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Hispanic advertising as social orientation: an examination of the advertising industry as a field of cultural production

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Hispanic advertising as social orientation: an examination of the advertising industry as a field of cultural production

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HISPANIC ADVERTISING AS SOCIAL ORIENTATION:
AN EXAMINATION OF THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY AS A FIELD OF
CULTURAL PRODUCTION

by
Christopher A. Chávez

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(COMMUNICATION)

August 2009

Copyright 2009 Christopher A. Chávez

ii
DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to several remarkable people who have shaped the course of
my journey. My particular gratitude goes to….
My mother who taught me the importance of knowledge for its own sake
My beautiful wife Judy who has been a true partner and collaborator throughout
our lives together
And for my lovely daughters Alexandra and Daniela who inspire me each and
every day to be a better person – may you both live a life of wonder, beauty and
kindness.

iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank the faculty at USC who have been extremely supportive of my
work. Special consideration goes to my committee members: Dr. Michael Cody, Dr.
Sheila Murphy, Dr. Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Dr. Margaret McLaughlin and Dr. Valerie
Folkes. Each member has been very generous in sharing their time and insight and each
has played a significant role in the refinement and evolution of my thinking.
I wish to give special thanks to Dr. Sheila Murphy whom I first encountered
almost fifteen years ago when I began graduate work in USC’s Communications
Management program. As a student of Dr. Murphy, I was inspired about the possibility
of an academic future and when I began my career in advertising I told her of my interest
to one day return and pursue my PhD. Several years later I made good on that promise. I
am certain that she was instrumental in my admittance into the doctoral program and for
this I will be eternally grateful.
Finally, particular gratitude must be given to Dr. Michael Cody who has been
both my mentor and my friend. As my advisor, Dr. Cody ably guided my research while
allowing me the freedom to find my own voice. I have learned a lot from Dr. Cody as his
advisee, his teaching assistant and co-lecturer but I gained most from our every day
conversations. It was during one of our morning coffee discussions that Dr. Cody
suggested that I consider Pierre Bourdieu for this project. This advice lead to an entirely
new way of looking at the production of cultural artifacts and Bourdieu’s field theory
eventually became the theoretical framework for this dissertation.

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication ii
Acknowledgments iii
Abstract v
Chapter 1: Introduction and Literature Review 1
Figure 1: Axis of social space 22
Chapter 2: Methodology 28
Chapter 3: The Field of Advertising Production 43
Chapter 4: Habitus, Field and Degrees of Congruency 60
Chapter 5: Economic Capital and the Marketplace of Ideas 78
Chapter 6: Cultural Capital and the Creative Prouduct 100
Chapter 7: Linguistic Capital and the Currency of Spanish 121
Chapter 8: Discussions/Conclusions 135
References 158
Appendix A: Sensitizing Concepts (Hispanic ad executives) 166
Appendix B: Sensitizing Concepts (General market agents) 168
Appendix C: Sensitizing Concepts (National clients) 170

v
ABSTRACT
Previous research on advertising has presumed that marketers and consumers
draw from the same socio-cultural information in the production and consumption of
advertising messages. Hispanic advertising, however, is produced under quite different
circumstances. Unlike advertising in general, Hispanic advertising is created for a
consumer who is also an ethnic minority and often involves decision makers who are
linguistically and culturally distinct from the targeted consumer. Grounded in Bourdieu’s
theory of practice, this dissertation examines the production of ethnically targeted
advertising and the context in which it is produced. Furthermore, this project builds on
current research by examining the Hispanic ad industry not as an isolated entity but as
part of a larger professional community that has its own ideals and practices and operates
within the confines of its own particular logic. During the course of this investigation,
interviews were conducted with Hispanic advertising professionals, general market
advertising professionals and national clients and discussions were designed to ascertain
the structure of the field, the relative position of various agents within the field and the
various forms of capital at play within the field. The findings of this research reveal that
the dynamics involved in the production of Hispanic advertising are inextricably linked to
dynamics at play in the larger social space and that the discourse between marketers and
Latino consumers are largely mediated by issues of class, race and power.

1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background
At the 2008 annual conference for the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies
(AHAA), the organizers of the conference presented a short film. Intended as a satire of
Hispanic advertising, the film depicts an alternate reality in which economic destabilization in
the United States has resulted in a mass migration of Americans into Mexico. In this fictional
world, white Americans are the gardeners, day laborers and janitors while dark skinned
Mexicans occupy the positions of patrons and employers. Fluency in Spanish is necessary to
thrive in this social system and English-speaking Americans barely get by with limited
knowledge of the dominant language. In a parody of an actual product, Inglés Sin Barreras,
the film includes a mock commercial for Spanish Without Borders, a linguistic training
program marketed to hopeful Americans eager to gain an advantage in their jobs within the
service sector by learning Spanish.
Grounded in this parallel reality, the film goes on to imagine what “American”
advertising might look like when created in this social context and the symptoms of this
process are intended to be familiar to the audience of mainly Latino ad executives. Marketing
decisions are based on stereotypes and anecdotal information rather than on empirical
consumer research. Roles that are written for English-speaking Americans are performed by
Spanish-dominant Latinos who can simply pass as “American.” In the film’s précis, an
American agency is seen attempting to pitch a creative idea to their Mexican client. The
client dismisses the concept believing that it is not quite American enough and proceeds to
prescribe creative solutions that are stereotypical. To validate his point, the client summons

2
his American janitor Tom to solicit his opinion on the concept. When the agency protests that
Tom is not qualified to make such key decisions on advertising, the client asserts that Tom’s
insight is valid since he represents the typical American consumer. In the final scene of the
film, the American agency is resigned with no idea on how to move forward. The film
concludes with a title card that reads, “La realidad es la realidad hasta que alguien la cambia”
(Reality is reality until someone changes it) followed by the conference’s theme, “Let’s start
leading.”
The decision to play a film that critiques the Hispanic ad industry at a conference for
Hispanic ad executives raises several poignant issues. In theory, the film works because it
gives voice to the real concerns that many Latino advertising executives have about the work
they do. In doing so the film taps into the insight that advertising ultimately reflects the
socio-cultural conditions that give rise to it. Furthermore, the film is based on the premise
that the creation of Hispanic advertising does not simply involve the dialogue between a
marketer and a consumer. Rather, advertising messages are mediated by dynamics at play in
the larger social space. Finally, the film suggests that clients and other key decision makers,
who are themselves non-Latino and non-Spanish speakers, play a profound role in shaping the
message.
It is the relationship between Hispanic advertising agents and other key players
including general market advertising agents and national clients that is the focus of this
dissertation project. While advertising has been examined from a variety of theoretical
perspectives, this project follows previous scholarship that sees advertising as a symbolic
system in which consumers and marketers exchange a rich vocabulary of cultural knowledge

