MARK R.

FOREHAND and ROHIT DESHPANDÉ*

The authors propose that “ethnic self-awareness”—a temporary state

during which a person is more sensitive to information related to his or her
own ethnicity—moderates consumer response to targeted advertising.
Ethnic self-awareness occurs when a person engages in a process of
self-categorization and uses ethnic criteria as the basis for this catego-
rization. The authors hypothesize that “ethnic primes”—visual or verbal
cues that draw attention to ethnicity—direct self-categorization and in-
crease ethnic self-awareness. To test these hypotheses, the authors con-
duct two experiments. Using 109 Asian and Caucasian participants, Ex-
periment 1 assessed the impact of exposure to an Asian ethnic prime on
ethnic self-awareness and on response to targeted television advertising.
Exposure to an ethnic prime increased the rate at which participants
spontaneously mentioned their ethnicity in self-descriptions (a measure
of ethnic self-awareness) and caused participants to respond more fa-
vorably to same-ethnicity spokespeople and advertising that targeted
their ethnicity. Experiment 2 tested the theory in a print advertising con-
text and extended the design by manipulating the type of ethnic prime
participants saw (Asian or Caucasian) and the market that the focal ad-
vertisement targeted (Asian or Caucasian). Experiment 2 replicated the
findings of Experiment 1 when the focal advertisement targeted
Asians, but not when it targeted Caucasians.

What We See Makes Us Who We Are:

Priming Ethnic Self-Awareness and
Advertising Response

The power of ethnicity as a targeting variable is demon-
strated implicitly by its frequent use in advertising and ex-
plicitly by a wealth of prior research that documents positive
consumer response to advertising that features similar-ethnicity
actors or spokespeople (for a review, see Whittler 1989).
However, much of the evidence for an ethnicity-based target
market effect was collected during an era in which the use of
ethnic actors in television advertising was highly unusual
and therefore more salient to the consumer than it otherwise
might have been. In comparison, the prevalence of ethnic ac-
tors in current advertising has increased to the point that
some ethnic groups are overrepresented in advertising rela-
tive to their composition in the general population (Taylor
and Stern 1997; Wilkes and Valencia 1989). As a result, ad-
vertisements that once drew attention to ethnicity by simply
*Mark Forehand is Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of
Washington Business School (e-mail: forehand@u.washington.edu). Rohit
Deshpandé is Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, Harvard Busi-
ness School (e-mail: rdeshpande@hbs.edu).
featuring ethnic actors may no longer do so in today’s multi-
cultural environment. At a conscious level, increased ethnic
presence in advertising may reduce the importance con-
sumers place on ethnicity. The prevalence of ethnic actors in
advertising may also influence unconscious processing in
consumers by simply reducing the salience of ethnicity. For
example, although nearly all consumers are aware that
Michael Jordan is an African American, his status as cultural
icon often supercedes his status as an African American.
These developments raise the question whether the use of
ethnic actors is perceived by consumers as a targeting tech-
nique or, more important, whether such techniques really in-
fluence consumer reactions to advertising to the extent sug-
gested by previous research.
In this project, we propose that the use of ethnic actors as
a targeting technique has little effect on consumer evaluation
of advertising unless the consumer processes the ethnic in-
formation and relates it to his or her self-concept. The like-
lihood that a consumer will process ethnic information in
advertising is hypothesized to be driven by what we have
termed “ethnic self-awareness”—a temporary state during

Journal of Marketing Research

Vol. XXXVIII (August 2001), 336–348 336
Priming Ethnic Self-Awareness and Advertising Response
which a person is more sensitive to information related to
his or her ethnicity. We propose that ethnic self-awareness
can be aroused by many factors, including individual differ-
ence variables, situational factors, and other contextual or
stimulus primes in the environment.
Although previous research has analyzed the impact of both
individual difference variables (Deshpandé, Hoyer, and Don-
thu 1986) and situational factors (Stayman and Deshpandé
1989) on consumer response to ethnic information in market-
ing, little attention has been directed toward the impact of con-
textual or stimulus factors (for a notable exception, see Wooten
and Galvin 1993). The lack of research focused on contextual
variables is unfortunate given that they may be of greater prac-
tical value to marketers than either situational or individual
difference variables. First, because consumers are often alone
when exposed to advertisements, nonsocial ethnic primes may
be a more frequent cause of ethnic self-awareness than their
social counterparts. Second, marketers have much more con-
trol over stimulus factors than they do over social or individual
difference factors. Compared with controlling a consumer’s
social situation, it is relatively easy to manage whether ethnic
primes are included in a message or whether an advertisement
is presented in a context in which ethnic primes are frequent.
To delineate the effect of ethnic self-awareness on response
to ethnic advertising, we divide this article into three sections.
In the first section, we explicate the ethnic self-awareness
concept and discuss the individual differences and situational
determinants that influence it. In the second section, we pro-
pose an important source of ethnic self-awareness, advertis-
ing-based ethnic priming, and present hypotheses related to
it. In the third section, we report two experiments that test the
effect of advertising-based ethnic primes on consumer re-
sponse to ethnically targeted advertising.
ETHNIC SELF-AWARENESS
As stated previously, the current research is built from a
concept we call ethnic self-awareness—a temporary state
during which a person is more sensitive to his or her ethnic-
ity. This is akin to the notion of felt ethnicity that was intro-
duced by Stayman and Deshpandé (1989). These authors dis-
tinguished felt ethnicity from objective ethnic membership
by arguing that felt ethnicity is “not just who one is, but how
one feels in and about a situation” (Stayman and Deshpandé
1989, p. 361). Similarly, we propose that ethnic self-aware-
ness is a state that is dependent on many factors beyond sim-
ple ethnic classification. However, the present project departs
from previous research by arguing that ethnic self-awareness
can be primed by factors in advertising that are separate and
distinct from the consumer’s consumption situation (the fo-
cus of the previous research on felt ethnicity).
In general, we posit here that ethnic self-awareness occurs
when a person is prompted to categorize him- or herself
along ethnic criteria and that this ethnically based catego-
rization may be elicited by the person’s enduring traits or so-
cial situation or by other environmental cues. Self-catego-
rization is a spontaneous and often unconscious process that
occurs when people compare themselves with others and as-
sess their relative similarity or dissimilarity. For any given
person, group categorization may occur on the basis of
many different variables, including ethnicity, gender, age,
occupation, and economic status. Although each of these
group memberships is part of the person’s identity or “self,”
337
the momentary salience of any particular membership is
highly variable. The probability that a person is aware of a
particular membership is influenced by the hierarchical or-
dering of the person’s identities (Burke and Reitzes 1991),
how strongly the membership is associated within the per-
son’s self-schema (Markus 1977), and the extent to which
the membership is activated in the social context (Markus
and Herzog 1995). Therefore, self-categorization will lead
to ethnic self-awareness only when the categorization
process is oriented along ethnic criteria.
Although rarely mentioned explicitly, the influence of eth-
nic self-awareness is apparent in much of the previous research
on ethnic targeting. For example, recent research has found
that both felt similarity to an ethnic spokesperson and the per-
ception of being targeted by an advertisement are important
mediators of consumer response to ethnic advertising (Aaker,
Brumbaugh, and Grier 1999). Both inherently involve some
recognition of the match between the endorser’s characteristics
and the consumer’s characteristics. As such, factors that in-
crease ethnic self-awareness should increase the likelihood that
a consumer will feel similar (or dissimilar) to an ethnic en-
dorser and thereby feel targeted (or not targeted) by an adver-
tisement that features the ethnic endorser. More direct evidence
of the power of ethnic self-awareness is provided by research
that has found that consumer response to ethnic advertising is
influenced by the context in which the advertising is placed
(Wooten and Galvin 1993). Specifically, these authors found
that African American participants responded more positively
to an advertisement that targeted African Americans if the ad-
vertisement was embedded in a mock newspaper article that
discussed ethnic issues (as opposed to being embedded in an
article that did not discuss ethnic issues). Our focus in this ar-
ticle is to better understand the process by which consumers
become ethnically self-aware and to analyze how this aware-
ness influences their subsequent response to ethnic advertising.
