Lines exist that perpetuate racism in every industry. In audio, it’s referred to as the sonic color line. Defined by Binghamton University professor Jennifer Lynn Stoever, it’s “the imaginary line above which white voices are recognized as American, and below which Black voices and voices of color are segmented as others.”
Yes, that’s right—you can hear race.
Pick any random radio show, podcast or audiobook, and you’re likely to hear a white voice. The vast majority of voices we hear across all media are white voices with the standard broadcast accent—a relic of a bygone era. It’s also a hangover from the syndicated broadcast media days where there was a practical need to create homogeneity to scale and share content across different regions while sounding consistent.
Given that about 40% of the U.S. consists of non-white races, is it right that we overwhelmingly hear white voices in all aspects of media? Anyone who works in media or advertising would likely agree that the people we see and hear in media aren’t particularly representative of the makeup of the nation. While there has been some progress over the last few years toward diversity and representation in the media and entertainment industry (most notably the changes to the Oscars and some controversial casting changes in the animation world), there’s clearly more work to be done.
Representation in advertising
Over the past year, the advertising industry has seen powerful brands embrace diversity and inclusivity when it comes to selecting models, actors and brand ambassadors. Some call it brands turning “woke.” However, sharp marketers already know people respond positively to brands that acknowledge them, casting people who look and sound like them. That’s not simply being woke; that’s being relevant, relatable and perceptive of consumers’ wants and needs.
But what about representation in advertising and its impact to society and culture? Given the amount of advertising people are exposed to throughout their lives, there’s no doubt that casting decisions—and the diversity or lack-thereof—can make significant impact to what one perceives as a normal part of society. The decisions made by advertisers, intentional or not, can either help combat racism or reinforce and perpetuate it.
The changes needed for sonic diversity
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder last year, many advertisers evaluated the ways they can and should be doing better. For Studio Resonate, that started with default voice casting.
We decided to commit ourselves to challenging and redefining the advertising industry’s notion of the general American voice to better reflect the rich spectrum of voices heard in our communities. For the first half of 2020, about 90% of voice casting requests the studio received didn’t specify a race or ethnicity. And in about 93% of those cases, our audio producers cast white voices. Why? As mentioned, it’s just been the industry standard.
But beginning in June 2020, Studio Resonate implemented a new casting policy. When a client request doesn’t specify a race or ethnicity (about 90% of requests), we now cast voices of color at least 50% the time. Since the change, our ads have continued to be effective and no advertisers pushed back on our new casting recommendations.
The studio also began to expand the voice talent rosters to ensure we had a talent pool that was representative and sounded like the makeup of the nation.
This is just the beginning to achieving sonic diversity. And while there is more progress to be made, this isn’t a problem we’re facing alone. After speaking publicly about our voice casting policy changes at ADCOLOR, we realized this is something that needs industry-wide change. This inspired us to launch the “Stand for Sonic Diversity” initiative.
The initiative is our challenge to the industry to make the right decisions and course-correct ourselves for the benefit of our society. The existing monocultural voices still heard in media are a hangover from a bygone era, where the same group of people chose the same voices to be heard across the country. Through the expansion and democratization of media, we are in the position to change that.
Studio Resonate wants to call upon everyone in a position that influences creative and casting decisions to be more diverse and inclusive when choosing voices, not just to represent brands, but to better reflect the audiences they will reach.
It isn’t always straightforward or easy to make these changes. It will involve convincing stakeholders, gathering the required data and making policy decisions—many of which have no precedent. This is why we have been documenting our journey, goals and process, to share so that advertisers can move forward together and make the impact industry-wide.