3
through various forms of media (Goldman & Papson, 1998; Mick, 1986; Scott, 1994; Sherry,
1987). While there has been some investigation on the messages embedded in Spanish
language advertising and how Latino consumers respond to ethnically targeted advertising,
this project is interested in the production of Hispanic advertising and the professional ideals
and practices of advertising executives that ultimately determine the nature of the creative
message.
Previous research on advertising has generally assumed that marketers and consumers
draw from the same socio-cultural information in the production and consumption of
advertising messages (Mick & Buhl, 1992; Scott, 1994). Hispanic advertising, however, is
produced under quite different circumstances. Unlike advertising in general, Hispanic
advertising is produced for a consumer who is a member of an ethnic minority. Furthermore,
the production of Hispanic advertising involves decision makers who do not share the same
linguistic and cultural codes as the targeted consumer. While Arlene Dávila’s (2001) research
provides many important insights into the role that Hispanic advertisers play in the
construction of U.S. Latino identity, her investigation is focused almost exclusively on the
Hispanic ad industry. There is a need, however, to look at the broader context in which
ethnically targeted advertising is created. Hispanic agencies do not work in isolation and their
creative products are shaped largely through their collaboration with Anglo clients and
employees of general market agencies.
Academic research has not kept pace with the rapidly changing demography of the
consumer landscape and there is a need to further understand the processes through which
Latino consumers are targeted. This dissertation project is designed to make several important

4
contributions to the literature. First, this project provides one of the few empirical accounts of
how ethnically targeted advertising is produced. In doing so, the project builds on Davila’s
study by examining the Hispanic advertising industry not as an isolated entity but one that is
situated within a larger professional community. From this orientation, this research
addresses issues that have previously been left unexamined in the literature. Namely, the
cultural and linguistic differences amongst advertising producers that ultimately determine the
nature of Hispanic advertising.
The first chapter of this dissertation is intended to cover three primary areas. First, a
general overview of the literature is provided with a specific focus on the production of
advertising and its socio-cultural implications. Second, the limited literature on Hispanic
advertising will be covered and the potential deficits will be identified. Finally, Pierre
Bourdieu’s theory of practice will be introduced as a theoretical and empirical framework for
investigating advertising as a social field that has its own logic and its own set of ideals and
practices.
Literature Review
Advertising as Social Discourse
Advertising has traditionally been viewed as a mechanism in which to distinguish
brands from one another in an undifferentiated commercial landscape as well as to instruct
consumers on their preferred uses and meanings (Leiss, Kline, Jhally & Botterill, 2004).
From this perspective, the process by which advertising is consumed is generally
characterized as a linear one in which individuals are seen as relatively passive consumers of
persuasive messages (Hirshman & Thompson, 1997). More recently, however, scholars have

5
begun to explore the role of advertising that extends beyond its marketing function (Goldman
& Papson, 1998; Mick, 1986; Scott, 1994; Sherry, 1987) and scholarship in this area has
focused on advertising as a symbolic exchange between consumers and marketers through
various forms of media.
A basic starting point for a discussion of advertising as a symbolic system begins with
the fundamental notion that things, or material possessions, have symbolic value (Belk, 1988;
Csikszentmihalyi & Rochber-Halton, 1981) and that people buy products and brands not so
much for they do but rather for what they mean (Levy, 1959). Furthermore, while consumers
express a variety of logics for purchasing the objects they do, scholars have argued that
commercial products serve a variety of identity functions including the creation,
enhancement, and preservation of the self-concept (Escalas & Bettman, 2005) as well as
providing the raw material for the construction of narratives about who consumers are and
who they want to be (Holt, 2004; Kleine, Kleine III & Allen, 1995). It is further argued that
products are consumed for the purposes of defining oneself and clarifying behavior patterns
associated with social roles (Leigh & Gable, 1992). For example, Piacentini and Mailer
(2004) found that teenagers use brands as a means of judging the people and situations they
face, to help demonstrate adherence to group norms and to facilitate role transition.
While products and brands are said to hold personal and social meaning, these
meanings are not naturally occurring and much scholarship has been dedicated to the role that
advertising plays in imbuing brands and products with symbolic value. From this perspective
advertisers become important arbitrators of symbolic meaning by connecting meanings that
exist in the cultural world and attaching them to the world of brands and products. Thus

6
commercial symbols are derived largely through their relationships with other meanings
(Papson & Goldman, 1996). In other words, the Nike logo meant nothing until the Nike
Corporation and Weiden and Kennedy (Nike’s agency of record) filled it with meaning by
attaching their logo to other cultural symbols (i.e. images of athletes, the use of John
Lennon’s song “Instant Karma,” etc.).
Marketing scholar Linda Scott (1994) describes advertising as a rhetorical process that
involves a symbolic exchange between marketers and consumers. In this process, advertisers
craft their messages in anticipation of the audience’s probable response using shared
knowledge of various vocabularies and conventions as well as common experiences.
Audiences use this same body of cultural knowledge to read the message, infer the sender’s
intention, evaluate the argument and formulate a response. Cultural knowledge thus provides
the basis for normative interaction and persuasion. Consumers, who are taught to navigate the
world of commercial symbols at an early age, become highly fluent in the discourse of
advertising through a process of socialization. Furthermore, because the consumer is not seen
as a simple receiver but a creator of meaning, commodity signs are often negotiated, rejected,
contested, appropriated and re-appropriated (Mick, 1986; Williamson, 1978).
Advertising as Cultural Discourse
At a macro level of analysis, scholars have argued that, considered collectively,
advertising is a cultural system that acts as social discourse and promotes narratives about
commodities and consumers (Goldman, Heath & Smith, 1991). Much of this scholarship is
grounded in the fundamental notion that cultural categories provide the co-ordinates of
meaning that make the physical world consistent and comprehendible. Physical objects,