DETERMINANTS OF ETHNIC SELF-AWARENESS
One class of factors that influences ethnic self-awareness
is individual difference variables. Most notable among these
variables is consumers’ strength of ethnic identification—
people’s enduring association with their ethnic background.
Although people’s strength of ethnic identification is shaped
by their prior social and cultural experiences, this variable is
nonetheless fairly stable and enduring (Stayman and Desh-
pandé 1989). Research has found that strength of ethnic
identification affects the amount of attention consumers give
to ethnic information, the probability that consumers will
purchase ethnic products, and the response of consumers to
advertising featuring ethnic actors (Deshpandé, Hoyer, and
Donthu 1986; Ellis et al. 1985; Hirschman 1981; Saenz and
Aguirre 1991; Williams and Qualls 1989). Moreover, the
importance of strength of ethnic identification has been
demonstrated across a variety of ethnicities, including
African Americans (Williams and Qualls 1989), Asian
Americans (Ellis et al. 1985), Hispanics (Deshpandé, Hoyer
and Donthu 1986; Saenz and Aguirre 1991), and people of
Jewish heritage (Hirschman 1981).
Although strength of ethnic identification should be cor-
related with consumer ethnic self-awareness, the two con-
structs are durationally different. Strength of ethnic identifi-
cation is an enduring association between people’s sense of
self and their ethnicity, whereas ethnic self-awareness is the
338
momentary salience of people’s ethnic group memberships.
As such, ethnic self-awareness exists only when people
process ethnic information and categorize themselves along
ethnic criteria. At any given moment, strong ethnic identi-
fiers are more likely to be ethnically self-aware than are
weak ethnic identifiers, but possessing strong identification
with an ethnic group in no way necessitates ethnic self-
awareness. Instead, ethnic self-awareness often is elicited by
factors external to the person, and though it may be easier to
elicit ethnic self-awareness in a strong identifier, a strong
identifier is not continuously ethnically self-aware.
A second factor that may influence ethnic self-awareness
is the ethnic composition of a person’s social environment
(McGuire et al. 1978). McGuire and colleagues (1978) pro-
pose that particular group memberships are salient to a per-
son to the extent that the person’s membership in that group
is distinctive in the social environment. As a result, minori-
ties will be especially attuned to their ethnicity when they
are surrounded by a dissimilar majority (as compared with
situations in which they are surrounded by like minorities),
and this will increase the probability that they will sponta-
neously mention their ethnicity in self-descriptions.
Within marketing, Deshpandé and Stayman (1994) have
applied McGuire and colleagues’ distinctiveness theory to
an advertising context in a study of spokesperson effective-
ness. The authors recruited participants from the towns of
Austin and San Antonio, Tex., two cities that are similar
with the notable exception of their ethnic makeup (the ma-
jority of Austin residents are Anglo, whereas the majority of
San Antonio residents are Hispanic). As a result, the experi-
menters were provided with participants whose ethnicity
was distinctive (Hispanics in Austin and Anglos in San An-
tonio) and participants whose ethnicity was not distinctive
(Anglos in Austin and Hispanics in San Antonio). In addi-
tion to replicating the findings of McGuire and colleagues
(1978), Deshpandé and Stayman (1994) found that partici-
pants whose ethnicity was distinctive attributed significantly
more credibility to same-ethnicity spokespersons and that
perceived credibility then mediated subsequent brand atti-
tudes. More recent research has expanded on this effect and
argued that distinctiveness is influenced not only by numeric
prevalence but also by the social status of the group (Grier
and Deshpandé 2001).
A consumer’s immediate social situation also affects eth-
nic self-awareness. Stayman and Deshpandé (1989) and
Wooten (1995) find that ethnic consumers are more likely to
consume ethnic products when the social context includes
other people of the same ethnicity than when the social con-
text is integrated and includes people of many different eth-
nic groups. Research has also demonstrated that even weak
identifiers may evaluate members of their social groups
more favorably if the social situation induces or enhances
their group memberships (Cota and Dion 1986; Gerard and
Hoyt 1974).
Although previous research has conceptualized ethnic
self-awareness as a by-product of individual differences or
the social environment, there is no reason to expect that eth-
nic self-awareness could not also be elicited by any number
of factors that are neither internal to the individual nor so-
cial. In their research on felt ethnicity, both Stayman and
Deshpandé (1989) and Wooten and Galvin (1993) manipu-
lated exposure to articles that discussed discrimination or
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, AUGUST 2001
other ethnicity-oriented issues and found that exposure to
the articles influenced predicted consumption patterns and
attitudes toward subsequent targeted advertising. By direct-
ing conscious attention to these ethnic issues, the re-
searchers uncovered effects that had previously been found
only through manipulations of the social situation or
through measurement of preexisting individual differences.
The present research argues that these findings constitute a
third method by which ethnic self-awareness can be elicited:
contextual or stimulus primes.
Moreover, we argue that these contextual or stimulus
primes may affect ethnic self-awareness even when no overt
processing of the ethnic information occurs. It is possible
that simple cues in the advertising context could prime eth-
nic self-awareness without the directed attention to ethnic
information found in Stayman and Deshpandé’s (1989) or
Wooten and Galvin’s (1993) work. For example, recent re-
search on multicultural identities has demonstrated that
identities can be primed by visual images or words (Hong et
al. 1999). Specifically, the attribution styles of “multicul-
tural” Asian students in Hong Kong became more Western if
the students were first exposed to American cultural icons
(U.S. flag, Superman) and more Eastern if the students were
first exposed to Chinese cultural icons (a Chinese Dragon,
The Great Wall). These effects of exposure to ethnic icons
on attributional style were argued to occur because the icons
increase awareness of one ethnicity over others (in a multi-
cultural person), presumably by activating nodes in the stu-
dents’ semantic networks related to a specific ethnicity
(Hong et al. 1999; Wyer and Srull 1986).
In this project, we propose that exposure to what we have
termed ethnic primes—visual or verbal cues that draw at-
tention to ethnicity—will influence ethnic self-awareness by
encouraging unconscious ethnic processing and categoriza-
tion. Because of their influence on ethnic self-awareness, we
expect that ethnic primes will influence response to targeted
advertising in much the same way that social distinctiveness
does. Specifically, we expect that ethnic primes will inten-
sify consumer reaction to same-ethnicity actors. To the ex-
tent that the depiction of same-ethnicity actors is positive
and generally well received, this intensification should lead
to more positive reactions to both the spokesperson and the
advertising in which the spokesperson is featured.
In summary, the current study differs from previous work
on situational ethnicity and strength of ethnic identification
in its focus. In previous work on situational ethnicity, the sit-
uation was defined as “something outside the basic tenden-
cies and characteristics of the individual and beyond the
characteristics of the stimulus object to be acted upon”
(Belk 1974). Rather than study the social situation, we in-
stead focus on ethnic primes in the advertising context,
which is part of the stimulus itself. The current project is
also distinguishable from research on strength of ethnic
identification in its focus on a transitory state rather than an
enduring individual association with an ethnic membership.
As a result, stimulus-based priming completes a triad of fac-
tors that influence ethnic self-awareness: the individual, the
situation, and the stimulus.
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
We propose that ethnic primes in media will elicit ethnic
self-awareness in consumers who are exposed to the primes.
