Like clockwork, every November our screens are flooded with Christmas ads. $2.5 billion is spent on holiday advertising in the U.S. alone, making Christmas and all its traditions a well-known household topic.
Advertising has the power to bring that level of understanding and cultural awareness to something, even if you don’t celebrate it. So why hasn’t American advertising done the same for the 3.9 million Muslims who observe Ramadan?
As a strategist, Muslim and skeptical Gen Zer, I have to question what’s happening here. For an industry that largely relies on cultural moments to connect with people, we tend to ignore an entire month enjoyed by millions of people.
On the other hand, the challenge is understandable—how does a brand market to a community that has notoriously been othered to death and stereotypically deemed as serious in nature?
Muslims have always been alienated in every sense of the word. The last few decades have been peppered with vignettes in film and media of only one type of Muslim. These misrepresentations have instilled fear in the lives of Muslims around the country. Constantly under scrutiny and always viewed as the dangerous ones.
These narratives have damaged the sense of safety and security for Muslim Americans. Although these sentiments are still present today, viewers and consumers are slowly beginning to realize that this one-dimensional version of a Muslim has a blatant disregard for the depth and diversity of the Muslim diaspora.
Yet the advertisers and marketers who help influence American society are afraid to make work for Ramadan. Are they afraid of making the wrong impression? Or worse, is there a deep-rooted fear of the community itself? Whatever it is, it’s truly an alienating experience to see myself depicted in one very harsh light.
The infrastructure to meaningfully connect with the Muslim American community simply does not exist. After spending some time researching brand behaviors around Ramadan and watching hundreds of Ramadan ads from across the world, only two campaigns stood out—one of which was over 20 years old, and neither came from the U.S.
For those keeping track, that’s $2.5 billion, 3.9 million Muslim Americans and only a handful of ads that go beyond a social post. Pretty outrageous, right?The social barriers that have led to these numbers don’t have a valid reason to be in place. There are ways for brands to get meaningfully involved.