7
including branded products, play an important role in substantiating these cultural categories.
For example, particular types of clothing may illuminate cultural categories by emphasizing
distinctions between men and women, classes, age groups etc. But they may also reflect
cultural values such as the belief that women are intended to be delicate, men stronger, higher
classes more refined, elders more conservative. Here, McCracken discusses the importance of
commercial symbols:
Consumers are constantly canvassing the object world for goods with useful
meanings. They use them to furnish certain aspects of the self and the world. The
object world, as we have seen, gives them access to workable ideas of gender, class,
age, personality, and lifestyle, in addition to cultural principals of great number and
variety. The material world of consumer goods offers a vast inventory of possible
selves and thinkable worlds. Consumers are constantly rummaging here (McCracken,
1989, p. 316).
As a cultural system, advertising privileges certain representations of the world over
others including particular types of consumers, product categories and social situations. Thus,
advertising becomes not only a model of reality but a model for reality (Sherry, 1987).
Consumers are said to look to advertising to infer essential information about who is
important, which material objects are relevant, appropriate practices and behaviors and key
social institutions. Furthermore, the ubiquitous and repetitive in nature of advertising makes
these cultural categories stable and visible (Sherry, 1987). Thus it is argued that consumers
look to make meaning of the phenomenal world.
Other scholars have taken a more critical stance by suggesting that advertising is both
an industry and an ideology (Sinclair, 1987), inherently promoting discourses that reflect the
logic of capitalism. Described as “capital realism” (Schudson, 1986), it is argued that
advertising does not project reality as it is but reality as it should be while suppressing the

8
inequalities, injustices, irrationalities, and contradictions that exist in a consumer society.
Furthermore, advertising celebrates consumerism and presents an optimistic view of progress
where the product itself becomes the answer to social problems. Scholar Michael Schudson
sharply articulates this sentiment by claiming that “advertising is capitalism’s way of saying I
love you to itself” (Schudson, 1984, p. 232).
Because its logic is commercial in nature, a critique of advertising has focused on its
complicity in transforming individuals into consumers. Through this process, it is said that
the marketplace determines which groups matter in a society and which groups do not. It is
further argued that marketers do not listen to all people equally and that only economically
viable consumers can command the attention of advertisers and therefore representation in the
national media. Conversely, certain segments of society are often overlooked until they can
demonstrate their potential as an economic force. It is from this perspective that we may
explain the fact that despite their longstanding presence in the United States, marketers have
only recently begun to recognize Latinos. As Dávila suggests, when Latinos are celebrated in
the mainstream culture, they are celebrated as consumers (Rodriguez, 2007).
Producers of Advertising
“We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are” (Nin, 1961, p. 124).
Anaïs Nin provides an important insight by claiming that objectivity is a fallacy and
that we necessarily view the world from our own perspective. This insight suggests that any
creative product, any artistic endeavor, inherently reflects, to some extent, the worldview of
those who created it. While Chapter 3 will provide a more complete description of the
advertising industry, ethnographic and historical investigations into the culture of advertising

9
professionals have suggested that advertising professionals are themselves an ethnically and
culturally distinct group that is quite different from the average consumer. These studies have
shown that through the history of the profession, advertising professionals have typically been
well educated, well paid and lived in urban areas and have created advertising for consumers
who have been less educated, less affluent and living in non urban areas (Marchand, 1985;
Pope, 1983) Furthermore, the advertising industry, which has been predominantly Anglo,
does not adequately reflect the demography of the U.S. population as a whole further
distancing the producer from the consumer.
While advertisers typically rely on empirical consumer research to help bring them
closer to the mindset of the consumer, the disparity between the two becomes particularly
problematic when advertising involves ethnic and other culturally distinct groups. In her
book Business, Not Politics, Sender (2005) challenges a popular sentiment that consumer
segments can be approached objectively based purely on rational and economic motives and
suggests that the choices involved in targeting a niche audience are always inherently
political. Sender further argues that consumer markets are shaped, not discovered, and the
strategies used to pursue targeted audiences reflect the worldviews of the marketers (Sender,
2005). Assumptions about what products are considered to be relevant to the targeted
consumer, who gets to be included in the target market, how they will be spoken to and how
resources will be allocated all reflect pre-existing biases on the part of the advertiser
(Ohmann, 1996; Sender, 2005). Thus, to truly understand the nature of advertising, it is
necessary to also gain an understanding of professional context in which advertising is
produced.

10
Latino Consumers and Hispanic Advertising
In recent years, U.S. Latinos have received growing interest from national marketers.
The inclination to pursue Hispanics and other culturally distinct segments is what scholar
George Yudice (1995) describes as an inevitability of marketplace logic. In an effort to
increase capital, marketers must either increase the frequency of purchase of a given product
among existing consumers or to find new consumer segments in which to market (Pope,
1983). This argument is not without merit. Latinos currently account for 13 percent of the
total U.S. population and this number is expected to increase exponentially in upcoming years
(U.S. Census, 2000). Furthermore, the sheer size of the Latino population and its projected
growth ensures significant buying power, estimated to be approximately $951 billion (Selig
Center for Economic Growth, 2008).
Latinos are also a particularly appealing market segment because of their linguistic,
social and media practices. Latinos to tend concentrate geographically, allowing them to be
targeted efficiently on a regional basis. Almost a quarter of the U.S. Latino population resides
in just four counties: Los Angeles, Dade, Harris and Cook (U.S. Census, 2000). Within Los
Angeles alone, Latinos account for almost forty-five percent of the city’s total population
(U.S. Census, 2000). Second, Latinos share a common language. Despite differences in
terminology, pronunciation and cadence, Spanish serves as a common linguistic framework
(Foster, Sullivan & Perea, 1989). Finally, the construction of a single Latino market has been
associated with the rise of the Spanish language broadcasting industry in the early 1960s
(Rodriguez, 1996).

