The effects of color blindness and racial identity on audience attitudes towards general market advertisements with non-white lead actors

Past research exploring the effects of audience racial identity on attitudes towards advertisements featuring models of various races has yielded inconsistent results. The purpose of this study is to address these inconsistencies by expanding the definitions and measurements of audience racial identity. The researcher proposes that feelings of color blindness and strength of racial identity have strong effects on attitudes towards general market ads with non-white lead actors. Following a review of relevant literature, hypotheses development is discussed, and is followed by an outline of the study methodology. The results of the study's quasi-experiment are presented next. The results were shown to partially support the hypotheses, as color blindness and racial identity had a significant effect on audience attitudes towards general market advertisements featuring dominant non-white models. This paper concludes with a discussion of the study's implications for advertising disciplines, an outline of study limitations, and suggestions for future research.