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In spite of the great efforts and strides made in the field of equal rights, we will continue to have groups called "hyphenated" Americans who will be treated differently from the rest of the population. The main reason we will continue to see it... despite our efforts... is because of advertising.

I'm not kidding you. Advertising and marketing will soon be (if they already aren't) the single most important factor that will prevent us all from being just "Americans".

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

The hyphenated American has been with us a long time. We are a nation of immigrants and descendants of immigrants, and to some extent we all celebrate our cultural roots.

But in the past the hyphenated American was seen as a danger to our nation.

Teddy Roosevelt said in 1915 "The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic."

Roosevelt had it right... as Americans, our allegiance should be to our nation. There's nothing wrong with celebrating and perpetuating long-standing cultural heritages, but we are Americans now, and this is where our identity should be.

ADVERTISING AND PERPETUATING DIVISIVENESS

In the late-1900's advertisers and marketers began to use more sophisticated techniques to target and measure the results of campaigns. This centered largely around analyzing "demographics" (characteristics of groups used for marketing).

The results showed that for many products it would be a good idea to use "segment marketing", a technique of adjusting advertising to appeal more strongly to a targeted group. Special marketing was designed to appeal to the African-American segment which was quite different from their mainstream advertising.

THE LONG VIEW

So what's the big deal if advertisers segment their marketing? Because advertisers are quick to exploit the "African-American" or "Hispanic-American" sense of identity in order to make sales. And by doing so, they are rubbing our noses in the very perceptions that affirmative action has tried to overcome. And they rub our noses in it over and over, renewing the perception of "difference".

Meanwhile, the African-American and Hispanic-American groups feel less incentive to become part of the "American" sense of unity. Instead, they are further encouraged to form cultural units that separate them. Because they're getting special attention.

Advertising that caters to the hyphenated groups only serves to reinforce the divisions in our country. As long as targeting hyphenated groups for advertising continues, the media will continue to aggravate the differences we have in our country and make these differences permanent.

National unity is a bust, we will continue to be divided. Our nation is built largely on commerce, and as long as commerce sees a benefit to highlighting our differences it's unlikely we'll ever really find a cohesive national identity.

Learn more about this author, Eric Lannak.
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