11
While commercial marketers have taken the lead in understanding Latino consumers,
the subject has received relatively little scholarly attention. Research on how Latino
consumers actually respond to Hispanic advertising has largely been the domain of marketing
and persuasion scholars and work in this area has generally taken an information processing
approach where any number of ethnic cues are treated as sensory inputs designed to solicit
particular consumer responses (Deshpandé & Stayman, 1994; Dimofte, Forehand &
Deshpandé, 1994; Maldonado, Tansuhaj & Muehling, 2003; Reed, 2004). Furthermore,
language appears to play a prominent role in much of this work. For example, early research
on ethnically targeted advertising examined the role that language plays in message
comprehension (Dolinsky & Feinberg, 1986; Foster et al, 1989; Roslow Research Group,
2000). Studies in this area typically exposed bilingual participants to either Spanish or English
communications and tested their ability to recall, retain and interpret those messages. A
consistent finding in this research is that, amongst U.S. Latinos, persuasive messages in
Spanish are more effective than those in English.
Later research has been concerned not so much for what language does functionally
but for what it communicates symbolically. Research in this area has not been as consistent
and the findings tend to fall within two main camps. The first asserts that Spanish is one of a
number of ethnic cues that may activate identities that are self-important to Latino consumers
(Deshpandé & Stayman, 1994; Dimofte et al, 1994; Hogg &Terry, 2000; Maldonado et al,
2003; Reed, 2004). It is also argued that Spanish language advertising suggests to Latinos
that marketers have respect Latino cultural identity and acknowledges the inherent worth of
the Hispanic market (Holland & Gentry, 1999; Koslow, Shamdasani & Touchstone, 1994).

12
Both processes are believed to lead to favorable consumer outcomes. The second camp has
found that Spanish and other ethnic cues may negatively impact persuasive messages by
activating schemas or identities that Latinos consider to be lower on the social hierarchy
(Luna & Peracchio, 2005; Ueltschy’s & Krampf, 1997).
Because much of this research is grounded in social psychology, consumers’ own
cognitive responses are of primary interest with less concern for larger enabling structures.
Furthermore, a heavy reliance on the scientific method has framed investigation within a
series of binaries: English/Spanish; Acculturated/Non-Acculturated; Hispanic/Non-Hispanic,
etc. While these constructs do provide a systematic segmentation of a given population, they
also create the perception of homogeneity within ethno linguistic communities that are, in
actuality, quite diverse. Pan-ethnic terms such as Latino or Hispanic accommodate individuals
from differing cultural traditions, linguistic backgrounds and racial groups. Furthermore,
industry data reveals that a majority of Latinos have access to multiple linguistic codes (PEW,
2002) and consume both English and Spanish language media (RCG, 2000). In 2006, Fox,
CBS and ABC were among the top five networks most viewed by Latino audiences ranking
ahead of other prominent Spanish language stations including Telefutura (No. 6) and Azteca
America (No. 10) (Advertising Age, 2006).
Because there is limited empirical research on the topic, the social and cultural
implications of Hispanic advertising may only be inferred from the limited empirical data
available. For example, previous literature has suggested that advertising exposes audiences to
uniform patterns of consumption and promotes normative behaviors and is said to promote
particular cultural practices as well as to validate key social institutions (García Canclini,

13
2001; Hartley, 1999; McCracken, 1986; Sherry, 1987). While this is true of advertising in
general, the impact of advertising may be particularly problematic in the Latino community
exacerbated both by the viewing habits of Latino audiences as well as the nature of the
Spanish language media landscape.
Compared to English language television, there are a relatively limited number of
players in the Spanish television landscape. Consequently, fewer networks have the
command of a higher concentration of viewers. For example, in 2006 all of the top ten
programs among Latinos were aired during the primetime hours on a single network,
Univision (Advertising Age, 2006). Second, Hispanic audiences demonstrate a higher
incidence of television viewing compared to Anglo audiences. Studies on the media
consumption habits of Latinos indicate that they spend 24 hours a week watching television
versus only 22 hours for Anglo audiences (Advertising Age, 2006). As a consequence of the
ability for a select few stations to command a higher concentration of viewers as well as the
disproportionately high incidence of television viewing by Latino audiences, a single ad may
have more significant impact.
To illustrate this concern, current research indicates that 10.5 percent of Latinos
twenty years and older have been diagnosed with diabetes and in 2005 the death rate of
diabetes for Latinos was 60 percent higher than the death rate of non-Hispanic whites (Office
of Minority Health, 2009). Latinos are also said to live in residential communities in which
there is a greater presence of fast food restaurants compared to communities that are primarily
Anglo. Despite the propensity for health related problems in the Latino community, current
industry estimates indicate that three of the top fifteen regional advertisers on Spanish

14
language television are fast food corporations: Jack in the Box, McDonald’s Corporation and
Yum Brands (which includes KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell) (Advertising Age, 2006). In
other words, the disproportionately high number of commercials for fast food products
exacerbated by the ability of a single ad to reach a higher concentration of viewers may
contribute to an overall environment that promotes unhealthy practices amongst Latinos.
What is more difficult to measure, however, is the symbolic impact of Hispanic
advertising. In A Niche of Our Own, scholar Larry Gross writes that, “to be ignored by
advertising is a powerful form of symbolic annihilation, but to be represented in the
commercial universe is an important milestone on the road to full citizenship in the republic
of consumerism” (Gross, 2001, p. 233). While Gross makes a compelling point, mere
representation is only part of the story. How and where one is represented also carries
tremendous symbolic and there is evidence that advertising practices play a crucial role in
shaping the particular nature of Hispanic creative in the United States. Because advertising
acts as a cultural system that reflects and projects larger cultural values, the prevalence of
stereotypes and disparities in messaging and production quality between Spanish and English
language ads, may have tremendous impact in what they tell Latino consumers about their
place in the social hierarchy.
Arlene Dávila’s (2001) study of the New York Hispanic ad industry provides several
key insights into the role that marketers play in shaping Hispanic advertising. However,
because group relations are not the focal point of her study, Dávila does not directly address
how advertising is shaped by collaboration with general market agencies and clients working
at national brands. By looking at the broader context in which advertising is created we can

15
begin to see how larger cultural values play a role in shaping Hispanic advertising. For
example, Dávila references a common practice within the advertising industry of pursuing
Latino consumers through the employment of niche agencies that specialize in targeting the
Hispanic market. Through this approach, Hispanic consumers are generally disconnected
from the “general market” population and respective agencies develop their campaigns on
parallel, but often unequal paths (Brandweek, 1999; Dávila, 2001; Rotfeld, 2003). A common
result of this division of labor is the production of creatively and strategically distinct
advertising campaigns that air simultaneously on separate media.
The Advertising Ghetto
It is important to consider that there is no general market unless there is a Hispanic
market. Without the counterpoint of Hispanic advertising, the work of TBWA Chiat/Day,
Goodby Silverstein and Partners, Crispin Porter Bogusky or any number of other agencies is
simply advertising. The reliance of on a general market/Hispanic market paradigm, however,
does warrant further discussion. In their examination of Spanish language telenovelas,
Glascock and Ruggeiro (2004) make the argument that programming inherently reflects the
values of the country in which it is produced. In the case of Hispanic advertising, the decision
to bracket Latino consumers from general market consumers may be based on several cultural
assumptions. First there is the assumption that Latino consumers are profoundly different
from other consumers to the degree that they must be addressed via a separate and distinct
effort. Second, there is the assumption that Latino consumers watch only Spanish language
television and, therefore, having two different campaigns airing simultaneously will not prove

