PR and diversity

This class was aiming to make us think how representative is PR, if the industry takes enough in account minorities (ethnic minorities but also gays and lesbians, as well as elderly); and also, how to address them? A guest speaker, Zena Martin, came to talk to us about it.

The American conception: no complex!
Zena was from the US, and worked in advertising there before coming to the UK where she finally created her own PR agency: Acknowledge Communications. What she highlighted to us is the big difference between the American and British approach of minorities: the UK PR industry –like surely the other UK industries- seems much more “white-male-middle age-heterosexual” dominated than the US one, more open. Of course, the best example is the 2 main democrat candidates for the next American presidential election: a woman, Hillary Clinton and a Black man, Barack Obama. Indeed, in the US it seems more easy and natural to address equally to different communities, whereas in the UK it appears to have some brakes, which make improvements go slowly, in spite of a high immigration level. Is it because England is an ex-colonising country and the US an ex-colony?
Anyway, it is sure that the approach of immigration in the US looks more like a “tossed salad” than a “melting pot”: the different communities tend to stay together and maintain a strong identity, while co-existing with the others. Maybe that’s why it is more natural to equally address to each of them, whereas the UK has traditionally a more rigid way to consider the different communities. That is why Zena Martin has decided to take the mission, through her PR agency, to highlight to her clients the mistakes they can make by not addressing these communities (mainly losing money, especially concerning the elderly who represent a huge consuming power in the UK: £280bn!), or by misrepresenting them and therefore offend them, especially ethnic minorities. She gave us an example of an offending TV ad which therefore has been removed, here below.


I personally don’t really see how the ad is offending, like actually most of the people who commented this video on Youtube; but I accept that some have felt uncomfortable seeing it, and agree on finding other ways to represent the Black community, less stereotyped. Actually, during the exercise that followed in class, we realised that the best way to address these communities is to know them: who they are, what they like etc. It seems obvious but it’s less applied than we think, while this relates to an old idea that says that understanding the other reduces potential hate between you and him/her.
Probably the Americans know better how to avoid stereotypes, as they are now ahead of them. According to Anne Senges, who wrote –in French- Ethnik! Le marketing de la différence, being American today is sharing a culture and consuming habits more than a skin color or an ethnic origin. Therefore, France’s challenge is to display its multi cultural country with pride without becoming too politically correct.

The French conception and multicultural communication
I actually made a blog called “Ethnic PR: the French exception”: http://nathaliebellangerfrenchethnicpr.blogspot.com/ . Anne Senges like many other observers indeed highlight to us the French paradox concerning ethnic PR and marketing: In France, 1 person out of 4 has at least one foreigner grand parent. According to an opinion poll of 2006, 75% of French people think that the French’s wide diversity of origins is a positive thing. But maybe the only way to make this work in one country is to have strong common values and identity: that is what the French Republic's principles are about: all French people equally share one nationality, and shouldn't be differentiated according to their ethnic origin, race or religion. Therefore, ethnic PR can't work as naturally as it does in the USA or even the UK. However, Anne Senges reminds us of the great potential for ethnic marketing in France: these families usually have a lot of children and a huge consuming power even if they are often affected by unemployment. Therefore, some discreetly do ethnic marketing: Bridel with Laban milk, Mecca-cola (against coke, against America…) or suburbs’ supermarkets develop casher or halal departments. But advertising stays a "white" universe, even with some exceptions showing some stars (Zidane is the most famous one), and with one marketing agency specialized in “diversity marketing”: http://www.sopi.fr/english.

So are the Americans all right and the French and the English shamefully late in communicating to the diversity of our nowadays societies?? Well as we don’t have the same culture, some adaptations are needed: one of the conclusions I came to in my blog was that the ethnic communication that could fit the French identity is a multicultural communication: showing diversity in one whole mix, part of one whole culture: a multicultural culture. For example, L’Oreal has done this very well. That’s anyway what works best for the moment in Fance, simply because the idea of gathering people is much easier to accept than the idea of splitting them up. Actually, maybe it’s also the first stage to attain, in representing the society, before being able to target different communities with not any complex, offending or over touchy reactions.

Sources:
-Zena Martin's 5th March 2008 presentation, University of Westminster
-http://nathaliebellangerfrenchethnicpr.blogspot.com/
-Senges, A. Ethnik! Le marketing de la différence, Autrement, 2003