Project Abstract The topic I chose to do research on is the way that advertising represents minorities; I believe that the way minorities are portrayed has a big impact on minorities, their communities as well as the general public. In my research paper I argue minority women are advertised to differently than men are by being told that they should assimilate into the dominant culture and what products they can buy to do so. While minority men on the other hand are being told by advertising companies that their "manliness" depends on how much they stick to their ethnic roots, so the more they assimilate the less others will view them as men.

People are bombarded with hundreds if not thousands advertisements a day, and what they're not realizing is that everyone reacts to them differently. This is because different advertisers target different groups differently. Minority groups are targeted differently than a white person would be and because of this minority groups are being persuaded to either assimilate to the dominant group and be accepted or reject the dominant group and still be true to your self and your roots, in reality these rash decisions are necessary. My paper contributes to journalism and new media in the sense that I don't just state that the media affects people by making them more violent and such. In my paper, I go into depth on how the media, mainly advertisements, affect minority groups differently and how its possible for the advertisements to have such a big impact on their communities.

From the very beginning I had states that my paper would be done the old fashioned way and thats exactly how it was done. I did a lot of research and then added my own thoughts, ideas and conclusions.

Research Questions 1) Does advertising affect minority groups differently than non-minorities? 2)Are the effects advertising has on minority women different then it has on men? If so, how? 3)Are minorities in the fashion industry portrayed in a negative way through advertising (fashion ads) as compared to non minority models? 4) Do advertisers knowingly follow age old stereotypes? 5)And is so, are they doing anything any positive to change the situation? 6) When did minorities become such a prominent target for advertisers? 7) How are minorities portrayed in advertisements as opposed to non minorities? 8)Do these negativities stay in front of the camera or do they apply to all minorities working behind the scenes as well? 9)Do minorities run the companies that are representing minorities in advertising in a negative light? 10)Who benefits or gets "hurt" by these negative images? 11)Do these images have an impact on the general public?

Selected Bibliography Primary 1)Dove. Advertisement. Seventeen Magazine Mar. 2005. 2)Nike. Advertisement. Seventeen Magazine Feb. 2005. 3)Chevy. Nov. 4) Postman, Alexandra. Elle Magazine. 5)Vogue Magazine. Secondary 1) Goldman, Robert and Papson, Stephen. "Nike Culture" 1998. 2) J. Cortese, Anthony. "Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in the Media." 1999. 3) Gregory, Deborah. Jacobs, Patricia. The Ugly Side of the Modeling Business- racism in the fashion industry. Essence. 1993. 4) Delis Hill, Daniel. "Advertising to the American Women." 2002. 5)Frith, Katherine Toland. "Undressing the Ad: Reading Culture in Advertising." 1997

Key Findings: After finishing my research paper I realized I had an over whelming amount of primary sources, as well as secondary, that supported my main argument. I found that advertising, both print and commercial, as well as the other different types of media, affect different groups in different forms. I found that minority women accept what they're being told by advertisers and try to portray images of the dominant group they see in advertisements in order to be accepted. While men react to advertising in the way that that they reject the idea of conforming to the dominant group, in fact, if they do the fear that their manhood is on the line for questioning by their peers. Minority men feel the pressure to conform to the representation advertisers have for them as "tough guys and lovers." The research i did and the conclusions I came to seem to bring up ideas for more topics and theories to research. For example, what if the table turned and it was minority men who were trying so hard to assimilate and women who were considered sell outs if they tried to conform to another groups idea of beauty?

As college students, particularly in the HCOM department, we are educated in the manner the media works. As a women of Mexican descent I have experienced first hand the effects advertising has on the way we act and view things. Minorities are being represented negatively by the media in order to sell those products, unfortunately, the minority communities not recognizing this even though it's affecting them directly. In order to support my argument on how advertising represents and affects minorities I chose a few commercial and print advertisements as example. My main argument is that advertisements encourage minority women to assimilate into the dominant culture in order to be accepted and fit into the ideal image of what beauty is suppose to be. While men of color on the other hand, are pushed by advertisements to be more like the stereotypes the media as set for them in order to prove their manliness by showing "how Black, Asian or Latino" they are. I chose the advertisements because of the subconscious messages they portrayed. For example, the Dove advertisement I chose basically tells minority women that if they use their lotion with the shimmer in it, it will make their skin appear lighter. In the advertisement stands a light skinned African American young women in order to show how the lotion works. I decided to use the Nike print advertisements because it showed two sides of advertising to women of color. One side is that of flaunting the body part a specific ethnic group is known for. And the other side is the advertisement telling that specific ethnic group of women to proud of what they have because it is what makes them unique and only until they accept themselves will they be truly content. For the men I chose a television commercial where the advertisers are selling paint. And they’re doing so using sex appeal and the stereotype that African American men are always well endowed. A commercial like this only pressures an African American male to have to live up to stereotype that have never been proven true, in fact they’ve been proven false. The main reason I chose the primary sources I did is because these are print advertisements and commercials that are ran in International Magazines like Seventeen and ELLE Magazines and National television networks like NBC and ABC. These images are getting viewed by the general public on a daily basis, they not hidden airing only during late night television or getting printed in unpopular magazines.