Race &
ethnicity

Creative tips

Don’t homogenize ethnicities

There’s a tendency in marketing to use one ethnicity to stand in for an entire race—for example, using people of East Asian descent to represent Asian Americans. Minority subgroups, such as Filipino, Indian, Indigenous Bolivian, and others are rarely represented. This trend can be reversed by including people of many different backgrounds and ethnicities in your creative.

Keep an eye out for colorism

Even when portraying people of different racial or ethnic backgrounds, marketing creative predominantly favors people with light skin. Aim for a diverse range of skin tones when casting for spots, creating illustrations, and searching for stock. And think twice before using yellow skin in illustrations—it’s largely interpreted as white.

Don’t attribute violence to minority groups

Due to unconscious bias, people with darker skin are often associated with violence and crime in media representations. Take a close look at whether you’re perpetuating these harmful stereotypes in your marketing.

“Positive” stereotypes can be harmful too

Black people are often portrayed in urban environments, enjoying music, dancing, or playing sports. Latinx people are often shown playing soccer or working in service industry and construction jobs. Asian people are shown as tech geeks, overrepresented in business settings, and underrepresented in home, social, and outdoors settings. Challenge these stereotypes with portrayals that respect the full range of work and play within these communities.

Interracial love

When representing couples, keep in mind that interracial and interethnic unions are on the rise. By 2016, just over 10% of married people in the US had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, up from 7.4% in 2000. The largest combination was Latinx and non-Latinx white.2

Know your roots

Did you know that the phrase “peanut gallery” may have originally referred to the back area in vaudeville shows where Black people were allowed to sit, and “hip, hip, hooray” may have come from an antisemitic chant? There are many words and phrases in English that began as racist pejoratives, and while some are widely recognized and avoided, others persist. Numerous brands have found themselves in hot water due to this very issue, so do a little research into the origins of common colloquialisms before you use them.

Be specific

When referring to someone’s ethnicity, be as specific as you can. For example, if someone identifies as Ethiopian American, use that terminology instead of Black or African. Similarly, differentiate someone who lives in a country from someone with ancestors from that country who lives elsewhere. For example, “Asian people” should be replaced by “people of Asian descent” or, better still, “people of Korean descent.” And be aware that Hispanic and Latino have slightly different meanings: Hispanic refers to people who speak Spanish or had Spanish-speaking ancestors, while Latino refers to people with roots in Latin American countries. Neither is universally preferred, and many people in the U.S. who might fall into these groups do not identify with either term.

Say it like it is

When writing about a difficult subject matter, it can be tempting to soften the language. But when it comes to things like racism, avoidance can do more harm than good. Language can hide the truth or honor it. There weren’t “very fine people on both sides” in Charlotteville and George Floyd didn’t “pass away”—he was killed. Be brave with your copy and your courage will be contagious.

Black, not black

Seemingly small things can make a big difference—like capitalization. On June 19, 2020, AP Stylebook announced its decision to capitalize racial identities, including Black and Indigenous. The capitalization is meant to express the “essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa.” (Note that “white” is not capitalized when referring to white people.)

BIPOC instead of POC

People often use these two terms interchangeably, but they refer to two different ideas. People of color (POC) refers to people who aren’t white. But since this is such a broad term, a certain amount of erasure of darker-skinned people and Indigenous people arose as an unintended result. The more specific BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) is the preferred acronym.

One brand, one voice

Some brands change their voice when talking to different groups. For example, they might use slang popularized by Black Americans or use Spanish to target people of South American descent. Do so at your own risk. If a voice isn’t authentic to the brand, it can be seen as pandering or, worse, cultural appropriation.

For more inclusive copy guidance, check out the American Psychological Association’s bias-free language page and the Conscious Style Guide.

Good examples

Coca-Cola made legions of new fans in 1971 with its “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” spot and again in 2014 with “It's Beautiful.”1,2

This 2013 Cheerios spot featuring a white mom and Black dad received so much backlash online that they had to turn the comments off. Then they made another spot featuring the same family a year later.3,4 

The McDonald’s “Share the Love” ads are a simple but powerful expression of diversity.5  

P&G explores shared experiences of racism with spots like “The Talk” and “The Look.”6,7