An Analysis of Frequency Portrayal of Minority Models in Magazine Advertisements

Abstract

Historically, studies that have addressed the frequency of minority models in magazine advertising have focused primarily on African-Americans. This paper broadens the scope of inquiry to include African, Asian and Hispanic Americans to determine the frequency of appearance of models from these minority groups in proportion to their representation in the population. Sixty-one randomly selected consumer magazines yielded a sample size of 811 advertisements for the content analysis performed by four judges. The results indicate that marked inconsistencies are evident between the number of advertisements which include diverse ethnic groups, and that frequency of usage portrayal appears to fall into product/service specific categories.