Cultural Schemas for Racial Identity in Canadian Television Advertising

Abstract

What meanings are attached to race in advertising? We analyze a sample of prime-time Canadian television advertising to identify cultural schemas for what it means to be White, Black, and East/Southeast Asian. Our empirical focus is on food and dining advertising. Through quantitative content analysis of associations between race and food subtypes, we show that there are systematic differences in the types of foods that groups are associated with. Through a qualitative content analysis of the commercials, we illuminate these quantitative patterns and discuss six cultural schemas for racial identity. The schemas allow for both diversity and privilege in the representation of Whites, and poignant contrasts regarding status and emotionality in the narrow representations of the other two groups.

“A magical little pill that will relieve you of your womanly issues”: What young women say about menstrual suppression

“…A 2014 study exploring diversity in advertising by the University of Toronto found that 87% of actors were white, with commercials reproducing “narrow culture schemas” that reinforced dominant associations between color, socio-economic class, and education (Baumann & Ho, 2014, p. 164). The absence of racial diversity in the menstrual suppression advertisements reflects Baumann and Ho's “white natural” and “white highbrow” cultural schemas (pp.…”

Thinking through death and employment: The automatic yet temporary use of schemata in everyday reasoning

“…In other words, individuals develop schemata based on their experiences with supra-individual structures in the form of institutions and then use these schemata to filter new experiences that they have. Examples of such schematic translations are gender schemata that delimit the ways we see individuals as males and females (Stansbury et al, 2003), race schemata which consist of various stereotypes and understandings of given phenotypes (Baumann and Ho, 2014) and countless other schemata made accessible to individuals through media messages and other institutional arrangements (see Altikriti and Al-Mahadin, 2015; DiMaggio, 1997).…”

“…Because of many researchers’ tendencies to use the concept of schema as a kind of connective tissue between society and the individual (e.g. Baumann and Ho, 2014; Lamont et al, 2014; Massey, 2014; Vaisey, 2009), however, studies seldom discuss the ways in which these schemata clash, breakdown or entirely fail for individuals. Schemata are typically seen as perceptual filters that cause individuals to see, think and talk about a phenomenon in a certain way, making questions of schematic failure or contradiction both secondary to the emphasis on causation and potentially disruptive due to the fact that they foreground active, often seemingly spontaneous decision-making instead of automatic, patterned response (see Wagoner, 2013).…”

“…Focusing on schematic failure is important, however, as the inferences schemata enable individuals to make may not be as automatic or apparent as many studies make them appear to be (see Altikriti and Al-Mahadin, 2015; Baumann and Ho, 2014; Vaisey, 2009). This is because the schemata that researchers claim to be capturing in their studies may not emerge as discrete, isolatable categories of perception for individuals but rather as ever-evolving tools (Bartlett, 1932; Head, 1920) that may or may not directly influence any given action an individual makes.…”

How American-based Television Commercials Portray Convicts, Correctional Officials, Carceral Institutions, and the Prison Experience

“…Additionally, Baumann and Ho ( 2014) conducted a qualitative analysis of cultural schemas for racial representation present in Canadian television commercials. To construct a diverse sample, the researchers recorded commercials featured on three Canadian television networks over 21 evenings during an 18-month period (Baumann & Ho, 2014). To limit their sample size, Baumann and Ho only coded commercials that featured characters in situations related to food and dining.…”