A new study from the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) has concluded that there are inequities in the way that different races are being depicted in Canadian TV ads.
Conducted by Professor Shyon Baumann, chair of UTM’s Department of Sociology, and PhD student Loretta Ho, the study says that white people are more likely to be portrayed in a positive light in Canadian TV ads than black people or Asians. To arrive at this conclusion, Baumann and Ho analyzed the appearance and context of over 1,000 White, Black and East and Southeast Asian characters in 244 primetime food and dining ads.
Other cultures, including First Nations, Middle Eastern and Hispanic were too under-represented to be included in the study, the authors said. That’s a recurring issue, said Baumann, when examining comparisons of race in Canadian media.
Baumann said that this is the first study examining depictions of race in Canadian media that focuses on advertising. He called advertising a good window for understanding society’s idea of cultural identity and what it means to be a member of a particular ethno-cultural group.
“Advertising reproduces broad cultural understandings of race so it can connect quickly with the audience,” said Baumann in a release. “What this study shows is that ads are reproducing perceptions of race in ways that continue to be problematic for people who are not White.”
The study only looked at human characters and found that White people were unfairly over-represented comparatively to the other groups; while comprising 80% of the Canadian population, they appeared in 87% of the sample ads. They were also associated with healthier, whole, unprocessed foods. Conversely, Black people and East and Southeast Asians were over-represented in fast food commercials.
The study also looked at the context in which characters appeared to identify trends in how the different races were represented. White people were associated with four overarching cultural trends: Nostalgia, which showed them as “food craftspeople” and “bearers of tradition in quality foods;” Natural, which associated them with nature, romanticized agriculture and wholesome foods; Highbrow, which depicted them as having high socio-economic status; and Nuclear Family, which lumped them in with healthy families. Black people were more often associated with low socio-economic status and less often with family and tradition. East and Southeast Asians were negatively shown as “Asian technocrats” being focused on achievements, but simultaneously unemotional and robotic.
Not only did White people have more positive associations in the sampled ads, said Baumann, but they were also depicted in more diverse situations and experiences.
“Being viewed and seen reacting in different circumstances gives your identity flexibility and allows you to be seen as more of a whole person,” said Baumann. “But if you’re consistently portrayed as only one type of person, for instance, technologically savvy but socially awkward, your identity and society’s expectations of you are constrained by that very flat portrayal.”
“Interestingly, these are commercials broadcast in the Toronto market, which is 50% non-White,” added Baumann.
The study was partially funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). It’s part of a larger study looking at Canadian TV advertising content and was presented at the 2013 American Sociological Association annual conference between Aug. 9 – 13.
