Page 92 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

76 Ethnicity

The student ’ s success is portrayed not as individual but as that of a role
model for his community. Ads targeted to Hispanics also seek to balance
a sense of attachment to one ’ s geographic or cultural roots with a sense of
the importance of participating in American culture. Hispanics in ads are
portrayed as having a strong sense of tradition, and images often evoke
homelands that have been left behind to come to the US. Miller Beer ads
in the 1980s offered Hispanic customers familiar images of their lives – kids
playing soccer, a vaquero riding in a rodeo, bands playing “ Latin ” instru-
ments such as maracas, and so on. They also contained anthems that
resembled Hispanic songs and that offered drinking Miller Beer as a new
tradition one could acquire in America. The ads suggested that one could
preserve one ’ s “ Latin lifestyle ” while nevertheless melting into US culture:
“ Here where opportunity is so clear, when you know how to strive, and
the family can be better off, without forgetting our roots. Here where one
embraces with sincerity to seal friendships, you sing with joy here, you
drink Miller ice cold. Miller is of this nation as we are full of heart. Clear
and honest for all to see. Miller is of this great nation. Miller beer, purity

and quality you can clearly see. ” Advertising can also be a way of stigmatiz-
ing traditional practices and of educating Latinos as consumers of modern
goods that replace traditional ways of doing things. That is often the case
with ads for such things as laundry detergent, which is presented as modern
and a move away from the past. Now that one is in America, Fab detergent
ads suggest, one should do things the American way. Such ads are part of
a larger cultural campaign to render Latinidad or Latinness smoother so
that a larger audience can be reached. People of Hispanic descent vary
greatly in skin tone, from very dark to very light, the result of the mix of
Spanish, African, and indigenous ethnic lines in South America. As a result,
ads strive to present images of Hispanics that are neither too dark nor too
light. And the Spanish that is spoken in such ads, similarly, is generic and
unaccented and is presented as a standard that belongs to no one single
linguistic community. In fact, it is upper - class Mexican Spanish which is
supposedly without any mark of regional accents, especially from the
Caribbean basin, but it is regional nevertheless.
Of course, advertisers are not entirely to blame for the way ethnic groups
are represented as separable entities with distinct cultural traits. Such traits
can be real; the question is how applicable are they to an entire group?
Moreover, a sense of a separate group identity is encouraged and embraced
by members of ethnic groups without coaching from advertisers. Some
people define their identity in terms of their ethnic group at least in part.