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I was fascinated by Emmett McBain when I discovered Black Marlboro Man. When most of us think of vintage Marlboro ads, we see the iconic white cowboy wearing a red shirt squinting into the camera. For me, this photo was replaced by a photo of a black man dressed in orange and tan standing in the street with a woman wearing a polka dot headscarf and another man buying fruit from the market .
For African Americans at the time, the “Black Marlboro Man” was not a narrow, masculine metaphor, but a relatable, everyday man. Putting aside the questionable ethics of selling tobacco, this ad opens a door into black advertising history and feels authentic and respectful.The ad is on Burrell-McBain Corporation (“Black Market Advertising Agency”) was founded in 1971 by copywriter Tom Burrell and graphic designer McBain.
Burrell understood that “black people are not dark-skinned white people,” a wisdom embodied in McBain’s work, including the iconic “Black Is Beautiful” ad — a monochromatic master of insidious racism Ben – which he made in 1968 among his works. Serves as Creative Director of Vince Cullers Group. The agency was founded in 1956 as the first African-American full-service advertising agency.
McBain was born in Chicago in 1935 and began taking weekend classes at the Art Institute of Chicago at the age of 12. Seven years later, he attended Ray-Vogue Art School and eventually graduated from the American Academy of Art in 1956 before starting work at the Vince Cullers Group. Soon, at the age of 22, he moved to Playboy Records as an assistant art director and was promoted to art director within a year. Here he created a series of album covers for artists including Tony Martin, Max Roach and Sarah Vaughan, winning a Billboard Album Cover of the Week for his designs. Playboy Jazz All-Stars.
McBain’s Travelin’ album cover, 1960, John Lee Hooker
Vaughan and Violin, 1959, Sarah Vaughan
In 1959, he established his own design studio, McBain Associates, and collaborated with Mercury Records to design more album covers, and by the time he was 24, he had designed more than 75 album covers. But that was in 1968, after returning from extensive design work. Traveling to Europe and Africa, driven in part by growing tired of America’s continued racism and persecution of black people, McBain threw himself into the cultural revolution of black Chicago and re-produced the groundbreaking ” “Black is Beautiful” ad. In 1971, he opened Burrell-McBain, designing for everyone from Marlboro to McDonald’s to Coca-Cola, becoming the largest black-owned institution in the United States in the process. What stands out about their work is how it depicts black people as normal and beautiful people, rather than exotic beings. One of my personal favorite ads is a McDonald’s ad featuring a father and son eating burgers, with the ad copy reading “Dad and teen are having a meltdown.”
There were many factors that contributed to their success at the time, but one important change that was happening was that large manufacturers were realizing the value of the black market. Prior to the 1960s, advertising targeting African Americans was mostly conducted in black newspapers, where white customers viewed black consumers as having little disposable income and as dangerous in a politically charged atmosphere. The recognition that African Americans spend nearly $30 billion annually has brought a new era of pragmatism as customers try to enter the market.
It’s this pragmatism combined with hints of social purpose and cultural relevance that’s driving the advertising world to speak to and include black audiences in the campaigns it now runs. McKinsey estimated the spending power of black Americans at $835 billion in 2019, and the 2022 Black Pound report found that multiracial consumers have disposable income of $4.5 billion. Money aside, the cultural value of black people is immeasurable when you evaluate their impact on areas such as music, fashion, film, and literature. What I find particularly interesting about McBain’s work is how sensitive it is to the black experience at a time when current advertising—both for and about black people—still struggles to hit the right tone.
The Magic of Sarah Vaughan, 1959
Playboy Jazz All-Stars, 1956
Black marketing can be a dangerous area. The now-infamous Pepsi commercial starring Kendall Jenner was inspired by the story of Ieshia Evans, a black woman who was One of 102 protesters arrested in July in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, while protesting the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile incident by the police. The Pepsi ad appears to reference this event as well as the famous “Tank Man” photo taken with a group of young, attractive Gen Zers during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The film reaches its climax when Jenner walks up to a line of police officers and hands one of them a can of Pepsi. Most criticism has been directed at the BLM movement’s frivolous co-optation.
On the other hand, Colin Kaepernick’s Nike ad the following year outraged public opinion. People from the White Lives Matter movement threatened to boycott Nike, but the ad won a Creative Emmy and sports stars Serena Williams and LeBron James also expressed support. No matter how you feel about Nike as a corporate entity, it took a risk by aligning itself with an athlete who has become persona non grata in the league.
There are other references to consider when marketing to black audiences. P&G’s My Black Is Beautiful campaign was originally launched in 2006 by Black women at P&G to “empower, celebrate and inspire meaningful dialogue and change around bias and the evolving topic of beauty” and its impact on culture”. One of its most effective campaigns so far is “The Talk,” in which black parents have to explain to their children some of the prejudice they will face in life because of their skin color. In one ad, a mother explains to her daughter that she is “not pretty for a black girl.” You’re beautiful, that’s all. ”
Now is a good time to reflect on Emmitt McBain’s work. Eventually, he quit advertising and opened The Black Eye, an art gallery and consultancy focused on design for nonprofits and publishing houses. With funding from Beefeater Gin, he organizes a series of national arts projects, community projects, and scholarships to promote African American voices. While brands today are still bogged down by clumsy representation and false cultural appropriation of negative stereotypes of Black people, McBain focuses on the very normal, very beautiful, everyday experiences of Black people in a way that speaks to and about Black people way.
“Now You See Me: An Introduction to 100 Years of Black Design” By Charlene Prempeh Published by Prestel, £24.99
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