The effect of ethnic-specific versus ethnic-diversified advertising: Comparing attitudes among multicultural consumers

The diversity of minorities in the United States is growing and a demand for research in multi-ethnic advertising is emerging. This study aimed to compare the effect of ethnic and non-ethnic target-specific ads on young adult college students in the United States. Based on the social identification theory, a series of hypotheses were proposed to test the effect of ethnic-specific ads on consumer attitudes toward the ad, the brand, and the intentions to purchase the elicited product. An experimental research design was used to test the hypotheses among three ethnic groups: Hispanics, African American and White Non-Hispanics. The total sample size was 701. Models portraying stereotypes of the three ethnic-specific groups were used to produce four simulated advertisements. Three categories of ads were used to compare the effects of ethnic advertising: an ethnic-specific ad portraying one’s own ethnicity (AD1); an ethnic-specific ad portraying a different ethnicity group (AD3), and a diverse ad portraying a multi-ethnic group (AD2). Overall, this study indicates that diverse ads are less effective on young adult Americans than ethnic-specific ads. In addition, it was found that diverse ads (AD2) produce better effects on young African and Hispanic Americans than White Americans, and White Non-Hispanics respond best to their own ethnic-specific ad when compare to the other two ethnic groups.