16
to be problematic in any meaningful way. Finally, Hispanic advertising is generally presumed
to be an auxiliary effort and therefore must be subordinated to the general market campaign.
While Hispanic advertising and general market advertising are believed to work on
parallel paths, both practitioners and industry observers have argued that these paths are not
necessarily equal and that marketers invest relatively little economic resources into their
Hispanic advertising campaigns leading to what many in the industry refer to as the “ad
ghetto” (Brandweek, 1999; Rotfeld, 2003). A common complaint from members of the
Spanish language media is that despite the ability for Spanish language media to deliver a
higher concentration of viewers, advertisers are unwilling to invest advertising dollars into
Spanish language media (Flamm, 2005). These suspicions find validation in a Federal
Communications Commission study that revealed that it was common for many advertisers to
have institutional policies to exclude Spanish language media from their media plans (FCC,
2009). Furthermore, in an effort to minimize costs for the production Hispanic television
advertising, various production techniques are commonly employed including dubbing
(directly translating spots from English to Spanish), re-editing footage obtained from general
market shoots, shadow-shooting (using the same concept, location and film crew but shooting
with Hispanic actors) and avoiding on-camera dialogue in an effort to minimize talent and
residual costs.
The impact of the professional ghetto is not limited to issues of production value but
may also manifest itself in creative and strategic processes. Compared to their general market
counterparts, Hispanic ad agencies typically play a relatively subordinate role in strategic and
creative decision-making. The process through which Hispanic advertising is created is

17
characterized as a linear one in which the general market agency and client collaborate in the
development of an umbrella advertising strategy (Leslie, 1995). Once a campaign is
approved, the general market agency or the client will brief the Hispanic ad agency. Clients
who are seeking cohesion in timing and creative execution will often require the Hispanic ad
agency to work within the framework of the general market campaign, to varying degrees,
and to adhere to the same deadlines (Brandweek, 1999; Dávila, 2001; Rotfeld, 2003). These
constraints may compromise the advertising process both by limiting the creative options
available to Hispanic ad agencies as well as putting advertising agents in the position of
reacting to highly expeditious deadlines.
The notion of an advertising ghetto suggests an industry in which two competitors are
not allowed to compete on equal footing. Claims that Hispanic ad agencies and general
market agencies are largely based on anecdotal information, however, there has not been an
empirical investigation designed to understand the degree to which Hispanic ad agencies and
general market brands can compete for the same clients, the same types of employees, the
same institutional recognition and ultimately the same economic rewards. There is a need to
examine the advertising industry as a profession with its own rules and logic and to
understand the relative value of both players.
Theoretical Grounding
Theory of Practice: General Overview
This project draws heavily on the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu who
characterizes social life as a set of fields in which agents compete for various kinds of
resources, or capital (Bourdieu, 1991; 1993). Forms of capital are not always material,

18
however, like economic capital, they are unequally distributed amongst agents. Central to
Bourdieu’s framework is the concept of “habitus,” or set of dispositions that incline social
agents to act and react in certain ways. These dispositions generate practices, perceptions and
attitudes that are regular without being consciously coordinated or governed by any rule
(Bourdieu, 1991). Furthermore, the practices particular to a given field favor some groups
over others. Because certain individuals are already predisposed to act in certain ways, to
pursue certain goals and avow certain tastes, they will benefit from the structure and practices
of that particular field (Bourdieu, 1991; 1993).
Within Bourdieu’s framework, symbolic meaning plays an essential role because it
allows dominant groups to exercise power over others, thereby maintaining their position
within the field. According to Bourdieu, the exercise of power is not necessarily calculated
nor does it always manifest itself through overt physical force. Rather it is manifested in
symbolic form and, consequently, given a legitimacy that it would not otherwise have. The
exercise of power through symbolic exchange relies on the shared belief by all participants of
a given field in a particular social order. Consequently those who may benefit the least from
the exercise of power participate in their own subjugation, what Bourdieu calls “active
complicity” (Bourdieu, 1991). In other words, individual agents recognize and participate in
a particular social hierarchy and fail to see that hierarchy is, after all, an arbitrary social
construction that serves the interests of some groups more than others (Bourdieu, 1991).
The Advertising Industry as a Social Field
This research will examine the advertising industry as a profession that is occupied
with the production of cultural or symbolic goods. Like all other social fields, the field of

19
advertising production has its own logic, practices and forms of capital that allow various
agents to compete within that field. For purposes of this research, we examine the profession
of advertising in which Hispanic advertising executives and general market agencies are both
competitors. In the tradition of other scholarship that has relied on field theory, this study will
rely on several key theoretical concepts that are central to Bourdieu’s framework:
Field (Champ)
The concept of “champ” or “field” is first and foremost intended to serve as an
empirical tool. Put in Bourdieu’s own words, “field is a research tool, the main function of
which is to enable the scientific construction of social objects” (Bourdieu, 2005, p. 30).
Consequently, looking at the advertising industry as a social field means understanding
advertising production as a semi-autonomous social space with its own logics of practice and
an ongoing struggle for defining what advertising is. From a more general perspective, this
investigation must concern itself with how the profession of advertising is generally
structured. Where are various agents positioned within the field? What are the field’s general
practices and relevant forms of capital? By what logic does it operate and what dispositions
does it favor?
As it relates to this study, the project must further understand the relative positions of
Hispanic ad agencies/agents and general market agencies/agents within the field of
advertising. This task requires the researcher to take a critical look at the naturalized, taken for
granted positions in the field (Schultz, 2007). For example, the investigator must interrogate
such naturalized positions within the field as “niche advertising” and “general market
advertising.” The relational perspective of the field thus forces the researcher to ask questions