Priming Ethnic Self-Awareness and Advertising Response
To measure ethnic self-awareness, we used the spontaneous
self-description method that was first developed to study the
effects of societal distinctiveness by McGuire and col-
leagues (1978). This measure is particularly sensitive to un-
conscious influences on ethnic self-awareness because it al-
lows subjects to describe themselves along any dimensions
they believe are relevant and does not explicitly question
subjects about their ethnic memberships. Although ethnic
primes should influence the ethnic self-awareness of all con-
sumers who are exposed to the prime, the effect should be
particularly dramatic for consumers whose ethnicity
matches the ethnicity used in the ethnic prime. A great deal
of research has demonstrated that people pay more attention
to and demonstrate quicker recall of trait information that is
consistent with their self-schema (Markus and Sentis 1982).
More recently, the tendency to process self-relevant infor-
mation differentially has been shown for traits as diverse as
gender (Skitka and Maslach 1996), mathematical aptitude
(Lips 1995), and a variety of personality variables (Fekken
and Holden 1992). Because of this heightened responsive-
ness to self-relevant information, consumers with an ethnic-
ity that matches the ethnicity used in the ethnic prime (eth-
nic prime congruent) are expected to demonstrate greater
increases in ethnic self-awareness after prime exposure than
are consumers with an ethnicity that does not match the eth-
nicity used in the ethnic prime (ethnic prime incongruent).
H1: Exposure to an ethnic prime should increase ethnic self-
awareness among all consumers, and this positive effect
should be more pronounced when the consumer’s ethnicity
is congruent with the ethnicity featured in the ethnic prime
than when the two ethnicities are incongruent.
Prior research has found that when social context height-
ens ethnic self-awareness, consumers respond more posi-
tively to same-ethnicity spokespersons (Deshpandé and
Stayman 1994). A similar effect is expected when ethnic
primes are used to increase ethnic self-awareness. Ethnic
self-awareness leads to more positive evaluations of same-
ethnicity actors and spokespeople because it highlights the
similarity between the consumer and the spokesperson and
thereby increases the likelihood that the consumer will clas-
sify the spokesperson as a member of his or her “in-group”
(a classification of similar others). When same-ethnicity ac-
tors are classified into the consumer’s in-group, a host of
positive biases toward the actors should follow. For exam-
ple, prior research has found that compared with out-group
members, in-group members are perceived to be more inter-
esting and varied (Linville, Fischer, and Salovey 1989) yet
more similar to the evaluator (Taylor et al. 1978). Similar
others also are usually liked more (Neimeyer and Mitchell
1988) and found more persuasive (Berscheid 1966) than dis-
similar others. Evidence that ethnic primes should magnify
these positive effects is indirectly provided by research that
demonstrates that evaluation of in-group members improves
when attention is focused on the evaluator’s group member-
ships (Abrams 1985). This suggests that consumers should
respond more favorably to same-ethnicity actors in advertis-
ing after exposure to an ethnic prime.
It should be noted that though it is predicted that people
will evaluate in-group members more positively than out-
group members, the strength of this positive effect is vari-
able within the group. One reason for this variability is indi-
339
vidual differences in strength of ethnic identification (Desh-
pandé, Hoyer, and Donthu 1986). Weak identifiers are less
likely to show a positive bias than strong identifiers and, in
extreme cases, it is possible that weak identifiers may wish
to disassociate themselves from their group and therefore
respond negatively to other in-group members. A second
cause of variability is the subjective construal of whether a
given ethnic depiction is stereotypical or derogatory. To the
extent that consumers perceive a depiction to be stereotypi-
cal, they may respond less positively to the targeted adver-
tising than if there was no ethnic presence in the advertising
at all (Weigl, Loomis, and Soja 1980). Given that increasing
people’s ethnic self-awareness should intensify their reac-
tions to ethnically based advertising, ethnic self-awareness
should cause consumers to respond even more negatively to
stereotypical advertising than they otherwise would. Al-
though these two factors increase the variability of response
within the target market, the domain of analysis in this proj-
ect is limited to advertising that is not generally perceived to
be stereotypical or derogatory. As a result, ethnic self-aware-
ness should have largely positive outcomes on consumer
evaluation of same-ethnicity spokespeople and advertising.
Just as ethnic self-awareness may improve reaction to
same-ethnicity actors and spokespeople, it may have a detri-
mental effect on the evaluation of different-ethnicity actors
and spokespeople. Consumers who have been ethnically
primed are more likely to perceive actors of a different eth-
nicity to be members of an out-group, which can lead to less
positive reactions. However, following the tenets of ethno-
centrism, it is likely that the strength of people’s negative re-
actions to an out-group are much weaker than the strength of
their positive reactions to the in-group (LeVine and Camp-
bell 1972; Sumner 1906). In addition, the likelihood of ob-
serving negative reactions to an out-group depends greatly
on the evaluator’s prior attitude toward the out-group (Bhat,
Leigh, and Wardlow 1996; Grier and Brumbaugh 1999).
Given these caveats, it is likely that the negative effects of
priming ethnic self-awareness on the evaluation of different-
ethnicity actors will be weaker than the positive effects of
priming ethnic self-awareness on the evaluation of same-
ethnicity actors.
H2: After exposure to an ethnic prime, consumers will demon-
strate more (less) favorable attitudes toward same-ethnicity
(different-ethnicity) actors and spokespeople who are fea-
tured in ethnically targeted advertisements.
Prior research has demonstrated that consumers label
spokespeople as being “like me” or “not like me” depending
on their felt similarity with the spokesperson, and con-
sumers also label products as being “for me” or “not for me”
depending on whether the products are perceived to be tar-
geted toward them (Aaker, Brumbaugh, and Grier 1999). By
drawing attention to ethnicity, ethnic primes should increase
the likelihood that consumers will feel targeted by adver-
tisements that feature same-ethnicity actors and spokespeo-
ple and decrease the likelihood that consumers will feel tar-
geted by advertisements that feature different ethnicity
actors and spokespeople.
H3: After exposure to an ethnic prime, consumers are more
(less) likely to feel targeted by an advertisement that features
actors or spokespeople of the same (different) ethnicity.
340
The effects of exposure to ethnic primes also should be
demonstrated on evaluations of targeted advertisements and
the favorableness of cognitive responses to targeted adver-
tisements. To the extent that the advertising becomes associ-
ated with the actors and spokespeople featured in it, it can
become an extension of the in-group (or out-group) itself.
Recent research on target marketing has found that both the
perception of being targeted by an advertisement and felt
similarity with models in advertisements mediate consumer
reactions to the advertisements themselves (Aaker, Brum-
baugh, and Grier 1999). As a result, ethnic primes that in-
fluence the degree to which consumers like ethnic actors
(H2) and the degree to which consumers feel targeted (or not
targeted) by ethnically targeted advertisements (H3) should
also influence consumer evaluation of the advertisements
themselves.
H4: After exposure to an ethnic prime, members of the target
market (nontarget market) will demonstrate (a) more (less)
favorable attitudes toward the targeted advertisements, (b)
an increase (decrease) in the number of positive cognitive
responses to the targeted advertisements, and (c) a decrease
(increase) in the number of negative cognitive responses to
the targeted advertisements.
EXPERIMENT 1
Method
Overview and design. The goals of the Experiment 1 were
to assess whether execution elements in advertising can in-
crease ethnic self-awareness in consumers and to measure
what impact ethnic self-awareness has on consumer re-
sponse to an ethnically targeted advertisement. The design
of Experiment 1 was a 2 levels of target market membership
(target market, Asian, or nontarget market, Caucasian) × 2
levels of ethnic prime (presence or absence of prior adver-
tisement that primes ethnic self-awareness) between-partic-
ipants factorial.
Participants. At a major West Coast university, 109 un-
dergraduate students participated as part of a class require-
ment. Of these, 52 students self-reported their ethnicity as
Asian, and 57 students self-reported their ethnicity as Cau-
casian. The sample contained slightly more men than
women: 32 of the 57 Caucasian participants were male, and
35 of the 52 Asian participants were male. Male and female
subjects were distributed evenly across priming conditions.
Procedure. Three weeks before the main experiment, par-
ticipants completed a survey that included several personal-
ity scales and basic demographic items. We used the self-
reported ethnicity measure in this initial survey to classify
participants ethnically.
