Page 91 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

Ethnicity 75

divided geographically. Asian Americans, for example, come from a variety
of places, all differentiated culturally – Japan, China, India, the Philippines,
Vietnam, and so on. This problem with ethnic cultural representation
become especially clear when one considers an industry like advertising

that markets products often to specific ethnic groups like Latinos in the
US. Latinos, like all ethnic groups, are not homogeneous. That is, they are
not all the same or even similar. They come from different places (from
Puerto Rico to Mexico) with different cultures. They belong to different
income and social classes and are as differentiated as any other ethnic
group in those terms. Yet advertising, in order to address them as a targeted
market, must to a certain extent make a deliberate mistake and must
assume they are in fact characterized by such a high degree of similarity
within the ethnic group that they can be addressed in purely ethnic terms.
They are assigned a uniformity they do not in fact possess.
This process of targeting entails two processes – identifi cation and
differentiation. First, Latinos are depicted as a uniform body of people
with certain traits that all possess. Second, this ethnic cultural identity

is portrayed as significantly different from other ethnicities, especially the
dominant Anglo - American one. Advertising researchers characterize
Hispanics as seeing themselves more in terms of their family and com-
munity than Whites. They supposedly have more respect for elders, and a
sense of obedience is instilled in their children. They uphold hierarchical
social roles, and men in the group are characterized by machismo or
dominance behavior. These traits differentiate them from Whites who are
portrayed as more individualistic, as relying more on themselves than on
family, and as favoring democracy over hierarchy in social relations. While
Whites are thought of as middle class, Hispanics are characterized more in
terms of a common culture that overrides class differences.
For example, in a 1998 ad for AT & T ’ s auto - redial feature on its tele-
phones, a young Hispanic couple asks permission to marry, but the girl ’ s
father is absent. The boy asks for the girl ’ s hand in marriage, and the girl ’ s
aunt says, “ Only the hand. ” Next we see the girl dialing a phone using the
redial feature to reach her father, who gives permission to marry. The ad
emphasizes the supposed importance of traditional hierarchical family
relationships in Hispanic culture. The children are not independent; they
depend on the authority of elders to make important life decisions. In
another ad from 1997 for ITT Technical Schools, young Hispanics, rather
than be associated with individual striving, as Whites are in other ITT
ads, are depicted thanking family and friends for helping them succeed.