Survey Finds Negro Athletes Under Utilized in TV Ads

    President 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel 

egal fefense und Hock Gromices 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. persia cee 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 

/¢ 

Jesse DeVore, Jr. 
NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

FOR RELEASE 
SATURDAY 
August 26, 1967 

SURVEY FINDS NEGRO ATHLETES 

UNDER UTILIZED IN TV ADS 

Legal Defense Fund Files Complaint With FCC 

NEW YORK---Negro athletes are being overlooked by makers of the tele- 

vision commercials aired during sports events and related programs, 

according to a survey released here this week by the NAACP Legal Defense 

and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF). 

The LDF has asked the Federal Communications Commission to investi- 

gate. 

The LDF drew the following conclusions about the appearance of 

Negroes in commercials during sports programs as a result of its survey: 

* the rate of Negro appearances is 5 per cent; or, 1 commercial 

in 20 

half the appearances of Negroes consisted of momentary exposure 

as an “extra” in the scene 

of the eight commercials monitored which utilized Negroes for 

personal endorsements only one featured a Negro, Louis Armstrong 

beer companies used more Negroes than others 

banks, insurance and gasoline companies used no Negroes 

there was not an appreciable difference in the use of Negroes in 

commercials aired nationally and locally. 

Gustav Heningburg, assistant to the president of the LDF, stated 

that the way in which Negroes appear on television has become an im- 

portant issue as the United States struggles to achieve new patterns of 

relationship between the races. 

Because TV has great impact on its viewers, it is an important 

factor in forming opinions and shaping attitudes. 

We selected sports programs, from the survey and findings released 

today, he added, because of the high incidence of Negro athletes and the 

predominantly male audience. 

Our major purpose in the survey was to continue to obtain factual 

information about an important aspect of television which, heretofore, 

had not been systematically gathered; namely, the frequency and duratior 

of Negro appearance on television commercials. 

Only televised sports events and related programs (interviews, 

pre-game programs, game highlights, etc.) were selected for monitoring. 

More important, however, was our feeling that sports audiences 

might be more receptive to commercials featuring Negroes because of the 

importance of Negroes in professional sports. 

It must be noted, Mr. Heningburg said, that the appearance of 

Negro athletes on the television screen is primarily the result of their 

skills and abilities and is not dependent upon decisions by sponsors anc 

television executives. 

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SURVEY FINDS NEGRO ATHLETES August 26, 1967 
UNDER UTILIZED IN TV ADS 

Mr. Heningburg was joined in releasing the survey---compiled by 
Lawrence Plotkin, acting director of the Social Dynamics Research 
Institute of the City University of New York---by Claude "Buddy" Young 
and Bill White. 

Mr, White, first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, said that 
his appearances in television commercials during his ll-year career has 
been almost negligible. 

Mr. Young, former star of the football Yankees, now assistant to 
the Commissioner of the National Football League, expressed his League's 
concern for the exclusion of Negro athletes. 

"Negro football players should be allowed to take off their helmets 
and show the public how articulate they are," Mr. Young said, adding 
that "83 per cent of our Negro ball players are college graduates. " 

Mr, Young also serves on the LDF's Board of Directors. 

Dr. Plotkin pointed out that in view of the dramatic increase in 
the size of the TV viewing audiences for athletic contests, the often 
advanced argument, that audience reaction to black faces will be ad- 
verse, is no longer valid. 

My survey indicates that Negro sports participation is: 

BASEBALL: Thirty per cent of all major league baseball 
players are colored; the National League which broke the 
color barrier has twice as many colored players as the 
American League. In both leagues, the Most Valuable Player 
awards went to dark-skinned athletes in 1965 and 1966. In 
fact, in 13 of the past 18 years, the Most Valuable Player 
in the National League was colored, 

FOOTBALL: In professional football, 26% of the players in 
both leagues are Negroes, Their level of excellence can be 
gauged by the fact that the lineups in the Pro Bowl games 
included 26% Negroes in the National League and 24% in the 
American League. As in baseball, there are a number of 
super-stars,. 

BASKETBALL: In professional basketball, the percentage of 
Negro players on the roster is even higher than the other 
major sports; they constitute almost half of the players - 
(44%). Of the 50 participants in the last five all-star teame 
of the National Basketball Association, 27 (br more than half) 
were Negroes. 

Dr. Plotkin also indicated that the greater use of Negroes on beer 
commercials both in rate and role importance "suggests that other pro- 
ducts might profitably follow this example. 

"Although it is self-evident that profit from increaged sales is 
the reason for commercials, there are by-products of commercials which 
must also be considered. 

"The Schaefer commercial," he said, "for instance, which shows a 
Negro and a white man playing handball, throwing their arms around each 
other, and, finally, drinking together socially, is a commercial for 
the human possibilities of integration as well as one for beer," 

Since the right to broadcast is granted by the FCC as agent for 
the American people, the LDF asserted that profit alone cannot be used 
as the criterion for what appears on television, 

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18 

1 TV ADS 

In its complaint 
Jack Greenberg, cal 
racial bias in the production and b 

"It also ultimately concerns the serious and widespread public 

ion exposure of unprejudiced commercials as well as interest in televi 
program content," Mr, Greenberg concluded, 

=30= 

© ATHLETES ae August 26, 1967 

through its Director-Counsel 
n of the "possibility of 

z cast of television commercials. 
he wrote, "this question not only relates