During the main experiment, participants were randomly
assigned to either the prime or the no-prime condition. Upon
entering the lab, participants were informed that the re-
searchers were “examining attitudes toward television me-
dia” and that they would be asked to watch an eight-minute
segment from a news program and then answer some ques-
tions about the program in a questionnaire packet. After the
initial instructions, participants were asked to direct their at-
tention to the front of the room, where a video monitor
played the videotape containing a series of commercials em-
bedded between two news segments. When the videotape
ended, participants were given a questionnaire to complete
that contained all dependent measures.
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, AUGUST 2001
Stimuli. The videotape stimuli presented a series of televi-
sion advertisements embedded between two news segments.
The news segments originally aired on a local news broadcast
and contained general information about local traffic and
weather. The series of advertisements presented between the
two news segments contained an ethnically targeted adver-
tisement for Nokia cellular telephones and three filler adver-
tisements (all for consumer nondurables). The Nokia cellular
telephone advertisement was classified as an Asian-targeted
advertisement because it featured only Asian actors and ac-
tresses. The Nokia advertisement was selected because it
originally aired in Singapore (in English) and was never aired
in the local U.S. market, thereby limiting any potential pre-
exposure to the advertisement by the participants.
In the ethnic prime condition, one additional advertisement
was included that was expected to prime ethnic awareness.
This advertisement also originally aired in Singapore and fea-
tured Vidal Sassoon hair care products. Although both the
Nokia advertisement and the Vidal Sassoon advertisement
would be considered ethnically targeted advertisements in the
United States, the Vidal Sassoon advertisement contained a
more direct ethnic prime. This ethnic prime was an express
statement (provided verbally and in text) that Vidal Sassoon
products were “for Asian Hair.” This statement served as an
ethnic prime because it primed self-categorization along an
ethnic dimension. The direct statement of the product’s de-
sired audience encourages consumers, perhaps unconsciously,
to identify the product as being “for me” or “not for me.”
The final ordering of advertisements in the no ethnic
prime condition was as follows: Filler Ad 1, Targeted Ad
(Nokia), Filler Ad 2, Filler Ad 3. In the ethnic prime condi-
tion, the ethnic prime advertisement (Vidal Sassoon) was
placed in the second position, creating the following order-
ing: Filler Ad 1, Ethnic Prime Ad (Vidal Sassoon), Targeted
Ad (Nokia), Filler Ad 2, Filler Ad 3.
Measures. The first page of the questionnaire asked some
general questions about the newscast and the news anchors,
supporting the television media cover story. This cover story
was used to direct some attention away from the advertise-
ments to create a more externally valid representation of how
consumers typically view advertisements (focus of attention
on the programming rather than the advertisements).
After completing the cover story measures, participants
were asked to “Please tell us about yourself in your own
words. Please take about a minute to do so” (H1). The prob-
ability that a participant would spontaneously report his or
her ethnicity was used as the critical measure of ethnic self-
awareness (McGuire et al. 1978).
The open-ended response measures were followed by a
series of questions about the focal advertisement (H4). First,
five seven-point semantic differential items were used to as-
sess attitude toward the target advertisement (Aad). These
items were anchored with “bad”/“good,” “dislike”/“like,”
“useless”/“useful,” “uninformative”/“informative,” and “un-
pleasant”/“pleasant.” An average score across these five
measures was calculated to provide an overall rating of atti-
tude toward the ad (Cronbach’s α = .91). The attitude toward
the ad measures were followed by a set of cognitive re-
sponse measures that assessed participant reactions to the
advertising. Participants were asked to take a minute and
write down all their reactions to the Nokia advertisement,
both positive and negative. These cognitive responses were
Priming Ethnic Self-Awareness and Advertising Response
coded as positive, negative, or neutral. Two coders who were
blind to the experimental hypotheses completed all coding.
The coders demonstrated 88% agreement on their initial
codings. Disagreements between the coders were resolved
through discussion. A final advertisement evaluation item
assessed whether the participants felt targeted by the adver-
tisement by asking the participants to rate how much they
believed the advertisement was “intended for me” (H3).
Attitudes toward the ad spokesperson were assessed using
four measures of liking for the spokesperson (H2). The
spokesperson-liking items were seven-point semantic differ-
ential items anchored by “cold”/“warm,” “unlikable”/“lik-
able,” “insincere”/“sincere,” and “unfriendly”/“friendly”
(Whittler and DiMeo 1991). These four items were averaged
into a single measure of spokesperson liking (Cronbach’s
α = .94).
The final set of measures included a measure of the par-
ticipant’s strength of ethnic identification and measures of
other demographic information. The strength of the partici-
pant’s ethnic identification was measured on a nine-point
scale anchored with “very weakly” and “very strongly”
(Deshpandé, Hoyer, and Donthu 1986). The use of a nine-
point scale for this measure is helpful, because people dis-
proportionately indicate strong as opposed to weak identifi-
cation with their groups.
Results
Ethnic self-awareness. H1 proposes that exposure to an
ethnic prime will increase ethnic self-awareness and that the
effect of the prime will be moderated by the ethnicity of the
participant. Consumers with an ethnicity that matched the
ethnicity used in the ethnic prime (ethnic prime congruent)
were predicted to demonstrate greater increases in ethnic
self-awareness after prime exposure than consumers whose
ethnicity did not match the ethnicity used in the ethnic prime
(ethnic prime incongruent). Results from a logistic regres-
sion provided partial support for this hypothesis. As pre-
dicted, participants who were exposed to the ethnic prime
(EP) were more likely to self-report their ethnicity than par-
ticipants not exposed to the ethnic prime (NEP) (EP = 36%,
NEP = 13%). In the logistic regression, the parameter esti-
mate for this ethnic prime effect was 1.57 (standard error
[S.E.] = .53, χ2 (1, N = 109) = 8.63, p < .01). However, the
hypothesized interaction between participant ethnicity and
prime exposure on ethnic self-awareness was not found (p >
.20). There was also an unhypothesized main effect of eth-
nicity on tendency to self-report ethnic information: Asians
Table 1
EXPERIMENT 1 CELL MEANS (S.E.) AND ANOVA RESULTS
Asian
Participant Ethnicity (Ethnic Prime Congruent)
Ethnic Prime No Yes
H1: Ethnic self-report percentage 22 56
H2: Spokesperson liking 4.05 (.28) 4.90 (.18)
H3: Felt targetedness 3.85 (.38) 5.52 (.42)
H4a: Attitude toward the ad 4.78 (.24) 5.51 (.19)
H4b: Positive cognitive responses .52 (.10) 1.16 (.18)
H4c: Negative cognitive responses 1.07 (.21) .44 (.15)
341
(A) self-reported at a higher rate than Caucasians (C) (A =
38%, C = 11%; parameter estimate = 1.85; S.E. = .55, χ2 (1,
N = 109) = 11.38, p < .01). This main effect of ethnicity is
consistent with research on societal distinctiveness, which
argues that people in a numerical minority are more likely to
self-report their minority memberships than are people in a
numerical majority (McGuire et al. 1978). Means for all Ex-
periment 1 hypotheses are provided in Table 1.
