I was thinking about advertising that targets black women today so I decided to count how many ESSENCE, the leading publication for African-American women has, in its’ November issue.
The following results are based on full pages and 1/2 pages. I haven’t included 1/4 pages or 1/3 page advertisements, although ESSENCE has plenty of those.
In chronological order from the start of the magazine:
- Ambi
- Target
- L’Oreal with Kerry Washington
- Movado with Kerry Washington
- Clinique
- Mariah Carey Perfume Luscious Pink
- Aveeno Moisturiser x 2
- Covergirl with Queen Latifah
- Tiffany Jewellery
- Covergirl with Rihanna
- Softsheen Carson
- Mary Kay
- Macy’s
- Olay with Angela Barrett
- Softsheen Carson
- Ford
- Softsheen Carson
- Revlon
- Softsheen Carson
- Johnson’s
- Dark & Lovely Deep Conditioning Haircolour
- Maybelline with Jessica White
- Tacori Jewellery
- Pantene Shampoo
- Revlon Lipglaze with Halle
- Calvin Klein Euphoria with Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova*
- Wittnauer Swiss with European model**
- DVD “The Perfect Holiday” & “This Christmas”
- Organic Root Stimulator
- Riders Jeans
- Lactaid
- General Motors with Mary J Blige
- Dominican Republic travel advertisement
- The Home Depot
- State Farm Insurance
- US Army
- 1/2 page giftmagcentral.com (owned by Time, Inc which owns ESSENCE)***
- 1/2 page Johnson’s Baby Oil
- Clairol Professional
- On star navigation
- Newport cigarettes
- Caress Shower Gel
- Straight Sexy Hair****
- Tampax
- Doo Gro
- Softsheen Carson
- Capital One
- Walmart
- McDonald’s
- Campbell’s chicken & stars soup
- Vaseline
- Hydroxy Weight Loss Pill
- Always Feminine Hygiene
- Ford ‘Warriors in Pink’ scarf
- Campbell’s Soup at Hand
- Tide Soap
- Time.com*****
- Crest toothpaste
- TLC Channel
- Lowe’s
- Glory Food
- Curvation
- Toyota
Wow – what a list. From my calculations of the full pages, in November 2008, ESSENCE had circa 71 pages of advertising in a magazine of 190+ pages. That is around 1/3, which is relatively healthy for a magazine of its’ size.
Footnotes
* & **- I am surprised they had two white models in adverts for the magazine. I had heard that this happens but still surprising considering it is for black women.
*** – This was eyebrow raising. Talk about promoting your own products to the reader! I am not sure whether this is entirely scrupluous but the advert is subtle.
**** – Okay, this advertisement is ridiculous. If I had a scanner here, I would devote an entire post to it. It has that PCD-esque group Girlicious all with straight hair, promoting hair products, proclaiming that “straight hair is sexy.” Not exactly the message a black women’s magazine needs to be screaming out, ESSENCE, considering the history of natural hair and straight hair in the Afro community.
*****Again, some more self-promotion by the parent company!
All magazines need advertising to survive. I know that and as a magazine journalism student, I support that. My only issue from conducting this experiment is the images that these advertisements portray. It is only fair for a magazine for black women to have black models in the advertisements, which is the Calvin Klein one’s perplexed me.
ESSENCE need to look into this in more detail and make sure they are picking the right images for the ads that appear in the magazine. Even though I am not an African-American woman, hence not in their target audience, the advertising still affects me as a black woman.
@ph2072: It is all about selling. Celebrities are the media’s highest commodities.
I get Essence but it’s only because I went to their festival and got an automatic subscription upon attending. I actually don’t like it that much. Too superficial for my liking.
But whatever sells right?
@sdg1844: I have deffo noticed the lack of worldwide perpsective in ESSENCE!
They will have say 1 article per issue featuring non African-American women.
I think because of the unique history that all people of African descent have, it should be easy to dip in and out.
I am struggling as to whether or not to buy a subscription to essence this year. It’s a hard choice, but then whenever I am in Borders, I feel like I am missing out if I don’t get it!
I gave up on Essence when Susan Taylor left and it was sold to Time Warner. One of the issues I have w/that mag is its lack of a global perspective. Any Black woman in the world should be able to pick up that mag and find something relevant to her.
We don’t live in a vacuum and these mags need to expand their horizons when it comes to the Diaspora. Their narrow-mindedness and shorth sightedness annoys me. It has become and empty shell of a publication and that’s too bad.
@Monie, I still want to support ESSENCE but I understand your arguments fully. Magazine’s moral code can become suspect when mixed with corporate ideals.
Hi,
Essence is owned by Time, Inc. And Time, Inc. doesn’t give a hoot about Black women or the ad images in Essence. All they care about is the bottom line. Essence has undergone a total transformation after being sold to Time. It’s no longer a magazine about empowering Black women now its just a revenue stream for a major American corporation.
Hopefully at some time in the near future, we will have a Black-owned women’s magazine again. Until then all we have is Essence.