20
such as what is niche? How is niche understood within the field? And niche in relation to
what? This approach helps to place the Hispanic agency in relation to the general market
agency. A second line of inquiry may also be the degree to which Hispanic agencies and
general market agencies are true competitors. In other words, to what degree can agents and
agencies compete against one another for important forms of capital?
Habitus
We have suggested that habitus is used to describe the dispositions, practices,
perceptions and attitudes that allow agents to operate within a given field, but it is important
to emphasize both the naturalization of habitus and its ability to empower particular agents
within the field. Bourdieu points out that while these practices, attitudes and dispositions are
products of specific social, economic and cultural conditions, they are familiar to the point
that they are unconsciously experienced. Furthermore, the body becomes the site of habitus
and is reflected in the way one speaks, one carries oneself, etc. Habitus is also critical in
determining the degree to which an agent may succeed in any given field. In Practical
Reason, Bourdieu describes the relationship between habitus and the field:
The good player is the one who anticipates, who is ahead of the game. Why can she
get ahead of the flow of the game? Because she has the immanent tendencies of the
game in her body, in an incorporated state; she embodies the game (Bourdieu, 1998, p.
81).
In her study of journalistic culture, Schultz (2007) also speaks of a “professional
habitus,” by which she means a mastering of a specific professional game in a specific
professional field. In other words, different agents within the field of advertising may have
their own sets of professional attitudes, practices and dispositions. An understanding of the

21
habitus of different social agents within a field, Schultz argues, may explain different and
even contradictory practices and these differences may account for the distribution of agents
in the professional social space. Field theory as a framework requires the researcher to
account for the professional habitus of Hispanic marketing agents and general marketing
agents. What are the similarities and differences that may influence their relative positions
within the field?
Dávila’s study reveals that, like their general market counterparts, Hispanic ad agents
are typically born into privileged backgrounds, are well paid and well educated. Furthermore,
because Hispanic agents have similar training and professional experiences, they have been
inculcated into the dispositions and logic of the field. As such, there should be no distinction
between the habitus of Hispanic ad agents and agents working at general market agencies.
However, Hispanic advertising agents are ethnic culturally, linguistically distinct from their
general market counterparts. Furthermore, Dávila’s study has found a large number of
Hispanic professional are foreign born. This investigation is interested in the cultural and
linguistic differences that have an impact on agents’ ability to operate within the field.
Capital
Because the structure of the field depends on the kind, amount and distribution of
capitals and the positions of agents within that field, field theory requires an understanding of
relevant exchanges of various forms of capital. We have previously argued that advertising is
a field of cultural production. Within fields of cultural production, there are fields of restricted
production and fields of large-scale production. Fields of restricted production include what
is commonly considered high art (fine arts, classical music, etc.) while the fields of large-scale

22
production include what is commonly referred to as popular culture (film, journalism, popular
music, etc). Two forms of capital are said to be particularly relevant within fields of cultural
production: economic capital and cultural capital. Economic capital may be expressed via
account billings, client sales, return on investment, etc. while cultural capital may takes the
form of credentials, technical expertise, creative pedigree, artistic sensibilities, etc.
According to Bourdieu’s axis of social space (Figure 1), at the top of the social space,
one finds the field of power organized around the opposition of economic and cultural capital
but with all actors possessing relatively high volumes of at least some form of capital.

High Volume of Capital
Low Volume of Capital
Cultural Capital Economic Capital
Figure 1: Axis of social space

23
Furthermore, each field is structured around the opposition between the
“heteronomous” pole representing forces external to the field (primarily economic) and the
“autonomous” pole representing the specific capital unique to that field (artistic or scientific
skills). Within these fields, individuals and organizations compete, unconsciously or
consciously, to valorize the forms of capital, which they possess. When agents try to move
from the heteronomous to the autonomous field, they meet resistance. While Bourdieu’s
framework has not been specifically employed in examinations of advertising production,
much insight can be gained into research of other industries within the field of cultural
production. For example, Martine Bouman’s (2002) study examined how health
communication professionals and television professionals collaborate in the design and
implementation of entertainment education television programs. The findings of Bouman’s
study supported Bourdieu’s claim that members of a field will exclude a new player, making
collaboration difficult. Successful collaboration, Bouman’s study revealed, involves partners
who possess sufficient capital to make working together attractive, worthwhile and profitable
(Bouman, 2002).
While economic and cultural capital are said to be dominant forms of capital, the
researcher must also look to other forms of capital that may be at play within the field of
study as well as within the larger social space. For example, within the field of advertising
production, proficiency in Spanish is a requirement for reaching many U.S. Latinos. Field
theory would frame this skill-set as “linguistic capital” (Bourdieu, 1991) and require the
researcher to understand its role not only in Hispanic marketing but also within the larger
social system. Using linguistic capital as an example, command of Spanish may give

24
Hispanic ad agents a unique skill-set which ensures their economic viability. However,
Spanish may carry less symbolic value within the larger social hierarchy (Luna & Perrachio,
2001). Field theory would require the researcher to ask critical questions about linguistic
capital. For example, what currency does this form of linguistic capital have within the field?
In various iterations of his theory, Bourdieu describes fields as dynamic and constantly
in flux and, while the tendency is for agents to reconstruct any give field, shocks and changes
from neighboring fields, such as new political orders, changes in media systems, social and
cultural movements and economic changes may ultimately change the nature of that field.
Bourdieu further argues that these changes may bring influxes of new agents into the field but
that these agents may act as either forces of transformation or conservation. They may be
transformative in that new agents can only establish themselves by marking their difference
with those already in the field but they may be conservative in that increased competition for
scarce resources may make agents more cautious and conformist, contributing to simple
reproduction of the field (Bourdieu, 1998).
As it relates to this project, several changes in related fields may be in the process of
transforming the field of advertising. In recent years, a variety of global and economic factors
have resulted in an increase in transnational migration flows. Furthermore, media production
has shifted from local to transnational centers, making new kinds of content available to a
wider variety of audiences, while innovations in communication technology have given
audiences more control over the content they consume. In short, U.S. Latinos have reached a
critical mass and have become a social and economic force. Furthermore, there exists a