Spokesperson evaluation. H2 proposes that exposure to a
prior ethnic prime will improve the evaluations of the
spokesperson in a subsequent ethnically targeted advertise-
ment if the spokesperson’s ethnicity matched the con-
sumer’s ethnicity and lower the evaluations of the
spokesperson if the spokesperson’s ethnicity did not match
the consumer’s ethnicity. Because the actors featured in the
ethnically targeted advertisement were Asian, the Asian par-
ticipants were classified as members of the target market,
and Caucasians were classified as members of the nontarget
market. Support for this hypothesis would be found through
an interaction of ethnic prime with target market member-
ship on evaluations of the spokesperson. An analysis of vari-
ance (ANOVA) revealed the hypothesized target market ×
ethnic prime interaction on evaluations of how likable the
spokesperson was (F(1,108) = 5.04, p < .03). Simple effects
tests revealed that this interaction was driven by a small (dif-
ference of .85 on a seven-point scale) but significant positive
effect of ethnic prime on how much target market members
liked the spokesperson (NEP = 4.05, EP = 4.90; F(1,51) =
6.69, p < .01) combined with no significant effect of ethnic
prime for nontarget market members (NEP = 4.22, EP =
4.05; F(1,56) = .29, p > .20). H2 thus received partial sup-
port, as there was a small, significant, positive effect of an
ethnic prime on the responses of target market members, but
not on nontarget market members.
Perception of being targeted. By drawing attention to eth-
nicity, ethnic primes should increase the likelihood that con-
sumers will feel targeted by advertisements that feature
same-ethnicity actors and spokespeople and decrease the
likelihood that consumers will feel targeted by advertise-
ments that feature different-ethnicity actors and spokespeo-
ple. This hypothesized interaction of prime and ethnicity
(H3) was found on ratings of how much the advertisement
was “intended for me” (F(1,108) = 15.49, p < .001). The
prime significantly reduced Caucasians’ perception of being
targeted (NEP = 5.59, EP = 4.21; F(1,56) = 6.62, p < .01)
and significantly increased Asians’ perception of being tar-
geted (NEP = 3.85, EP = 5.52; F(1,51) = 8.92, p < .01).
ANOVA Results:
Caucasian Ethnicity × Prime
(Ethnic Prime Incongruent) Interaction
No Yes F p
3 18 — —
4.22 (.21) 4.05 (.23) 5.04 .03
5.59 (.39) 4.21 (.36) 15.49 .001
4.86 (.18) 4.37 (.25) 7.73 .01
.79 (.16) .61 (.20) 6.30 .01
.55 (.09) 1.00 (.24) 7.23 .001
342
Moreover, a simple effects test revealed that when no ethnic
prime was present, Caucasian participants felt more targeted
by the Nokia advertisement than Asian participants did (C =
5.59, A = 3.85; F(1,54) = 10.38, p < .01). This finding sup-
ports the contention that the presence of ethnic actors, by it-
self, has little effect on how consumers process advertising.
Ad response variables. H4 proposes that exposure to an
ethnic prime will improve the evaluations of the advertise-
ment for target market members but lower the evaluations of
the advertisement for nontarget market members. Support
for this hypothesis would be found through an ethnic
prime × target market membership interaction on each of the
respective measures. This interaction was found on the atti-
tude toward the ad measure (F(1,108) = 7.73, p < .01). The
interaction was driven by a small (difference of .75 points on
a seven-point scale) but significant, positive effect of ethnic
prime on attitude toward the advertisement for target market
members (NEP = 4.78, EP = 5.51; F(1,51) = 5.31, p < .02)
combined with no effect of ethnic prime for nontarget mar-
ket members (NEP = 4.86, EP = 4.37; F(1,56) = 2.60, p >
.10). These findings provide partial support for H4a, as the
prime produced a significant, positive effect for target mar-
ket members but did not produce a significant effect for non-
target market members.
H4b and H4c predicted an ethnic prime × target market
membership interaction on the number of positive and neg-
ative cognitive responses consumers generated to the tar-
geted advertisement. Partial support was found for H4b, as
there was an interaction of prime and ethnicity on the num-
ber of positive cognitive responses generated (F(1,108) =
6.30, p < .01). Prior exposure to the ethnic prime increased
the number of positive cognitive responses to the advertise-
ment for target market members (NEP = .52, EP = 1.16;
F(1,51) = 7.23, p < .001) and had no effect on the number of
positive cognitive responses for nontarget market members
(NEP = .79, EP = .61; F(1,56) = .67, p > .20).
H4c also received partial support, as there was a signifi-
cant ethnic prime × target market membership interaction on
the number of negative cognitive responses generated
(F(1,108) = 8.97, p < .001). Prior exposure to an ethnic
prime significantly reduced the number of negative cogni-
tive responses to the advertisement for target market mem-
bers (NEP = 1.07, EP = .44; F(1,51) = 5.88, p < .02) and di-
rectionally increased the number of negative cognitive
responses to the advertisement for nontarget market mem-
bers (NEP = .55, EP = 1.00; F(1,56) = 3.23, p < .10).
Strength of ethnic identification. We also proposed that
ethnic self-awareness is durationally distinct from strength
of ethnic identification, because strength of ethnic identifi-
cation is an enduring state in a person whereas ethnic self-
awareness is momentary consciousness of group member-
ships. If this is indeed the case, the ethnic prime should have
no effect on the participant’s reported strength of ethnic
identification. As expected, the ethnic prime did not influ-
ence participants’ strength of ethnic identification
(F(1,108) = .59, p > .20). Similar to the tendency to self-re-
port ethnic information, strength of ethnic identification var-
ied by ethnicity: Asian participants reported a higher level of
ethnic identification than did Caucasian participants (A =
7.59, C = 6.76; F(1,108) = 4.99, p < .03).
Although the ethnic prime had no effect on strength of
ethnic identification, it is still possible that strength of eth-
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, AUGUST 2001
nic identification moderates the effects of the ethnic prime
on other dependent variables. To test for this possibility, we
performed a median split on strength of ethnic identification
(the split point was determined separately for Asian and
Caucasian participants). We created this new binary variable
to test for potential interactions between strength of ethnic
identification and ethnic primes on the various dependent
measures. In these analyses, strength of ethnic identification
did not significantly influence any of the dependent vari-
ables and did not interact with ethnic prime.
Discussion and Limitations
Experiment 1 demonstrates that exposure to ethnic primes
influences consumers’ ethnic self-awareness and thereby in-
fluences responses to the spokespeople and advertisements
used in targeted advertising. Exposure to an ethnic prime
caused members of the target market to respond more favor-
ably to an ethnically targeted advertisement and caused
members of the nontarget market to respond less favorably.
The effects of the ethnic prime were significant across all
dependent variables for target market members but not for
nontarget market members. Although ethnic prime exposure
produced consistently less positive reactions from members
of the nontarget market, these effects did not reach signifi-
cance on any of the dependent measures.
One possible explanation of these asymmetric priming ef-
fects is that target market members are more sensitive to the
content of targeted advertising than are nontarget market
members because of heightened self-relevance. Moreover,
the activation of group awareness may directly influence
consumer reactions to group-relevant information but only
indirectly influence reactions to information regarding other
groups. This suggests that ethnic priming would not cause
Asian participants to respond negatively to advertisements
that target other minorities, but it might cause Anglo partic-
ipants to respond more positively to advertising that targets
their ethnic group.
A second explanation of the nonsymmetric target market
and nontarget market effects is that ethnic primes merely
magnify a preexisting tendency toward biased evaluation of
the in-group. Deshpandé and Stayman (1994) find that eth-
nic consumers respond favorably to targeted advertising to
the extent that their ethnicity is a numerical minority in the
general population, and research on ethnocentrism has
found that members of an ethnic minority have a greater ten-
dency toward biased evaluation of their in-group than mem-
bers of an ethnic majority have toward biased evaluation of
an out-group (LeVine and Campbell 1972). If these argu-
ments are applied to Experiment 1, it is possible that the eth-
nic prime activated the biases of both minority and majority
consumers, but the magnitude of the potential bias was
much larger among minority consumers than among major-
ity consumers.
