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Old 09-05-2016, 06:50 PM   #1
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Diversity in RVing?

I recently saw a "Go RVing" commercial about Going Away with your family and was struck by the near total lack of diversity in the commercial.

Here is the commercial I saw:
https://youtu.be/BatRD48jM_s

So I went to the "Go RVing website and checked out their commercials that they have online. Here is what I think I saw:

One commercial out of a total of nine actually had an african american family. All of the rest were white families. There was one where an african american child was playing on the beach with some white kids, but she never showed up later in the commercial. No hispanics, no asian americans, no mixed families...just white.

And not only white, but young and white.

Now the vast number of people that I see with RVs are not young, most are middle aged and above, the age groups that actually have the cash to spend on RVs. And yes, most are white. Indeed, on a recent labor day trip inside of New Mexico, a predominantly hispanic state, the RV park that I was at one would have been hard pressed to find a hispanic person other than my wife.

Does RV-ing sort of play to a certain ethnic group? Just wondering. Maybe I am being overly sensitive. What do you think?
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Old 09-05-2016, 06:59 PM   #2
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I think perhaps you are being a bit over sensitive - I'm actually not really sure what point you are trying to make. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing - just not sure where you are going...
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Old 09-05-2016, 07:01 PM   #3
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I've been to 6 campgrounds in the last 2 weeks. Close to 100 families, or 'groups'. More actually... Didn't see a single black family. Not that I've never seen them camping in RV's - but the manufacturers are marketing to the demographic that purchases 95% of the RV's. That's all. That commercial you linked to showed what, 3 different families? Is it wrong that the white boy didn't have a black sister or mom?

The 1 commercial out of 9 that showed a black family - mathematically, that is a fair ratio, more than fair. They only make up 12% of the population and buy a tiny fraction of the RV's! I think you're just used to seeing black families being overly represented in mass media and think that should carry over into RV's even though they don't traditionally like them, buy them, or want them (fact).

I don't see any diversity in Popeye's chicken commercials, not a white man in sight. No harm, no foul (and no pun intended). I do think people in general are a little overly sensitive to race marketing. Haven't seen any Muslims in RV commercials either, oh the outrage! (/sarcasm)

I have several black friends. None of them go camping. It's a small sample, but let's say they make up 12% of the population, which according to the last census is correct. Do you expect to see a black family in more than 12 % of the marketing? If you do, than I'd have to ask what agenda that serves which is not based in reality. In most mass media, people of color are present in substantially higher numbers than their percentage of the population would indicate they should be.

You can believe in diversity - and also look at the facts and come to the logical conclusion that this is a 'first world problem' that frankly doesn't exist in the real world.

To the OP, what percentage of the commercials should contain African Americans now that you know they are about 2% of the market?
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Old 09-05-2016, 07:16 PM   #4
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I'm not sure what you're trying to do here but I'll play along for a little bit. Here's some demographics from a recent camping article:
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Old 09-05-2016, 07:26 PM   #5
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There is no where good for this thread to go. Those who believe in "diversity" will want to see more, those who believe otherwise will disagree. Someone will post something seemingly "inappropriate" and that will be that.
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Old 09-05-2016, 07:59 PM   #6
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We have seen quite a few Hispanic and black families at 1000 trails campgrounds.
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Old 09-05-2016, 08:20 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RAurand View Post
We have seen quite a few Hispanic and black families at 1000 trails campgrounds.
Maybe that is my point...we are such a rich and diverse country, I just wonder why the marketing seems to be skewed or maybe even the purchasing. If you went to the Lincoln Natl Forest on any given holiday weekend, you would find a vast majority of RVers are hispanic. Obviously they are purchasing RVs...I just wonder why the marketing is not targeted towards them....

Not a good or bad type of discussion here, more just an observation of what I saw..
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Old 09-05-2016, 08:53 PM   #8
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I believe that if you look at the 2 important columns in Snakes Demographic Chart are Income and Ethnicity. Those are where the marketing organizations will focus on "Who is my audience" and of that audience "Where is the money". It is a simple formula that aims in securing the biggest return on EACH advertising dollar. That is BIG business. The BOTTOM line.

