TransCity

A study amongst French media revealed that French advertising on television, in print and outdoor does not reflect the ethnic diversity of the country.

The research was conducted by the BFP (Bureau de Vérification de la Publicité). The organization studied tv commercials, billboards and print ads. They found out that non-Europeans occurred in just 3.1 % of the ad total. Television was the best performer with 17% showing people with a non-European ethnic background, outdoor had a performance of only 3% and print ads an astonishing low 0.6%. When taking a closer look at tv ads, it appeared that 4 out of 10 films showed non-Europeans in stereotypical roles like ‘musique-Noir’ (black musician), ’sport-Noir’, ‘judoka-Asiatique’ or ‘épicier-Arabe’ (small retailer of Arabian descent).

‘Ethnic diversity in French media becomes a reality as soon as we can watch a black person opening a fridge to take out white yoghurt’, says Amirouche Laïdi, President of ‘Averroes’, an organization attempting to encourage ethnic diversity in the media. ‘Not a chocolate yoghurt, or vanilla with coco nuts’. Mohammed Dia (see photo), President of clothing company Street Wear agrees: ‘Until now, media don’t seem to able to depict blacks or Arabs as ordinary customers’.

In France the question has been raised whether quota should be imposed for ‘using’ ethnic minorities in ads. Dominique Wolton, President of the French ‘Conseil de l’éthique publicitaire’ supports the idea. ‘Since self regulation doesn’t seem to work, I’m in favor of positive discrimination for a limited period of time.’ The study will be repeated later this year, to see if any progress has been made.

Source: Stratégies