Ethnic marketing experts say that Australia is 15 years behind the rest of the world when it comes to using people from different backgrounds to sell products. But advertisers say they are simply responding to the demands of Australian consumers. Cleo magazine editor Sharri Markson conducted a survey of models working in Australia and was surprised to discover that few came from ethnic backgrounds. "We looked at the major modelling agencies in Australia and in total there was 1,100 models. " only a handful are from an ethnic background. There were literally only 16 Chinese models and seven Indigenous." Ms Markson says that ethnic models are often told they will not get work in Australia and the agencies are reluctant to use them. "The owner of one of the major modelling agencies,Pricilla"s,it was very sad but they often have to turn away a beautiful black model or beautiful Asian model".
