Diversity and Multicultural Issues in Advertising: A Literature Review and New Research Directions

With the increasing diversity of the population in the US and around the world, research on multicultural issues in advertising needs to be updated. A review of research articles published in advertising journals from 2011 to 2020 suggests that only 8.03% used diversity and multicultural variables in their conceptualization. Based on an overview of the recent scholarship, six key topic areas are identified in this paper: (1) gender roles and minority women in advertising, (2) racial representation and advertising effectiveness, (3) marginalized group-targeted advertising, (4) media behavior among multicultural consumers, (5) advertising education and industry diversity, and (6) LGBTQ consumers. These key topic areas along with theoretical and methodological observations from the literature help identify knowledge gaps in the field. Through the lens of the changing society and new technological advances in advertising, this article presents five directions for future research: (1) marginalized consumers’ response to brand activism, (2) targeting marginalized consumers through artificial intelligence (AI) and computational advertising, (3) diverse and ethnic influencers in social media, (4) multicultural research that is inclusive, and (5) the responsibilities of brands, advertising agencies, and scholars to consumers and society.