Poverty Porn as a Sign of a Postcolonial Wall Between “Us” and “Them”

Abstract: One of the problems that people were trying to overcome for years is poverty. Almost half of the population lives on $2.50 a day. However, it appears that poverty could also be seen as the symbolic resource rather than a financial state. So called “poverty porn” is being widely used by NGOs for marketing purposes as a tool for fundraising. This research presents the analysis of poverty porn through postcolonial lens, narrative theory and own reflection upon colonialism imprints in marketing of poverty. The aim of this research is to uncover the problems of social marketing such as a stereotyped representation of poverty that is being widely used by NGOs for fundraising purposes. The research question addresses two issues: firstly, it highlights necessity to analyze how poverty is being used for marketing purposes and, secondly, it addresses a need to define consumer attitudes and responses towards it. By examining these two aspects we aim to address poverty marketing from a reflexive perspective since we perform analysis from both researchers’ and consumers’ perspective. Consequently it enables us to perform a qualitative research which contributes to optimization of marketing practices so it could stand in line with objectives of social marketing. The issue of poverty marketing and poverty porn was addressed in this qualitative study by critically analyzing three cases and eight interviews through applying narrative and postcolonialism theory. As a result we have identified various positions towards poverty marketing such as sadness, happiness, mistrust, neutrality, shock, savior, empowerment, survivor, disguise and many more. The research shows that poverty porn practice appears to be reinforcing the distinction between the West and the non-West since the advertisements are directed towards the representation of “the inferior other” and is more likely to provoke financial donations rather than social involvement. In other words, poverty porn plays a major role in positioning the West as more superior and empowered as they are the ones who can “save the other”. The roles of the superior West are basically being exaggerated in the advertisements. Thus one could say that such poverty marketing does not stand in line with social marketing and its intention to transform society for a common good. The outcome of the study is that there are definite pros and cons of a current marketing of poverty; however, it has to be adjusted to make sure it reaches original objectives of social marketing. The contribution of the research can be presented in four points since (1) this is a critical reflexive study, (2) which addresses notion of “poverty porn”, and (3) is analyzed from a postcolonial perspective by (4) the use of a qualitative research method.