I Am Not
BoDog
Christopher Costigan,
www.sports911.com
BoDog's latest online ad
campaign features real life employees with the slogan "I Am BoDog".
Notably absent from the campaign are people of color, unless you want to count a
female Eskimo. Thus far, six staff members have appeared on the banners and not
one is an African American.
Consider this, more than half
of all professional athletes are black. Therefore, it doesn't take a
rocket scientist to realize that the African American population as a whole
loves sports and would certainly relish working in a sports related field.
Next, take into account that
the majority of offshore gambling jurisdictions are populated most heavily by
individuals of color.
Why then are there no black
people represented on the BoDog Sports banner campaign up to this point?
Instead we are treated to Sean,
a lily white Customer Service Representative of the Costa Rica based sportsbook.
Try finding someone who looks like him roaming the streets of Downtown
San Jose! Another team member, Russ, proclaims "Our mission is to help you
have fun and my middle name is fun" Well, we know after looking at this
guy's picture his middle name sure as hell ain't Rasheed!
Where are Jamal, Luther and
Keisha?
BoDog Sports is far from a
racist company. The majority of its employees are of Latin descent and
there are people of color working out of the BoDog office.
Tawana waits on the hood of BoDog CEO Cole Turner's BMW wondering if she will
ever appear on one of their banners.
However, this latest campaign
is indicative of a growing trend in today's advertising world.
One study found that the
most obvious ways to minimize African Americans in advertisements is by
assigning them token roles. In a Dell commercial, for example, an African
American male appeared in the ad but only in a smiling nonspeaking role.
Even BET, a basic cable channel that caters primarily to a black
audience, tends to ignore this population in its commercials. Only 25
percent of the advertisements that appear on BET feature persons of
color.
Black models, endorsers and executives have had to struggle to
attain status in the advertising world. Advertisements influence and shape
the popular culture of all American communities, including the black community.
Black models in advertising have supposedly made breakthroughs in print and
broadcast marketing. But while a study found that African American models
appeared in cigarette advertising four times more often in 1965 than they did in
1955, black models have yet to reach an era of full equality where Madison
Avenue is concerned. This unfortunate trend seems to have carried on to
the offshore gambling world.
Another study found that fewer than 7% of ads in popular
magazines included African Americans. In addition, black models or athletes in
advertising are at least its likely, if not more so, to go through a process
referred to as licking (the manipulation of images into forms that tap viewers'
preconceived notions, allowing the viewers to place the image into their social
world and move instantaneously to further interpretation). Licking images into
stereotypes is a quick way to allow consumers to move beyond the primary image
of the ad to the important information-the product that is being sold. Most
often, black men are depicted as comic, violent, savage or primitive and
hypersexual.
The purchasing power of African Americans equals that of Canada, exceeds the
value of all goods the U.S. exports. In population this market is twice as big
as Belgium, Greece or Australia, is 3 three times as large as Sweden. All these
statistics add up to a market that can mean soaring sales for companies
successfully developing the proper advertising and merchandising approaches to
it.
In a random sampling of all current sportsbook advertisements, both print and
online, Sports911 found that not one featured a man or woman of color outside of
your typical stock athlete image. Ads featuring female models completely
excluded
black women. Even those advertisements depicting sportsbook operators tend
to feature white models, though more than 90 percent of the people who man the
phones at offshore wagering shops are either black or Latino.
It is not racism
per se that keeps online gambling companies from portraying African Americans in
advertising campaigns, but rather a misconception that the target market is
overwhelmingly Caucasian and may not be prepared to accept someone of another
race either representing the gaming establishment or otherwise winning large
money from them.
Some of the
most successful musicians and movie stars are persons of color. They are
successful because people will pay to see them on the big screen or listen to
their music. Will Smith, Beyonce Knowles, Justin Timberlake, Halle Berry,
Naomi Campbell, Oprah Winfrey are among the most sought after individuals in
their chosen fields. Without the support of an accepting audience, they
would not be where they are today.
Michael Jackson's
career, in fact, began to plummet as he became whiter.
Society has
accepted African Americans in mainstream media. It is the corporate
mentality that remains blind to this fact....and probably will for many years to
come.
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