For Black Women, Issues of Image and Self-Worth Often Focus on Hair

By: Pepper Miller via Big Tent on Adage.com

When Gabby Douglas unexpectedly captured the Olympic Gold medal in gymnastics this summer, I was elated, peacock proud and genuinely happy for the 16-year-old and her family. It was all the more special for me because she is African American. Then, incredibly, followed flack from critics black and non-black about Douglas’ post-performance hairstyle!

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Showing Love Is a Great Way to Reach the Black Community

By: Pepper Miller via BigTent on Adage.com

How often do we see or hear in the media about a black man rescuing a black woman? Tarzan rescued Jane; Matt Dillon rescued Miss Kitty; Superman rescued Lois and Spiderman rescued Mary Jane. Now, finally, we have a popular black example: Django rescues his wife, Broomhilda, in the film “Django Unchained.”

While true love is not restricted by race or gender, black love, between a black man and black woman, continues to be a really big deal in the black community. Just about every February, popular black magazines focus on “Black Love.” Both Ebony and Essence’s February cover stories this year stayed true to this tradition.

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New Study and Ongoing Insights Challenge the Rush to embrace Cross Cultural Marketing

“One of the latest buzz words to enter the marketing lexicon is “cross-cultural” It paints an idealistic picture of a color blind society, one in which consumes’ similarities outweigh their differences regardless of ethnic groups.” —Is Cross Cultural An Industry Breakthrough or Threat to Ethnic Shops by Michael Bush – Advertising Age  (1/31/2011)

At first glance cross-culturalism represents to marketers that the blurring of the lines between different races provides them with a unique opportunity to reach a broader segment of the population with less effort and investment. Some may even see it as a “stamp of approval” to continue to ignore the opposing viewpoints of ethnic marketers and consumers who have been saying that cultural relevancy related to race is the key to real engagement.

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Retailers Missing A Great Opportunity to Generate Millions in Sales, And There’s No Excuse

Can a sistah get an espresso lip pencil? That’s what I asked a fellow shopper who along with me was digging through the crowded shelves of “tawny beige” facial powders and “nude” lip pencils — colors that were the antithesis of what we were looking for, for our brown skin tones. She was looking for a pressed powder color to match her complexion. Frustrated, after carefully examining each related product and crevice, we called off the search.

Here we were — two disappointed, empty-handed, black shoppers in a mass retail store in our neighborhood, where 99.5% of the shoppers are black, eyeing the, blonde, blue-eyed models on point-of-shelf displays, and shelves and shelves of hair-care and cosmetic products that clearly weren’t designed with us in mind.

“Why do they do this to us?” my new cohort asked. “Because they can,” I answered.
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