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I have an eclectic group of friends here in Cleveland, Ohio. Many are American-born and some, like me, are French. The other day, I received a message from a French friend: “Did you see the ad from Allstate that plays a song by Edith Piaf?! It is shocking! Unbelievable!” I recalled seeing the commercial, and it did not sit well with me, either.

To my friend and I, Edith Piaf means refinement, passion, drama and something profoundly French that I can’t even put into words. By contrast, the insurance ad featured a basic car, a plastic grocery bag with a smiley face, pink jelly, a toy dinosaur and other mundane objects. Juxtaposed with the soundtrack, the images felt out of place and uncomfortable. The next day, I surveyed a few American friends, who made no mention of the music and were fine with the ad overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G40YpRH8wco

My Journey in a New Culture

Before moving to the United States nearly 30 years ago, I had not given much thought to the role of my native culture in shaping my thoughts and sensibility. I grew up in France, and I felt pretty in tune with my surroundings, like a fish in water.

But after moving to my adopted country, people and things felt unfamiliar and out of sync. There were a multitude of little things that were unusual, like my colleagues eating lunch at their desks (which was illegal in France until 2021), or serving cheese before dinner instead of at the end of the meal.

After I became fluent in English, I still had a hard time being understood by my colleagues. I was told many times that I was unclear, that I needed to explain things and include transitions when going from one topic to another. Only years later did I come to realize that these critiques were rooted in cultural differences. In France, good communications are expected to be subtle and layered, and being explicit is viewed as condescending. By contrast, the American business culture values direct, clear communications.

The Failure of Advertising

Today, I work in advertising and recently took a leading role in multicultural marketing. It was a natural evolution for me, given my interest in different cultures.

One of my first observations in my new role was that few advertisers are attuned to how people of different ethnicities think, communicate and perceive the world. For example, this ad for Dodge RAM launched during Super Bowl 2018, likely intended to honor Black Americans, it instead missed their experiences and perspectives, and actually triggered negative reactions within this community.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/tVz1xa7S4Q4?feature=oembed

My colleague Barbie Shive, who is African American, explained to a discussion group that I led: “I can see why some people may think this commercial will resonate with my community. It features Black people and a great speech by Martin Luther King Jr. But as a Black person, this ad is offensive to me. Using words of one of our greatest Black leaders and orators to sell trucks tells me America is more than willing to exploit Black greatness, but it is incapable of honoring it. When this great man gave that speech, at no time did he intend it to sell pickup trucks. And the tagline, ’Built to Serve,’ is even more offensive, as it is reminiscent of slavery.”

This is just one among many ads that misses the mark with ethnic cultures. This year, most Super Bowl 2021 ads failed the Association of National Advertisers’ Cultural Insights Impact Measure™ (CIIM™), which evaluates how people from diverse cultures rate ads on cultural relevance. Most ads failed not because they were insensitive and offensive, but because they were irrelevant. They did not connect with diverse audiences; to them, they were unfamiliar and out of sync.

How to See the World Differently

To be effective, we, as marketers, must adapt to the new, diverse cultural context in the United States. That shift requires more than using ethnic actors or appropriating certain cultural symbols. It means seeing the world as someone of a different culture sees it. That’s nearly impossible to do without the help of people who represent these different cultures.

Cultural differences cannot be captured in a series of PowerPoint slides or bullet points – or in a one-day, off-site meeting (or seminar). These efforts may be helpful, but they are no substitute for working alongside people of diverse cultures, including people who represent the cultures on the receiving end of our messages.  

Culture is not an overlay that can be applied based on instructions or formulas. It is inherent and fundamental. It is in the stories we tell, the words we use, the décor we display, the things we find funny, the soundtracks we lay down, the way our characters act and speak, the clothes we wear, and a multitude of other details.

There is really only one solution to the problem of marketing today: build teams that are ethnically diverse themselves and empower ethnically diverse people to steer us in our planning, research, and creative concepting and execution. While it will take time and intentionality to achieve this end, the goal deserves our best efforts.