Advertising Diversity

Shalini Shankar is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of Desi Land: Teen Culture, Class, and Success in Silicon Valley, also published by Duke University Press.

• Preface ixIntroduction. The Pitch 11. Account Planning 372. Creative 893. Account Services 1474. Production and Media 191Conclusion. Audience Testing 250Acknowledgments 269Appendix 1. Transcription Key 271Appendix 2. Asian American Populations in the United States 272Notes 275Glossary 287References 289Index 307

"The combination of Shankar’s critical lens and outsider perspective commingle to produce an originative piece of work. Advertising Diversity offers even the most seasoned consumption and marketing scholars a compelling (but all too rare) look inside the world of Asian-American advertising, where culture and consumption converge to create 'model consumers.'” - Kevin D. Thomas (Consumption Markets & Culture) "In the cultural hermeneutic tradition of great storytelling, Shalini Shankar has produced an empirically rich and theoretically sound ethnography. In it she tells a brilliant analytic story about race, Asian America, and the assumed 'post-racial' world of advertising.... Advertising Diversity is an ideal book for upper-level undergraduate and graduate classes in anthropology, Asian American studies, ethnic studies, and business." - Stanley Thangaraj (Journal of Anthropological Research) "Shankar has accomplished plenty with this work and can be justly applauded for bringing to bear the detailed processes by which Asian American-images, sounds, languages, bodies, and lives-inhabit our mediascape. Advertising Diversity vividly demonstrates the role of ad agencies in constructing a place for Asian Americans to take at the colorful table of multicultural consumerism."  - Christine R. Yano (Business History Review) "This book will be of great interest to anthropologists as well as scholars and students from a wide variety of fields that engage with popular culture as well as the study of ethnicity and race, and it could be successfully used in a number of advanced undergraduate courses on related topics. Overall, Shankar does a masterful job at demonstrating the nuances of media production in a multicultural society and her latest contribution to the field should be widely read." - Susan Dewey (Journal of Linguistic Anthropology) "Advertising Diversity is a valuable addition to this area of study.... [T]he book makes a powerful case for the way in which corporate uses of apparently progressive ideas like 'diversity' and 'multiculturalism' are in fact deeply retrogressive, normalizing various types and groups of people into a convenient, colourblind and postracial monoculture." - Nicky Falkof (Ethnic and Racial Studies) "[T]his book is a valuable and innovative contribution to the burgeoning field of media ethnography and particularly useful to those interested in conducting fieldwork in media industries. It is here, in the backrooms and boardrooms of corporate America, where Shankar’s work shines as she illuminates the internal dynamics of racial naturalization and its circulation.... This is an important and innovative book for scholars interested in Asian American studies, communication, media studies, media industries, cultural studies, and visual culture." - Vincent N. Pham (Anthropological Quarterly) "Shalini Shankar’s new book Advertising Diversity ... makes an ... important contribution by improving our understanding of the subtle techniques through which difference is depoliticized and reproduced through racial and ethnic representation." - Cindy Isenhour (American Anthropologist) "Offers some fascinating insights into advertising industry practices and relationships." - Stephanie O'Donohoe (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute)