Brazilians expect more representation from advertisements; 85% of blacks believes that companies must respect the diversity of their customers

Note from BW of Brazil: The data is there and has been there for years. In terms of the manner that the Brazilian media portrays Brazilians, the diversity of the population is far from what the people really look like. Let me be clear, unlike the image that people have of Brazil outside of the country, there are millions of Brazilians who would be accepted as white in any country of the world, but there are also tens of millions that don’t see their faces on the billboards, in TV commercials and magazine ads. And worse, when the black population IS represented, it is almost always depicted in positions of unskilled labor and domestic work. There is nothing wrong with having a job and people who do blue-collar work must be respected, but all Afro-Brazilians don’t work in manual labor so why must they ALWAYS be presented this way? How about showing what everyday Brazilians, the majority of whom are non-white, really look like?

Brazilians expect more representation from advertisements

Research by Instituto Locomotiva, whose new partner is Marcelo Tas, shows that consumers don’t identify with advertising on TV

By Luiz Gustavo Pacete

The Brazilian is not represented by the advertisements on television and expects the brands to be more representative. The finding is from the research conducted by the Instituto Locomotiva. Created in August last year by Renato Meirelles, formerly of Data Popular, and his partner, Carlos Júlio, Locomotiva has just received host Marcelo Tas as head of innovation and partner.

The survey was conducted from February to April of this year, in two phases, and considered responses of 1,200 and 1,800 respondents. The results of the interviews were compared with data from the IBGE National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). As an analysis, it was verified that trust is still an item to be worked on by Brazilian companies in relation to its consumers.

A total of 101 million consumers don’t trust businesses and 103 million say they don’t identify with TV advertisements. Three out of four Brazilians, about 76%, say that advertisements should better represent the diversity of the Brazilian population.

“The research results make it clear that advertising is far from being able to construct identity with Brazilian consumers. It’s as if it used twentieth-century language to speak to the 21st-century consumer. Businesses need to understand that power has changed hands. Power is no longer in brands, but in consumers,” says Renato Meirelles.

When the study is applied by specific groups, the survey shows that the perception of non-representativeness is greater for blacks. According to the PNAD, in 2005, 50% of Brazilians declared themselves black, that is, 91 million people. Today, 54% of Brazilians are black, equal to 110 million people.

Of this group, 82% say they like products that enhance their self-esteem. A total of 53% of the women consider themselves black, and 73% consider that TV shows more blonde women in advertisements. 47% of women have cabelos crespos ou cacheados (kinky/curly or curly hair), and 83% believe that TV shows more women with cabelos lisos (straight hair) in advertisements. A total of 85% of blacks believes that companies must respect the diversity of their customers.

When the group analyzed is divided by gender, the survey finds that Brazil has 105 million women and that, in 20 years, the percentage of households headed by women doubled. Only 7% of Brazilians feel adequately represented by TV advertisements. Three out of four Brazilians agree that advertisements that underestimate the women bother them. Even among men, 67% agree with this statement.

The new investment of Marcelo Tas

To the Meio & Mensagem (website), Marcelo Tas states that his arrival as a member of the Instituto Locomotiva is related to the search for understanding how citizens behave in the face of a scenario of change. “My task will be to figure out how to use the new rules of measuring the behavior of citizens and businesses in the age of data science and the avalanche of information well. Our mission is to understand the crossing numbers x people x businesses to collaborate in creating a society that produces abundance with equal opportunities for all,” says Tas.

Renato Meirelles says that most people know only the public figure of Tas, and, precisely for this reason, may find the entry of a journalist and host in this project unusual. “At the same time that Marcelo has been provoking new looks on the market, uncovering the latent demands of the Brazilian, he also helps us in the strategic recommendations of communication and publicity,” says Meirelles.

Source: Meio e Mensagem