Not too long ago, I had lunch with a colleague who is a well-respected voice in the Multicultural Marketing world. We got to talking about some of the advances and backslides that our segment of the industry had made in the past year. And then, we got into the stickier subject of cross-cultural campaigns, and transculturalism at large. This colleague, like many others in this space, felt that the ethnic marketing industry was being threatened by the increasing attention some brands are paying to strategies that transcend traditional ethnic lines with not only one message, but one campaign, at times. ...

A Teachable Moment, Courtesy of Summer’s Eve’s Failed “Hail to the V” Campaign

Last week a story broke about a Summer’s Eve controversial digital campaign, called “Hail to the V”, in which the feminine hygiene brand featured videos of talking hands that were meant to represent that unmentionable part of a woman’s anatomy. There was a general market commercial featuring a talking Caucasian hand and voice-over that spoke from the perspective of a… ahem… “V”, who wanted a little more attention from its owner. It was meant to be provocative and arresting, and was relatively successful in that regard. ...