How long do you have to wait for an ordered RV, they seem to be hitting their objectives.

Just my thoughts

Don

If you look at the Asian RVers here in the USA, it is 3.2% of the RV purchasers. They are 5.6% of the population here in the USA so they seem to be right on the money as far as percentages go. They are also the top wage earners by Ethnicity.
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Old 09-05-2016, 09:00 PM   #9
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I've been RVing, out of a base in the deep South, since the 1960's. I've seen a very slow but very steady increase in the numbers of non-Caucasians out camping, at RV shows, etc.

I think for many of us, the RV lifestyle is something we learned a love of from our parents. A combination of low average income, Jim Crow laws, and general discrimination probably discouraged non-Caucasians from taking up RVing in much of the 1950's and 1960's - even into the 1970's.
Now that most of those impediments have been removed, it's just taking time for non-Caucasians to discover the joys and benefits of RVing.

I think the pace will continue to grow and we'll see more and more diversity in campgrounds.
I also think manufacturers would be wise to broaden their marketing and try to create new market segments.
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Old 09-05-2016, 09:54 PM   #10
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This is an interesting thread, and very much one of the influences on why my family now has a TT...but probably not in the way you would guess.

In 2010 my then 5 year old daughter begged us to go camping. We had never camped as a family, in fact I hadn't camped in 10+ years. My wife and I were a bit annoyed considering we had just returned from a fabulous 2 week trip to Maui with the kids, but my daughter just wanted to go since many of her friends talked about camping.

We caved, headed to Costco a couple months later and loaded up on tent camping gear. Took a trip, had a great time, but hated all the work. Made a second trip, again it was fun but lots of work. By this time we were done camping.

Ok the tie in --- that fall my wife caught an Oprah show where a Yosemite Ranger encouraged Oprah to come camping in a effort to encourage more minority visitors. What both my wife and saw was she used a PUP. That started our investigation into RVs, found out how affordable TT ownership really could be (opposed to grand tropical or European trips) and purchased our first JayFlight.

6 years later we get ~20 nights a year in. More frequently than not we camp with two other families, one family is of Hispanic heritage while we are the prototypical white 30-somethings.

So it took a lack of diversity for us to even start looking at RVs. And ironically enough when camp we never see the lack of diversity because of our camping crew is diverse.
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Old 09-05-2016, 11:41 PM   #11
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I'm Korean-American and my wife is Japanese-American. We are usually the only minorities at the RV parks we visit. We've never felt uncomfortable nor has anyone ever made it an issue. Some of the nicest and most interesting folks we've met were at RV parks. We stress the "American" part of our identity, since that's how we have grown up.
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Old 09-06-2016, 05:29 AM   #12
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Why does everything have to be homogenous and diverse? I grew up in a melting pot called new jersey. Over the years i have had every people color and religion you can imagine in the areas around me. My obseevation over many decades is people tend to group together by what they feel comfortable with which is usually some attribute (religion, culture, yes race and not just white, personal likes, dislikes etc.) makes them and their families comfortable.. and please dont think im referring to rving as a white thing. not everything is about race. How many african american ice climbers are there? Ive climbed with a few...but i cant tell you not many hanging off the frozen waterfall. When i ask i was told we dont geneally like the cold. Not my words. Same with sailing, dog sledding, even backpacking and kayaking. I have a Baptist Church a couple blocks from my place. I will ask about the rv / camping thing next time i walk by. Skiing seems to be more mixed now. Anyway leave the diveristy out of it and enjoy life the way you want to...just respect others regardless of color.

