Still Not the Stars: African Americans As Social Minorities in Television Advertising

Authors

Karie L. Hollerbach, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO
Walter B. Jaehnig, Associate Professor and Director, School of Journalism, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL

Date of this Version

November 2004

Abstract

Advertising can either provoke or prevent cultural change. It articulates ideas about social class, cultural values. and societal power. African Americans are still being presented in television advertising as members of social minorities who are less likely to speak, to assume positions of authority, or to personify dominant middle class values in America.