25
robust media system that includes broadcast, print and online channels designed specifically
to reach this market.
These global, economic and demographic changes have caused the marketplace to
respond and many national advertisers have begun to turn their attention to Latino audiences.
Because of the inability of the industry to meet the needs of these consumers, there is the
opportunity for new agents that possess the unique linguistic and cultural qualifications to
enter the field and ultimately transform it. The degree to which Hispanic marketing agents
can succeed in the field of advertising or how they may legitimately change the field is,
however, largely dependent upon dynamics at play within the larger social space. Bourdieu’s
theory is closely linked to his critical interest in power relations and he argues that the
struggles within the field of cultural production are never entirely independent of the struggle
between the dominated and the dominant (Bourdieu, 1993, p. 44). Consequently,
characteristics such as class, ethnicity and race all may play a role in how well particular
social agents may operate within the field. It is this relational aspect of field theory that makes
it a particularly useful framework for studying socio-cultural dynamics and an examination of
Hispanic advertising must also include broader questions of social differentiation and power.
From this orientation, there are several research questions we wish to explore in this study:
RQ1: What are the significant differences in the personal and professional habitus
between Hispanic ad agents and general market ad agents?
Here we are interested in the degree to which Hispanic ad agents and general market
agents share the same values, practices and dispositions and the degree to which they are
professionally, culturally and linguistically different. More importantly, we are interested in

26
what these differences mean in the field of advertising production and how do they determine
the relative positions of agents within the field. This question will be explored fully in
chapter four which focuses on professional and personal habitus and the degrees of
congruency between the habitus and the field.
RQ2: To what degree can Hispanic ad agents/agencies and general market
agents/agencies compete for the same forms of capital?
While there may be a variety of resources important to any given field, this
investigation focuses on three dominant forms of capital: economic, cultural and linguistic
capital. Each form of capital will be explored in its own chapter. As previously suggested,
Bourdieu argues that both economic and cultural capital are particularly crucial to fields of
cultural production. As part of this discussion we are interested in how capital is distributed
and how the field’s structure impedes/enables various agents to legitimately compete for these
resources. Furthermore, because language plays an important role in the creation of Hispanic
advertising, this investigation examines the importance of linguistic capital and its relative
value within the field.
RQ3: To what degree can Hispanic ad agencies act as transformative or conservative
agents within the field?
We have argued that fields are dynamic and ultimately subject to external forces. In
theory, changes to the field should leave room for agents that possess new profits of
distinction to emerge and thrive within the field. Given the changing cultural environment,
Hispanic agencies may be best equipped to best meet the needs of a more diverse consumer
and therefore act as a transformative agent. In the concluding chapter we examine the ability

27
for Hispanic ad agencies to act in this capacity and how the mobility of Hispanic
agents/agencies is ultimately influenced by the structure of the field. As part of this
discussion this dissertation is interested in how dynamics within the field are shaped by
dynamics at play in the larger social space.
This dissertation project is organized into eight chapters. The first chapter has laid out
the theoretical grounding for this study. In the second chapter, a methodological framework
is outlined that can best leverage Bourdieu’s analytical concepts as empirical tools. The
chapter will also detail the specific protocols that were used in this investigation. Chapter
three will situate the study in its historical context by providing a general overview of the
advertising industry from its development as an industry in the late 1800s until current times.
Here, it is suggested that the ideals and practices of advertising agents are neither static nor
fixed but are continuously evolving. As part of this history, Hispanic advertising is described
as having evolved from a truly niche effort to its more contemporary embodiment as an
adjunct to the larger ad industry.
Chapters four through eight include the presentation of the major findings of this
investigation. Because this project is designed to understand Hispanic advertising within the
context of the larger profession of advertising, each chapter attempts to articulate how each
concept relates to the field at large and then examines how they operate in the context of
Hispanic advertising. Finally, the concluding chapter explores the findings of this research as
they relate to social dynamics at play in the larger cultural space and poses some insights into
the future of the field of advertising production and also raises some questions about how the
field is structured.

28
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
F. Scott Fitzgerald, who worked briefly as a copywriter for the Barron Collier
advertising agency, once wrote of the industry “advertising is a racket, like the movies and the
brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution
to humanity is exactly minus zero” (Andrews, 1993, p. 18). Such sentiment about the
advertising profession is not uncommon in literary circles. H.G. Wells once described
advertising as “legalized lying” (Jackman, 1982, p. 2) and George Orwell once described
advertising as “the rattling of a stick inside of a swill bucket” (Partington, 1992, p. 145).
Disdain toward advertising is not limited to the literary community. Cultural critics
have been particularly adept at expressing their distaste for the business. At best, advertising
is described merely as one of the “fixers” of capitalism (Leslie, 1995), but a more sinister
perspective sees advertising as yet another tool available to the dominant class to exert power
over the oppressed. As one the culture industries, advertising might be held responsible for a
variety of social ills including America’s obsession with consumerism, the homogenization of
culture, and the privileging of false needs over true ones. Furthermore, critics have asserted
that due to the efforts of advertising agents masses can no longer clearly distinguish free will
from manipulation.
While advertising has been highly criticized in high culture, popular reaction to the
advertising industry has been just slightly more ambivalent. Throughout the history of film,
the ad man has been a popular protagonist appearing in such classics as the Hucksters (1947),
North by Northwest (1959), Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and Kramer Versus Kramer
(1979). A review of cinematic cannon suggests that advertising agencies have become

29
popular settings for modern day morality tales and that the advertising executive has become
shorthand for shallow, hollow, or superficial. When the ad man is not crafting clever taglines
he may frequently be seen undergoing a crisis of conscience. In the 1962 film, Madison
Avenue, an amoral ad executive routinely engages in deceptive and unscrupulous practices
before finally reaching catharsis. A year earlier, Richard Yeats’ Revolutionary Road was
published as a critique of misguided American values, spiritual decline and suburban
surrender during the 1950s. The book’s protagonist, Frank Wheeler, is a copywriter. Yeats’
critique of American culture has been taken up in recent years by the popular television series,
Mad Men, which involves the escapades of a group of unethical ad executives during the
same time period.
Whether the ad industry evokes disdain or admiration, the hold that the profession has
on popular imagination must be acknowledge. Because of its relevance in the everyday lives
of consumers and its profound influence on American culture, it seems appropriate that there
is an urge to look behind the curtain and see the inner workings of the machine. However, the
preponderance of created characters has lead to a mythology about the advertising industry
and it has often become hard to distinguish between fact and fiction. Due to the proliferation
of folklore about the advertising industry, initial speculation may conclude that advertising
executives are driven by a limited set of values: greed, power and ego. An empirical
investigation into the culture of advertising production, however, must move beyond a one
dimensional characterization of the advertising executive and seek a more nuanced
understanding of the motivations of agents within a field that operates primarily within the
confines of its own internal logic.