Lets go camping and if anyone else wants to go....take the campsite next to me....just be good neoghbirs regardless of race or religion. Camping in the fall is awesome.
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Old 09-06-2016, 05:45 AM   #13
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Well said FJD - Very well said...
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Old 09-06-2016, 06:15 AM   #14
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fjd said it very well.
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Old 09-06-2016, 07:37 AM   #15
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This is an awesome thread so far, It could have gone way off the cliff, but it didn't, I attribute this to RV'ers being the type of people that we are. I personally have been going camping since I met my wife in 2002, we take many other trips to Disney as such, we own Disney Vacation Club, with that said, last year we decided to expand our camping because we love ALL the people that we meet out there, you all are great! Our truck was getting older and soon to be expected issues will arise, Our 2005 TT just started to show some wear, so we decided to buy a new MH and continue to do what we love to do, that is camp, meet fantastic folks, and see places in a way that most don't. We very easily could have just dropped camping and I could have bought that new Corvette, but it's the memories we make as a family, and the amazing folks we have met over the years of all races, religions colors etc.. that keeps us coming back.
Happy camping folks, hope to see you down the road!
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Old 09-06-2016, 09:45 AM   #16
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Rv commercials, as others have noted, are simply targeted to their most profitable demographic.

I find it odd that our nation appears to think diversity is all about skin color. IF you look at me, I'm a white guy. You'd never guess that I have a great-great grandparent who was a slave in the south before the civil war unless I told you so. My cousin married a Mexican-American man, my brother married an Indonesian woman, my daughter is being courted by a Chinese American man, and my son is dating a girl who is American by birth, but her father is an American who is ethnically half Ecuadorian and half Mexican.

With the exception of my sister-in-law, who continues with Indonesian citizenship, the common theme of all these "diverse" people is that they are Americans.

And if you were blindfolded and taken to a party where they all attended, you'd be hard pressed to find any of them particularly "diverse" except my sister-in-law who has a rather thick accent. The rest of the voices (and viewpoints), you would find to be quite mainstream American.

The whole point of this is that, as MLK said: I want my children to live in a world where they are judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.

It saddens me to see the opposite being heralded as the hallmark of an open, accepting society.
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Old 09-06-2016, 10:28 AM   #17
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You know what I really find diverse about camping is, we don't go camping enough, I need more diversity from the real world and camping, and we should be camping more.

We need to stop making everything a political statement and now trying to make camping a PC issue, come on now
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Old 09-06-2016, 01:55 PM   #18
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Like I said, it was more an observation than a political statement of any kind.

But those commercials are sort of self fulfilling prophesies...if you advertise a certain way to a certain crowd, then mostly the certain crowd will buy your product.
Then you see who is buying your product, and you keep advertising to that consumer...it is a circle...

Observation...not a political statement.
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Old 09-06-2016, 02:41 PM   #19
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Interesting that I observed almost the opposite on our longer outing this summer. Many more visible ethnicities camping, and by the accents and languages, many other Caucasian cultures. I always notice many East Europeans camping in our area, but camping or getting away is pretty popular in the former Soviet countries. Now most of them were still doing the "pure" camping thing. These new fangled RV were pretty much all for the WASPs...
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Old 09-06-2016, 02:44 PM   #20
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I'm black and we are used to being in the minority when out camping, truckin', boating or at the drag strip. My family has been camping since the 70's from vans to truck campers to Mh's. My grandparents took me as a kid now I'm on my second camper at 30yrs old.

Generally as a whole we (black folks) don't know much about recreation or 'toys'. It's because we as a people have had too many other things to worry about over the past 150 years, we generally been behind the 8 ball with everything since 1863 EXCEPT COOKIN!

It's really a foreign concept for most of us. My wife and I have giant families and out all of us only one other family has an RV or even know about Rving. My uncles and Grandfather started Rving over 40 years ago. As a kid we camped in a group of about 8 Rv's ALL BLACK FOLKS up and down the eastern shore, Carolinas and Disney. They were all blue collar hardworking uneducated guys like myself and they really left an impression on me. All of them are long gone to Glory. I am the only one left holding the torch right now.

My wife and I don't mind being in the minority. I have learned to accept it in the various activites I am involved in. We are respectful and expect others to be respectful as well. We are AMERICAN
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