Although the first experiment provides support for the
general tenets of elicited self-awareness, a methodological
limitation of the first experiment warrants attention. Specif-
ically, the use of a distinct advertisement as the ethnic prime
opens up the results to alternative explanations. Participants
who viewed the ethnic prime (the explicit Asian comments
in the Vidal Sassoon advertisement) were also viewing an
advertisement and product category that participants in the
no ethnic prime condition did not view. As a result, the ob-
Priming Ethnic Self-Awareness and Advertising Response
served effects could be due to other elements in the Vidal
Sassoon advertisement or the exposure of participants in the
prime condition to two advertisements that feature Asian
models as opposed to just one for participants in the no
prime condition. Moreover, this design makes it difficult to
conclude whether the differential effects of the prime on the
target and nontarget market are due to the ethnic differences
between these two groups or to differences in their targeting
status.
To help resolve these issues, we conducted a second experi-
ment that kept the amount of information presented constant
across the prime and no prime conditions. We created this equiv-
alency by using two ethnic primes, one that featured an Asian
ethnic prime and one that featured a Caucasian ethnic prime.
These primes were contained in an advertisement that preceded
the targeted advertisement, but the advertisement they were in-
cluded in was not itself a targeted advertisement. The placement
of these primes in a nontargeted advertisement removes the al-
ternative explanation that the elicited self-awareness results were
the product of exposure to two sequential targeted advertise-
ments rather than the product of the prime itself. The targeted ad-
vertisement that participants evaluated in Experiment 2 was also
manipulated so that some participants viewed a Caucasian-tar-
geted advertisement after prime exposure and some participants
viewed an Asian-targeted advertisement after prime exposure.
EXPERIMENT 2
Method
Overview and design. The goal of Experiment 2 was to repli-
cate the elicited self-awareness findings observed in Experiment
1 in a context in which the amount of information presented was
equivalent across the prime and no prime conditions. To gain
greater control over the information presented in both the prime
and the targeted advertisement, we used print stimuli instead of
video stimuli. The design of Experiment 2 was a 2 levels of eth-
nicity (Asian or Caucasian) × 2 levels of ethnic prime (Asian
ethnic prime or Caucasian ethnic prime) × 2 levels of advertis-
ing target audience (focal advertisement targeted to either Asians
or Caucasians) between-participants factorial. This design al-
lows a more complete analysis of the effects of ethnic primes on
targeted advertising across both Asians and Caucasians.
Participants. At a major West Coast university, 175 under-
graduate students participated as part of a class requirement.
Of these, 61 students self-reported their ethnicity as Asian,
and 114 students self-reported their ethnicity as Caucasian.
Procedure. Three weeks before the main experiment, par-
ticipants completed a survey that included several personal-
ity scales and basic demographic items. The self-reported
ethnicity measure in this initial survey was used to classify
participants ethnically.
During the main experiment, participants were randomly
assigned to one of the four prime/target advertisement con-
ditions. Upon entering the lab, participants were informed
that the researchers were “examining attitudes toward print
media” and that participants would review several print ad-
vertisements and then answer some questions about them in
a questionnaire packet. Each participant was given an ad-
vertisement booklet to review. The experimenter read the in-
structions to the participants and then controlled the pace at
which participants read the advertisements. The experi-
menter allowed the participants to review each advertise-
ment for 20 seconds before instructing them to proceed to
343
the next advertisement. After the participants finished re-
viewing all five advertisements, the advertisement booklets
were collected and questionnaires that contained all depend-
ent measures were distributed.
Stimuli. Print advertisements were used as stimuli. The
ethnic prime was a modified Northwest Airlines advertise-
ment that had originally been created to promote Business
First, a program for business travelers. The original adver-
tisement featured a small photo in the center of an otherwise
white page with large text above the photo announcing the
program, small text alongside the photo describing the pro-
gram, fine print at the bottom of the page detailing restric-
tions, and the Northwest Airlines logo in the lower right-
hand corner. To make the product category more relevant to
the participants, the product promoted by the advertisement
was changed from a Business First program to a Students
First program. Although this change required alterations to
the content of the large text at the top of the page and the
small text alongside the photo, the text position, font, and
size were kept as they were in the original advertisement.
To create both an Asian and a Caucasian ethnic prime
from this one advertisement, we manipulated two elements
of the advertisement. First, the large text at the top of the
page was altered to say either “Travel overseas to Asia” (an
Asian prime) or “Travel overseas to Europe” (a Caucasian
prime). Compared with the rest of the large text, the words
“Asia” and “Europe” were written in a significantly larger
font and were in bold. All of the small and fine text was
identical between the two prime versions, with the exception
of four spots where the advertisements either said “Asia” or
“Europe.” The second element of the advertisement that we
manipulated to create an Asian or Caucasian ethnic prime
was the photograph placed at the center of the advertise-
ment. Following the findings of Hong and colleagues
(1999), we used photographs of cultural icons as ethnic
primes. In the Asian prime version, a photograph of the
Great Wall of China was included. In the Caucasian prime
advertisement, a photograph of Big Ben, the clock tower/
bell on the British Parliament, was included.
The focal advertisements that were evaluated by the par-
ticipants were two versions of an IBM advertisement that
was originally used to advertise IBM Global Services. Both
advertisements featured a photograph of an approximately
35-year-old man’s face in front of a hazy background. One
advertisement featured the face of an Asian man, the second
the face of a Caucasian man. Both advertisements also fea-
tured a small box filled with text that was placed alongside
the photograph of the man. The text of the original adver-
tisements was changed in several ways for the purposes of
the experiment. First, the product category was changed
from IBM Global Services to the IBM ThinkPad laptop
computer to make the product category more relevant to the
student population. The rest of the text in the box was edited
so that the Asian and Caucasian versions of the advertise-
ment contained identical information. The text provided in-
formation about the man’s name and occupation, a quotation
from the man, the ThinkPad Web site URL, and a slogan
statement for the ThinkPad. John Lee was selected as the
man’s name, because Lee is a surname that both Asians and
Caucasians may have.
In a pretest, 48 subjects who did not participate in the
main experiment evaluated the two IBM models to ensure
344
that the advertisements were equivalent except for the
model’s ethnicity. Participants were randomly assigned to
evaluate either the Caucasian or Asian version of the adver-
tisement and were instructed to evaluate the model’s friend-
liness, happiness, intelligence, trustworthiness, and attrac-
tiveness. All responses were collected on seven-point
semantic differential items. No significant differences were
found in participants’ evaluation of the models on any of
these items (p > .20). Separate analyses were also run for
Caucasian participants and Asian participants, and again no
significant differences were found on evaluation of the mod-
els (p > .20).
Three other advertisements were selected as filler adver-
tisements in the experiment. The three advertisements were
selected because they did not feature human models, which
thus helped prevent any unintended ethnic primes. These
advertisements were for FTD flower bouquets, American
Express credit cards, and Refresh eye drops. All advertise-
ments (including the prime and target advertisements) were
presented in black and white. The final ordering of adver-
tisements was as follows: Filler Ad 1, Ethnic Prime Ad
(Northwest), Targeted Ad (IBM), Filler Ad 2, Filler Ad 3.
Measures. The same set of dependent measures was used
in Experiment 2 as in Experiment 1, with one exception. The
measure of perception of being targeted used in Experiment
1 was replaced with the more complete, three-item targeted-
ness scale developed by Aaker, Brumbaugh, and Grier
(1999).
