This is in part explains the disproportionate affinity to feature celebrity in so far as celebrities are in effect aspirational 'people brands'."

Lloyds TSB's use of Meera Syal in its 2001 advert is interesting because the advert is clearly about celebrity endorsement. But because its concept of "whatever you want it to be" is vague from the outset, using much-loved Meera does not help. Celebrity endorsement is fine as it stands, but it is a concept that is often hard for people (Asian or otherwise) to identify with, particularly in relation to a complex service like banking.

DOES RACIAL INCLUSION SELL?

Often race has very little to do with the products we purchase. No more so than with financial services. Pensions, Life Insurance and Mortgages strike the same fear in us all, regardless of whether we are white, black or brown.

So Prudential's use of an Asian woman in its press adverts is interesting. The first cardinal sin is that within three frames of a picture they've aged her from a stunning twenty-something to a wizened sixty-something. Beauty-conscious Asian women who often remain "stunning" for forty years or more will not love this digital trickery. The other issue is about identity. Have Prudential noted that Asian women are less likely to have pensions compared with their white counterparts? Or are Prudential looking for more Asian female policyholders? Using a brown face in mass marketing advertising is difficult. Either you alienate customers who cannot identify with your avatar or you risk being labelled "tokenistic". Admittedly the entire campaign featured a number of different types of faces in terms of gender and race, but as each advert could only be seen as a sole execution there is a danger of the advertiser not reaching the appropriate audience.

Virgin One Account has gone even further. They actually feature a case study of Khalid 'Steve' Chowdry, Technology Consultant in their May 2001 press adverts. This is better, but it does leave the reader wondering why he is called 'Steve'. Don't you just sense a more interesting story behind that one little slip? This minor point drowns out the full message about how flexible Virigin One's mortgage account is. A brown face with an untold story leads the viewer away to speculate on the character rather than read the core message of this advert.

MEDIA CONSUMPTION BY ETHNIC MINORITIES

The task of identifying appropriate media falls upon media planners whose job it is to identify the size and nature of the audience for each campaign. What media planners cannot do is to guess which adverts targeted at Asians will work and which will not. Researching specialist Asian TV and radio channels and ethnic press does not help. In this market, the creative focus is often tactical - "two for the price one", "cheaper than you'll find elsewhere" are the typical slogans used for this type of advertising. Although the UK's ethnic market may be in its creative infancy, bigger brands like Tilda have managed to successfully bridge the gap.

Tilda's 1996 adverts featuring an Indian waiter panicking when acclaimed TV-cook Madhur Jaffrey entered the restaurant were a funny and entertaining mechanism for launching Tilda's range of cooking sauces. Perhaps they worked because Madhur Jaffrey, apart from being an extremely well known cook is also an acclaimed actress known to many Asians and non-Asians alike.

However, Patak's use of Art Malik's voice for their 1997 tongue twister advert "Pukka People Pick a Pot of Patak's" are just plain silly. Using the word "pukka", which entered the English Indian language during the times of The Raj, is supposed to indicate authenticity but almost guarantees that people will consider it anything but! Witness celebrity-chef Jamie Oliver's use of the word for anything from herbs to concocted fusion food.

Tilda's creative concept of a "blinding white light" in the launch their 1996 advert for basmati rice does work however. Asian housewives do look for quality of grain and whiteness in rice so this element is the central message. The advert could even have used non-Asian actors and still managed to convey the core message. It is rare, however, to find such a USP (unique selling proposition) particularly among a raft of competitive products that look the same, taste the same and sell at about the same price.

Marketers often execute brand extension strategies in place of totally new product development (NPD) which can be hideously expensive. The ethnic market would probably not be of a sufficient size to warrant a specially tailored product, so advertisers are limited to amending the product slightly or creating a customised advertising message. The third tool that can be used is placement - placing the message in the appropriate setting visually, or ensuring the message is seen in the appropriate place.

GEOGRAPHIC CONTEXT

Several adverts are set in India. The most talked about advert being the 2002 Peugeot 206 commercial featuring a young Indian man who decides to reshape his car to match the sleek design of the Peugeot. Techniques used include having an elephant sit on the bonnet and lots of hammering! Accompanied by a great musical soundtrack, the advert really gets to the nub of Asian youth culture - particularly the last scene where the young man and his mates go cruising in his d-i-y Peugeot to eye up the girls. The advert, once again features no dialogue by the characters, the dramatisation being conveyed entirely through visual means.

In comparison, the Renault Scenic 'Travel to India' 2001 advert featuring a couple travelling to India to set up a hotel contains far too much conversation. Indeed it is the subtext that is the undoing of this commercial as the visual aspect merely shows the couple having a great time in India with their Renault.

The 2001 Mastercard advertisement that features a white, middle-aged couple taking an anniversary trip to India is yet another commercial using India as a mere backdrop. 'Mastercard's' strap line of "there are some things money can't buy, for everything else there's Mastercard" voiced over hauntingly beautiful scenes of the Udaipur's Lake Palace Hotel are elegant and sophisticated.

Goldfish credit card's adverts featuring an Asian boy and girl are a little less exalted. The dialogue "every country has four corners" is a little sublime.

Sure Oxygen deodorant spray's 2000 adverts where a woman enters a 15-year old Bombay taxi and sprays the deodorant into her armpits whilst the voice over says "now with air conditioning" is just awful. It may state the obvious - Bombay (Mumbai) in the heat can be unbearable and the taxis in India are old, but for a young woman to perform her toilette in a taxi is vulgar.

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