Consumers’ perspectives on multiracial advertising in a South African context

Abstract

In March 2022, the South African Human Rights Commission opened an inquiry following official complaints sparked by the publication of racially insensitive advertisements. Despite this, advertising agencies appear to publish material that does not represent an all-inclusive approach, which considers consumers’ perspectives and perceptions of multiracial advertisements. This study suggests guidelines for formulating multiracial advertisements to enable advertising agencies to elicit the desired responses from consumers. A qualitative methodology with a cross-sectional descriptive design was adopted. Data was collected through a social media search for related posts. The study purposively sampled cases of brand advertisements (n=3) that South African consumers perceived as racially offensive, namely Dove, Clicks/TRESemmé, and BMW. A convenience sample was also employed to collect comments per advertisement (n=20). An inductive approach to thematic content analysis was utilised to code consumers’ responses on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and YouTube). The findings indicate that race remains a sensitive topic among South African consumers. Thus, marketing communication practitioners need to be mindful of the racial connotations that the content in their advertising material might carry.