The Negro and American Advertising, 1946–1965

Abstract

This article presents a content analysis of ads that have used Negro models or actors in selected mass circulation magazines over a 20-year period—a communications research technique seldom used in marketing. Results indicate that the frequency of using Negroes has not increased over the 20-year period. Instead it decreased in 1956, and by 1965 it merely reached the 1946 level. The Negro's occupational status, however, has risen significantly, but he is still seldom found in conventional middle-class settings.