Revisiting ethnic marketing ethics

Ethnically diverse populations are growing in many advanced economies (OECD 2014, Statistical Annex). In the US, minority ethnic communities have also gained in perceived importance, such that they are now commonly referred to as the new majority (Armstrong 2013; Dougherty and Jordan 2012) or the majority minority (Cui and Choudhury 2002). In Canada, where day-to-day living experiences are taken as evidence of the cultural diversity that underpins its population, ethnic communities are recognized as the ‘the visible majority’ (Daniels 2012). It is, therefore, unsurprising that the practitioner literature in the US reports on a growing number of businesses that are seeking to take advantage of the potential opportunities afforded by the growth of ethnic communities (“Carrasco 2013; Burgos and Mobolade 2011), such as the Latinos, the Hispanics and the Asian American, and some more narrowly defined minority ethnic groups such as the Mexican and the Chinese.