Morpheux said:
You can thank Madison Ave for that.I'm looking forward to the day that ad buys that are based on age,sex and race are challenged for their accuracy.
Nearly all ad sales are based on age and gender. The merchant, service provider or manufacturer knows who the bigger consumers are and targets them.
In many cases, it involves legal issues, too. Beers and spirits advertise on stations that don't reach teens; having a high percentage of teens in your audience could knock you off the buy.
Many products are used by one gender much more than another and the purchasing decisions are very gender based... beer targets men almost 100% while most grocery store package goods target women. It's about not wasting money to reach people who will not purchase or specify your goods or services.
Most products are designed with a specific age target in mind, and everything from the packaging to the name is directed at that target. Advertising it to a different group would be wasteful.
Today's consumer market is highly segmented, and each product or service seeks a specific target and selects ad media that represent the best chance of reaching them. That's why Good Housekeeping has different ads than Sports Illustrated... or why the AARP magazine has different ads than US.
As to ethnicity, there are FCC rules that prohibit excluding ethnic stations as an unfounded policy in making ad buys. The "No Hispanic" or "No Black" dictates are forbidden. However, that does not prevent a product that is specifically marketed for Hispanics from only using Hispanic targeted media, nor does it prohibit a product which is unsuitable for certain skin tones or beauty needs from targeting only stations that deliver the type of listener who would use a certain product.
That said, specific demographic targeting is a key to successful marketing. You can't challenge the "accuracy" of targeted ad buys as the advertiser is free to use whatever methods they choose to determine how to "find" their target.