Analysis and Results
Ethnic self-awareness. H1 proposes that exposure to an
ethnic prime will increase ethnic self-awareness and that this
effect will be more pronounced when the ethnic prime is
congruent with the participant’s ethnicity than when it is in-
congruent with the participant’s ethnicity. Results from a lo-
gistic regression provided support for this hypothesis. As
predicted, participants who were exposed to a congruent
ethnic prime (CP) were more likely to self-report their eth-
nicity than participants exposed to an incongruent ethnic
prime (IP) (CP = 34%, IP = 21%). In the logistic regression,
the parameter estimate for the effect of a congruent ethnic
prime was .71 (S.E. = .39, χ2 (1, N = 175) = 3.39, p < .03,
one-tailed test). The differential effect of a congruent ethnic
prime over an incongruent ethnic prime on self-awareness
was also influenced by participant ethnicity. Asian partici-
pants’ ethnic self-report rate increased from 28% with an in-
congruent prime to 56% with a congruent ethnic prime,
whereas the rate for Caucasian participants increased only
from 12% to 15%. To test the significance of these prime ef-
fects by ethnicity, we conducted another logistic regression
that allowed for differential effects of the prime on Asians
and Caucasians. In this regression, the effect of the prime
was significant for Asians (parameter estimate = 1.22; S.E. =
.55, χ2 (1, N = 175) = 4.99, p < .01, one-tailed test) but in-
significant for Caucasians (p > .20). Despite this difference
in significance, the interaction between participant ethnicity
and prime congruence was not significant (p > .10). Finally,
as in Experiment 1, there was an unhypothesized main effect
of ethnicity on tendency to self-report ethnic information:
Asians (A) self-reported at a higher rate than Caucasians (C)
(A = 42%, C = 14%; parameter estimate = 1.57; S.E. = .38,
χ2 (1, N = 175) = 17.42, p < .01). Although unhypothesized,
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, AUGUST 2001
this effect is consistent with McGuire’s distinctiveness the-
ory (McGuire et al. 1978).
Spokesperson evaluation. H2 proposes that exposure to a
congruent ethnic prime will improve the evaluations of the
spokesperson in a subsequent ethnically targeted advertise-
ment if the spokesperson’s ethnicity matches the consumer’s
ethnicity and will lower the evaluations of the spokesperson
if the spokesperson’s ethnicity does not match the con-
sumer’s ethnicity. Because Experiment 2 used two different
targeted advertisements as the object of evaluation, Asian
participants were not always members of the target market,
and Caucasians were not always members of the nontarget
market. As a result, H2 is most easily tested through a series
of a priori contrasts. This allows an analysis of the effects of
the two types of ethnic primes on Asian and Caucasian sub-
jects’ responses to an Asian-targeted advertisement (a repli-
cation of Experiment 1) and an analysis of the effects of two
types of ethnic primes on Asian and Caucasian subjects’ re-
sponses to a Caucasian-targeted advertisement (an extension
of Experiment 1). Means and overall ANOVA results for H2,
H3, and H4 are reported in Table 2.
The first planned contrast used to test H2 is a comparison
of the reactions of Asian participants to an Asian model af-
ter being exposed to either an Asian or a Caucasian prime.
Support for H2 was found, as Asians responded more favor-
ably to the model in the Asian-targeted advertisement after
exposure to an Asian ethnic prime (AEP) than after exposure
to a Caucasian ethnic prime (CEP) (AEP = 5.22, CEP =
4.21; F(1,34) = 7.45, p < .01). However, Caucasian response
to the Asian model was not influenced by the type of ethnic
prime (AEP = 4.05, CEP = 4.33; F(1,55) = .94, p > .20).
These results provide support for the in-group predictions of
H2, but not its out-group predictions.
Corresponding planned contrasts were also conducted on
participant evaluation of the Caucasian model. Type of eth-
nic prime did not affect the evaluations of the Caucasian
model for either Asian (AEP = 4.30, CEP = 4.39; F(1,34) =
.04, p > .20) or Caucasian (AEP = 4.70, CEP = 4.46;
F(1,55) = .63, p > .20) participants. These results fail to sup-
port H2 when the focus of evaluation is a Caucasian model.
Perception of being targeted. By drawing attention to eth-
nicity, congruent ethnic primes should increase the likelihood
that consumers will feel targeted by advertisements that fea-
ture same-ethnicity actors and spokespeople and decrease the
likelihood that consumers will feel targeted by advertisements
that feature different-ethnicity actors and spokespeople. This
prediction was supported for Asian participants, who felt
more targeted by the Asian-targeted advertisement after ex-
posure to an Asian ethnic prime than after exposure to a Cau-
casian ethnic prime (AEP = 4.93, CEP = 3.69; F(1,34) = 5.90,
p < .02). However, ethnic prime type did not influence how
targeted Caucasians felt by the Asian-targeted advertisement
(AEP = 3.12, CEP = 3.40; F(1,55) = .47, p > .20). For the ad-
vertisement featuring an Asian model, there was a significant
main effect of ethnicity on the perception of being targeted, as
Asians felt more targeted than did Caucasians (A = 4.31, C =
3.26; F(1,90) = 10.34, p < .01). Again, these results support
the in-group predictions of H3 but not the out-group predic-
tions. When the focus of evaluation was a Caucasian-targeted
advertisement and the target market/nontarget market roles
are therefore reversed, none of the planned contrasts testing
H3 reached significance (p > .20).
 Table 2
EXPERIMENT 2 CELL MEANS (S.E.) AND ANOVA RESULTS

ANOVA Results:
Ethnicity of Model in Ad Asian Caucasian Three-Way Interaction
of Ethnicity of Model,
Participant Ethnicity Asian Caucasian Asian Caucasian Participant, and Prime
Priming Ethnic Self-Awareness and Advertising Response

Ethnic Prime Asian Caucasian Asian Caucasian Asian Caucasian Asian Caucasian F p
H2: Spokesperson liking 5.22 (.26)a 4.21 (.27)a 4.05 (.20) 4.34 (.22) 4.30 (.29) 4.39 (.33) 4.70 (.23) 4.46 (.19) 5.17 .02
H3: Felt targetedness 4.93 (.36)b 3.69 (.37)b 3.12 (.28) 3.40 (.28) 3.33 (.38) 3.64 (.44) 3.61 (.30) 3.48 (.25) 4.32 .04
H4a: Attitude toward the ad 4.39 (.30) 4.07 (.29) 4.13 (.22) 4.26 (.24) 4.34 (.22) 4.05 (.20) 4.21 (.27) 5.22 (.26) .47 n.s.
H4b: Positive cognitive responses 1.67 (.19)c .82 (.20)c .40 (.15) .31 (.16) .20 (.21) .36 (.25) .71 (.17) .79 (.14) 2.63 .10
H4c: Negative cognitive responses .61 (.25)d 1.18 (.26)d 1.73 (.19) 1.38 (.21) 1.40 (.25) 1.82 (.29) .71 (.20) .68 (.17) .55 n.s.
Notes: Superscript letters denote significant planned contrasts (p < .05).
345
346
Ad response variables. H4 proposes that exposure to a
congruent ethnic prime will improve the evaluations of the
advertisement for target market members but lower the eval-
uations of the advertisement for nontarget market members.
Although planned contrasts revealed no such effects on the
attitude toward the ad measure (p > .20), the type of ethnic
prime influenced the number of positive and negative cogni-
tive responses Asian participants had to the Asian-targeted
advertisement. Specifically, Asian participants reported
more positive responses to the Asian-targeted advertisement
after exposure to the Asian ethnic prime (AEP = 1.67, CEP =
.82; F(1,34) = 9.45, p < .01) and fewer negative responses
(AEP = .61, CEP = 1.18; F(1,34) = 4.73, p < .05). However,
the type of ethnic prime influenced neither how Caucasian
participants evaluated the Asian-targeted advertisement (p >
.20) nor their cognitive responses to it (p > .20). As for H2
and H3, these findings provide support for the positive in-
group effects predicted by H4 but not the negative out-group
effects.
No support for H4 was found in participant responses to
the Caucasian-targeted advertisement. The only findings of
note for responses to the Caucasian-targeted advertisement
were main effects of ethnicity on the number of positive and
negative cognitive responses generated. Compared with
Asians, Caucasians generated significantly more positive
cognitive responses to the Caucasian-targeted advertisement
(A = .28, C = .75; F(1,83) = 5.77, p < .02) and significantly
fewer negative cognitive responses (A = 1.61, C = .69;
F(1,83) = 19.08, p < .01).
