The strength of our spending power has shifted the market to adapt or create specific brands that are more inclusive. The current buying power of African-Americans is $1 TRILLION…yes, I repeat, $1 TRILLION and predicted to be $1.3T by 2017. However, though we have SpongeBob’s and Dora’s and every other print that can cause intrigue, Johnson & Johnson has not responded to their minority customers. In 1957, Johnson & Johnson created a clear band-aid, which is still in production today. For the purpose of this article, I tried to determine, through scholarly research, just how many varying shades of skin color there are. The simple statement: “flesh-colored” and illustrating one type of skin color, was limiting, creating a dangerous statement, and has taken us down a winding road of mainstream products, not being created with multiple variations in mind. In a 1955 Band-aid ad, a White woman modeling a Band-Aid on her hand and an voiceover proudly declaring, “Neat, flesh-colored, almost invisible!” Johnson & Johnson created Band-Aids in 1920s in a beige color and the products was, unsurprisingly, not marketed towards the African-American population. The concept of flesh-tone in marketing, media and products has, historically, been limited to Whites. As African American women, we need to use our voice and economic dominance to further influence brands and marketers to create products and market products directly to us.
With African-Americans watching more television than any other group, advertisers are missing a niche opportunity. In spite of the Black personal care industry being a $700B one, advertising dollars are, overall, disproportionately spent on White consumers.
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