# Burger King ads target blacks only? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2002, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burger-king-ads-target-blacks-only/104625 "2002-04-20T03:25:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LongRoad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb8c5e/32.png) [@LongRoad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LongRoad)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burger-king-ads-target-blacks-only/104625/21 "2002-04-20T18:41:48Z")
Have you not noticed that these ‘replacement phone services’, used when you get your phone cut off for lack of payment, target minorities heavily? Mainly Hispanic and blacks. Jerry Springer targets obese, stupid whites. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burger-king-ads-target-blacks-only/104625/22 "2002-04-20T20:42:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gadarene \* > \*\* > > I think **DDG’s** post bears repeating. Anyone have the breakdown on ethnic demographics in commercials? Anyone want to bet that it’s still disproportionately white overall? \*\* That would be pretty interesting. Blacks are about 12% of the population. Yet many commercials, if there is a group of 4 doing something, one will be black. I don’t think they’re as careful with Hispanics and Asians (whose numbers must also be pretty close to 12% of the population) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burger-king-ads-target-blacks-only/104625/23 "2002-04-20T21:42:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HubZilla \* > \*\* > That would be pretty interesting. Blacks are about 12% of the population. Yet many commercials, if there is a group of 4 doing something, one will be black. > \*\* This is not necessarily inaccurate, depending upon where the commercial is set or who its target audience is. While African-Americans nationally make up about 12% of the population, this percentage is not distributed evenly across the country. Outside the South, the African-American population tends to be clustered in urban areas. In many cities considerably more than 12% of the residents are African-American. If an advertisement is aimed at an urban rather than a rural or suburban audience, a depiction of a group that is 25%+ African-American may be a fair representation of their target market. > [@](#): > > \*\* > I don’t think they’re as careful with Hispanics and Asians (whose numbers must also be pretty close to 12% of the population) \*\* Latinos, who may be of any race, do make up about 12% of the population of the US. However, they are even less evenly distributed across the country than African-Americans. While few national ad campaigns feature Latinos, they are considerably more prominent in ads that run in areas with a large Latin population or on Spanish-language television channels. Asian-Americans are at nowhere near 12% – according to the [2000 census](http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t1/tab01.txt), they’re at 3.6%. This is still a sizeable market, but one that has not been obviously targeted by many national ad campaigns. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burger-king-ads-target-blacks-only/104625/24 "2002-04-20T21:46:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gingersnap \* > \*\*Getting off the PC horse for a second here. I doubt most Americans would choose to stop at a BK in a totally black neighborhood with a totally black staff and clientele. Something about the crime statistics in those areas, ya think? But of course, some liberal will charge in here any second saying something about it having nothing to do with crime, its just “racism”. Yawn. > > Also, why did you put the term “black” in quotes? \*\* If I were in the area, on a trip, and the place didn’t look seedy-yes, I would. Just because the customers and workers there have dark skin does not make the place a high crime area alone. If it was a restaurant that looked run down with trash everywhere, run down buildings, garbage, no, I wouldn’t go in. But if it was a regular area that just happened to be mostly black, why wouldn’t I pop in for a sandwich? I’m hungry, dammit. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burger-king-ads-target-blacks-only/104625/25 "2002-04-20T23:21:49Z")
I would suspect that a company like Burger King will make several commercials for its products and will air them according to the target demographic of the region and show. Commercials that will air in urban areas will feature black people. Commercials that air in places like New River Valley in Southwestern VA will feature white people. Ads running on Telemundo will feature Hispanics. ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burger-king-ads-target-blacks-only/104625/26 "2002-04-21T01:08:11Z")
Wow. I never considered those commercials to be targeting black people. Rather, I thought, “Thank God they’re not ruining all those old Deep Purple songs to sell Burgers any more.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burger-king-ads-target-blacks-only/104625.md?page=1)