A great deal of research has examined the effects of the racial composition of advertisements on their acceptance by the black consumer. From this literature two antithetical findings have emerged: (1) television commercials that use black models are more meaningful to black viewers than are those using white models, and (2) black models in advertisements have a negative effect on black consumers. A study was undertaken to address these contradictory findings by examining the contribution of black consciousness level in mediating the acceptance of television commercials among black consumers. The Developmental Inventory of Black Consciousness (DIB-C) was used to assess the psychological location of an individual along the black consciousness continuum. More than two hundred black adults then were asked to give "interesting" and "convincing" ratings to four types of television commercials (black models, white models, integrated cast, and neutral--with no models). Recognition and recall data were also collected. The findings indicated that the subjects gave black commercials the highest ratings and remembered them the best. When subjects viewed white commercials, the results showed that blacks were more likely to give favorable ratings in accord with their level of black consciousness as measured by the DIB-C--with those possessing the lowest level of consciousness giving the most favorable ratings. (Author/FL)