Incorrect?
IF A global consumer-products company uses blonde models to advertise its soap or washing powder in Scandinavia, and dark-haired models to sell the same products in Italy, whom should it use in South Africa? The answer, it seems, is to run two versions of the same commercial: one with black actors for the black market, the other with whites for the white market. But this approach has kicked up a storm among black admen, who call it “apartheid advertising”. How should companies advertise to a racially polarised market?
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Incorrect?”
From the March 8th 1997 edition
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