. They want change for themselves, too. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/us/politics/latinos-police-racism-black-lives-matter.html

41.

Mittelstaedt

J. D.

Kilbourne

W. E.

Mittelstaedt

R. A.

(2006). Macromarketing as agorology: Macromarketing theory and the study of the agora. Journal of Macromarketing, 26(2), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146706290921

42.

Nguyen

T. T.

Criss

Michaels

E. K.

Cross

R. I.

Michaels

J. S.

Dwivedi

Huang

Hsu

Mukhija

Nguyen

L. H.

Yardi

Allen

A. M.

Nguyen

Q. C.

Gee

G. C.

(2021). Progress and push-back: How the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd impacted public discourse on race and racism on Twitter. SSM—Population Health, 15, 100922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100922

43.

Ortiz

Harwood

(2007). A social cognitive theory approach to the effects of mediated intergroup contact on intergroup attitudes. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 51(4), 615–631.

44.

Peterson

R. T.

(2007). Consumer magazine advertisement portrayal of models by race in the US: An assessment. Journal of Marketing Communications, 13(3), 199–211.

45.

Pittz

T. G.

Steiner

S. D.

Pennington

J. R.

(2020). An ethical marketing approach to wicked problems: Macromarketing for the common good. Journal of Business Ethics, 164(2), 301–310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04277-7

46.

Saatcioglu

Corus

(2019). Towards a macromarketing and consumer culture theory intersection: Participatory and deliberative methodologies. Journal of Macromarketing, 39(1), 9–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146718793487

47.

Saunders

(2022, August 22). Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers charged or convicted. Is it justice? The Hilltop. https://thehilltoponline.com/2022/08/22/breonna-taylor-george-floyd-and-ahmaud-arberys-murderers-charged-or-convicted-is-it-justice/

48.

Schwartz

Sánchez

(2016, June 30). Social movements—And their leaders—That changed our world. Global Citizen. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/movements-social-change-apartheid-civil-rights-suf/

49.

Shah

B. R.

Chiu

Amin

Ramani

Sadry

J. V.

(2010). Surname lists to identify South Asian and Chinese ethnicity from secondary data in Ontario, Canada: A validation study. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 10, 1–8.

50.

Stefanone

M. A.

Yue

Toh

(2019). A social cognitive approach to traditional media content and social media use: Selfie-related behavior as competitive strategy. New Media & Society, 21(2), 317–335.

51.

Tarafdar

Ray

D. K.

(2021). Role of social media in social protest cycles: A sociomaterial examination. Information Systems Research, 32(3), 1066–1090.

52.

Tarin

C. A.

Upton

S. D. L. S.

Hernández

L. H.

(2021). We need to be better: Race, outdoor recreation, and corporate social advocacy. Frontiers in Communication, 6, 726417.

53.

Tarrow

S. G.

(2011). Power in movement: Social movements and contentious politics. Cambridge University Press.

54.

Tomkovick

Yelkur

Christians

(2001). The USA’s biggest marketing event keeps getting bigger: An in-depth look at Super Bowl advertising in the 1990s. Journal of Marketing Communications, 7(2), 89–108.

55.

Velasquez

Quenette

A. M.

(2018). Facilitating social media and offline political engagement during electoral cycles: Using social cognitive theory to explain political action among Hispanics and Latinos. Mass Communication & Society, 21(6), 763–784. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2018.1484489

56.

Wirtschafter

(2021, June 17). How George Floyd changed the online conversation around BLM. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/how-george-floyd-changed-the-online-conversation-around-black-lives-matter/

57.

Żerebecki

B. G.

Opree

S. J.

Hofhuis

Janssen

(2021). Can TV shows promote acceptance of sexual and ethnic minorities? A literature review of television effects on diversity attitudes. Sociology Compass, 15(8), e12906. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12906