Strength of ethnic identification. As in Experiment 1, we
found that though a congruent ethnic prime increased ethnic
self-awareness, it did not increase strength of ethnic identi-
fication (F(1,173) = .86, p > .20). This again supports the
contention that ethnic self-awareness is durationally distinct
from strength of ethnic identification and that strength of
ethnic identification is an enduring state that is not as sub-
ject to momentary change. The only significant predictor of
strength of ethnic identification was again ethnicity, as
Asian participants reported higher levels of ethnic identifi-
cation than did Caucasian participants (A = 7.07, C = 6.10;
F(1,173) = 9.65, p < .01). Moreover, a binary strength of eth-
nic identification variable created through a median split did
not significantly influence any of the dependent variables
and did not interact with ethnic prime.
DISCUSSION
Across all dependent measures, Experiment 2 success-
fully replicated the findings of Experiment 1 when the focus
of evaluation was an Asian-targeted advertisement. As in
Experiment 1, Asians responded more positively to Asian-
targeted advertising and spokespeople if they were first ex-
posed to an Asian ethnic prime. Exposure to an Asian ethnic
prime also increased the ethnic self-awareness of Asians and
made them feel more targeted by subsequent targeted adver-
tising. These significant priming effects are particularly
noteworthy given the relatively subtle prime manipulation
used in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, the ethnic prime ex-
plicitly stated that a product was “for Asian hair” and
thereby forced participants to evaluate whether the product
was “for me” or “not for me.” In contrast, the second exper-
iment used photographs of cultural icons and potential travel
destinations as ethnic primes. Although it is possible that a
JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, AUGUST 2001
specific travel destination is differentially attractive to dif-
ferent ethnic groups, the advertisement that contained the
primes does not explicitly target either ethnicity, because
anyone, regardless of ethnicity, could be interested in travel-
ing to a given location. As a result, both experiments used
primes that should prompt ethnic classification, but those
used in Experiment 2 are much less direct. The only major
finding from Experiment 1 that was not replicated in Exper-
iment 2 was the positive effect of ethnic priming on Asian
evaluations of an Asian-targeted advertisement. Again, this
null effect may be attributed to the subtlety of the primes
used.
Another interesting finding across both experiments is the
general lack of ethnic priming effects on Caucasians. When
the focal advertisement was targeted to Asians (Experiment
1 and the replication half of Experiment 2), the only effects
of ethnic primes on Caucasians were limited increases in
ethnic self-awareness and decreases in how targeted the
Caucasians felt by the Asian-targeted advertisements (both
findings in Experiment 1). This finding suggests that ethnic
primes that focus attention on exclusion from a group can
increase ethnic self-awareness in the same way that attention
to inclusion in a group does. However, this increase in eth-
nic self-awareness did not lead to the development of nega-
tive attitudes toward the out-group or toward advertisements
that target an out-group. As stated previously, these null
findings are not surprising given the relative difficulty of ob-
serving negative out-group effects compared with positive
in-group effects (Aaker, Brumbaugh, and Grier 1999;
LeVine and Campbell 1972). In addition to not demonstrat-
ing negative out-group attitudes, Caucasian participants in
Experiment 2 also failed to demonstrate any form of positive
in-group bias toward same-ethnicity models or advertise-
ments that feature same-ethnicity models.
There are two primary explanations for the absence of
ethnic priming effects on Caucasians. First and foremost is
the fact that “Caucasian” is technically a broad racial con-
struct rather than a more narrowly defined ethnic construct.
As a result, Caucasians may be more likely to resonate to
ethnic primes that relate to a specific heritage (e.g., Swedish,
French, Irish) rather than to a generalized racial category
(e.g., Caucasian). For example, although participants of
English heritage might respond to the photos of Big Ben
used in Experiment 2, participants of other Caucasian her-
itages may not. It should be noted that though Asian her-
itages can be delineated into just as many subclassifications
as can Caucasian heritages, Asian Americans may still be
more likely to respond to general Asian primes because of
their current minority status.
A second possible cause of the differential effects of eth-
nic primes on Asians and Caucasians is the differential dis-
tinctiveness of the two classifications within the general pop-
ulation. Because the majority of the population from which
participants were drawn is Caucasian, Asian participants are
more likely to feel socially distinctive than are Caucasian
participants (McGuire et al. 1978). Because of this low so-
cial distinctiveness, Caucasian participants are less likely to
respond to contextual primes such as those under study here.
Implications and Further Research
One critical implication of this research is that positive
target market effects may become more difficult to create as
Priming Ethnic Self-Awareness and Advertising Response
consumers adjust to the more frequent use of ethnic cues in
advertising. The experimental findings suggest that mar-
keters cannot automatically expect to produce target market
effects simply by including an ethnic spokesperson in an ad-
vertisement. To achieve a positive response from the target
market, marketers instead must either elicit ethnic self-
awareness among their consumers through advertisement
execution variables or expose their consumers to targeted
advertisements at times when the consumers are likely to
feel distinctive already. The easiest way for marketers to do
this may be to place their advertising in situations where the
surrounding content is likely to contain ethnic primes. This
conclusion is a marked departure from a great deal of early
research, which observed target market effects simply by al-
tering actor characteristics and suggests that consumers’ ex-
pectations about advertising have changed dramatically over
time. Only by tracking the evolution of these expectations
will marketers be able to predict what factors will elicit dis-
tinctiveness in the future.
A second important implication of this research is the
lack of effect of ethnic primes on nontarget market members
in general and Caucasian nontarget market members in par-
ticular. One risk that arises when marketers aggressively tar-
get a minority group is that this practice could alienate the
nontarget market. To the extent that the nontarget market
also consumes the marketer’s product or service, this alien-
ation could be very costly, especially when the nontarget
market is much larger than the target market. Because most
targeted campaigns in the United States focus on some sub-
segment of the population, Caucasians are frequently mem-
bers of this larger nontarget market. This project’s findings
suggest that the risk of a nontarget market backlash may not
be as great as previously thought. First, Caucasians demon-
strated no backlash toward targeted advertising in either of
the studies. Second, although Asians were generally sensi-
tive to ethnic primes, the ethnic primes did not affect how
Asians responded to advertising that targeted non-Asian
populations. Although the absence of significant nontarget
market effects in these studies cannot be generalized to all
situations, it suggests that negative nontarget market reac-
tions are far from automatic.
One limitation of this research is that only two ethnic
groups, Asians and Caucasians, were used as participants
and as targets for the experimental advertising. It is possible
that the observed effects could change if different popula-
tions were used as participants. For example, the generally
elusive nontarget market effects in this study may have oc-
curred if the target minority group was instead African
Americans. To the extent that African Americans are more
frequent victims of stereotypes or negative preconceptions,
advertising targeting them may elicit more negative nontar-
get market reactions. Conversely, advertising targeted to
African Americans might produce even more pronounced
positive target market responses. Although this project was
focused on the theoretical process by which ethnic self-
awareness influences advertising response, the potential for
different effects based on the ethnic group targeted is of
great practical importance and warrants further research.
A second limitation of the present experiment is that it
used targeted appeals that were generally positive in their
presentation of ethnic actors and generally well liked by the
target audience. However, it is possible for consumers to re-
347
spond negatively to advertisements that are targeted to them.
If consumer response to the advertisements had been nega-
tive, the elicitation of ethnic self-awareness might have had
the opposite effect on consumer response to the advertise-
ments. Instead of accentuating or bringing out a positive re-
sponse from the target market, greater ethnic self-awareness
may have caused target market members to respond even
more negatively to the targeted advertisement. Further re-
search should address this issue by assessing the relative im-
pact of ethnic self-awareness on advertising that is generally
perceived positively and advertising that is generally per-
ceived negatively.
Other potential avenues for further research include
analyses of the potential interactions between ethnic primes
and individual difference variables and between ethnic
primes and social variables. The differential pattern of re-
sults for Asians and Caucasians suggests that these interac-
tions may be a large part of the story, and a better under-
standing of how they interact may be essential to successful
targeted advertising.
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