| 1 | 1 | | Six-year-old Ryan Campbell is bright, good-looking and successful. He's a child |
| 2 | | model and has appeared in several British TV and magazine adverts. His mum, Vinnette, is |
| 3 | | delighted, but she knows Ryan's days of success are probably numbered - because Ryan is |
| 4 | | black. |
| 2 | 5 | | For every model or actor who's working, there are dozens more who aren't. But for |
| 6 | | black adults - particularly in this country - the picture is [id:48294]. Advertisers here use |
| 7 | | very few black faces and, when they do, it's often one 'token' black person in a crowd. |
| 3 | 8 | | Ryan's sister Laura, 11, and brother Marvin, 15, model too. They’ve done well, but |
| 9 | | it's the 'baby' of the family who's most in demand. 'Ryan wants to be an actor when he |
| 10 | | grows up,' says Vinnette, 'but I'd never let him do that full-time - he will need [id:48295] as |
| 11 | | well. Black actors simply don't get enough work. |
| 4 | 12 | | 'Even now, I know my children don't get called to some auditions because |
| 13 | | advertisers only want white children. Why can't they at least keep their options open and |
| 14 | | pick the best child? Why rule out any child in advance because of its [id:48297]?' |
| 5 | 15 | | Actress Geillo Edwards, 50, has appeared in several TV ads. She says: 'The problem |
| 16 | | isn't so much the agencies making the ads as the companies whose products are being |
| 17 | | advertised. Agencies often want to use black people, [ig:48298] the companies who are |
| 18 | | trying to sell washing-powder or cereal don't want us as part of their image.' |
| 6 | 19 | | Yvonne Richards is advertising director of The Voice magazine and the Weekly |
| 20 | | Journal newspaper, both aimed at black readers. 'A lot of advertisers won't talk to us,' she |
| 21 | | says. 'Black adults are the largest minority group in London - eight per cent of the |
| 22 | | population. That's a lot of spending power that advertisers [id:48298].' |
| 7 | 23 | | So why won't advertisers use black people more? Peter Marr, who's director of |
| 24 | | media services at the ISBA, the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, says: |
| 25 | | 'Advertisers generally don't lead; we follow. I do think that circumstances are improving |
| 26 | | now that a lot of retailers, supermarkets, banks and building societies are advertising. |
| 27 | | They're much more likely to show black people than most product manufacturers as |
| 28 | | they're more [id:48299] what's really happening.' |
| 8 | 29 | | Yvonne Richards insists that advertisers must do more than follow. 'They must take |
| 30 | | more responsibility for [id:48300] their clients. That has often happened in the past - for |
| 31 | | instance with using adults over 50. And now it should be done for black people.' |
| 9 | 32 | | One [id:489301], according to Chris Mind of the CRE, the Commission for Racial |
| 33 | | Equality, is the stereotyping of black people. 'It's often unconscious, but it's still negative |
| 34 | | and damaging,' he says. 'They'll use black people for an ad about something Caribbean, |
| 35 | | but we 'll know black people are really accepted when the man in the ad for a typically |
| 36 | | British product is black.' |
| 10 | 37 | | According to Equity, the actors' union, most black actors work only occasionally. |
| 38 | | And because acting or modelling work is so hard to find , few black people think of it as a |
| 39 | | career. Even those who are successful as children - like Marvin, Laura and Ryan - |
| 40 | | are [id:489302] to carry on their success as adults. If they do, they'll probably end up abroad |
| 41 | | because that's where the work is. |
| 11 | 42 | | 'There needs to be more legislation,' says Geillo Edwards. 'In other countries the |
| 43 | | government regulates that black people get equal rights and opportunities in advertising. If |
| 44 | | it can't be done any other way, then the [id:4890
3] must do it for us here, too.' |
| | | |
| | | from an article by Caro Thompson in 'Woman', May 3, 1993 |