30
Bourdieu argues that any critical analysis of fields of cultural production must include
an introspective examination of the field in question. To omit this process and to solely
examine the role of external or cultural factors is in Bourdieu’s own words, to simply
“employ a half-baked version of materialism, associated with Marxism, which condemns
without shedding light anywhere and ultimately explains nothing” (Bourdieu, 1996, p. 39). A
review of the literature, however, reveals that there has been little consistency in translating
Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts into empirical tools. For example, while Bouman (2002)
utilized Bourdieu’s theory to illuminate her research findings, her methodological approach is
based in grounded theory and was not specifically designed to accommodate this particular
framework.
Reliance on traditional methodologies has been typical of work in this area. In her
examinations of Danish journalistic culture, however, scholar Ida Schultz (2007) has provided
a methodological framework for specifically using Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts as analytic
tools. Schultz’s methodological approach includes blending newsroom ethnography with
field theory. While Schultz relies on traditional ethnographic approaches such as the review
of documents, observations, interviews and hanging around, Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts
of field, capital and habitus frame her analytical gaze. More generally, while qualitative
approaches such as interviews, ethnography, participation observation, etc. may be
approached in an open-ended fashion, scholars using field theory would take a more
structured approach. The scholarly gaze would be directed toward how the field is structured,
the relative positions of various agents within the field, the practices and dispositions of those
agents and the relevant forms of capital that have currency within the field of study.

31
Informed by Schultz’s approach, this study combines field theory with qualitative
interviews, a methodology designed to take the investigator into the life-world of the
informant and to see the content and pattern of daily experience (McCracken, 1988; Mason,
2002). Qualitative interviewing emphasizes depth, nuance, complexity and roundedness of
data versus other methodological approaches. The basic assumption of qualitative research is
that by spending enough time with the participant, the investigator is taken back stage to the
culture in question and is allowed to glimpse the assumptions and categories that are
otherwise hidden from view. Furthermore, because this project employs concepts that may
not be readily accessible to participants, qualitative interviews afford the researcher the
flexibility to probe the particular meanings elicited in informants’ testimonies. In an effort to
understand their perspectives more fully, this methodology emphasizes a more in-depth
analysis as expressed by a limited number of participants (McCracken, 1988; Mick & Buhl,
1992). Following in this tradition, this project included a total of twenty-nine interviews.
Thirteen of the interviews were informants who worked at general market agencies while
sixteen involved informants who worked at Hispanic ad agencies.
While interview discussions with advertising professionals were the central basis of
the investigation, this data was also supplemented with archival data, business documents,
presentations and field notes from industry events including the Hispanic advertising
industry’s annual creative and account planning conference as well as the annual Advertising
Age Hispanic creative awards show. Additionally, unrecorded interviews were conducted
both with national clients and senior representatives from the two major trade associations:
the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of Hispanic

32
Advertising Agencies (AHAA). This supplemental information is intended provide additional
information about the field.
Sample Pool
The research setting for this project is the Los Angeles metropolitan area. While Los
Angeles boasts a large advertising community in general, it is one of the few markets that also
hosts a large Hispanic advertising community. Along with New York, Miami and San
Antonio, Los Angeles accounts for a significant portion of Hispanic advertising production
(AHAA, 2008). The prevalence of Hispanic ad agencies in Los Angeles may be largely
attributed to its demographic characteristics. Currently, Latinos account for 47 percent of the
city’s total population and their presence is expected to grow significantly in the next several
years (US Census, 2000). Furthermore, Los Angeles continues to be the number one
reception area for new immigrant Latinos and unlike other key Hispanic markets such as
Miami and New York where Latino residents are predominantly of Caribbean descent (Puerto
Rico, Cuba, etc.), Los Angeles’ population is largely of Mexican origin. While this shapes
the local culture, it is more closely aligned with national figures in which Latinos of Mexican
origin account for 67 percent of all U.S. Latinos.
Participants for this study were purposively sampled based on the objectives of the
project. The informant pool included executives working at Hispanic ad agencies as well as
those working at general market agencies. Previous research on the organizational structure
of advertising agencies has found that a full service agency is typically set up around key
departments including account management, creative, research (account planning) and media
(Leiss, Kline, Jhally & Botterill, 2005). Furthermore, in fields of cultural production,

33
Bourdieu identifies economic and cultural capital as the dominant resources. In an effort to
probe these forms of capital our investigation focused primarily on the disciplines of account
management and creative. The account executive is primarily responsible for understanding
the economic objectives of their clients and how these objectives might be realized through
advertising (AAAA, 1993). Furthermore, the account executive is responsible for ensuring
that the account is profitable for the agency and his/her duties may include the negotiation of
contracts, the determination of staffing, maintaining budgets, etc. Conversely, the creative is
most closely associated with forms of capital internal to the field. The creative is responsible
for the development and production of the actual advertising product, the symbolic artifact
that becomes the agency’s most visible form of currency. It is the creative product that
receives mass exposure and is open to evaluation by observers, critics and peers.
While many people contribute to the process of inventing and production advertising,
this project focuses on two particular job functions within the creative department of an
advertising agency: the copywriter and the art director. According to the Association of
Advertising Agencies (1993), copywriters promote the advertising idea through language and
their job responsibilities may include writing body copy, generating taglines and developing
dialogue for a television script. Art directors, conversely, focus on the visual components of
an advertisement. Generally, copywriters and art directors work in tandem to develop the
advertising idea. So while a copywriter may be primarily responsible for language, they may
contribute significantly to an ad that is entirely visual.
Because the project requires the informant to provide insights into a range of dynamics
within the field of advertising, it was necessary to recruit participants who occupied senior

34
level positions within the agency. Compared to junior level employees, senior executives are
able to provide a broader and deeper perspective on the field and are able to draw from a
range of experiences working on various accounts at various agencies. Furthermore, senior
level professionals are intimately involved in new business pitches and can provide insight
into how the agency is positioned within a larger competitive marketplace. Finally, senior
level agents manage and mentor employees and make essential decisions regarding who or
who not to hire thus acting as gatekeepers of agency culture. In an effort to achieve this
senior level perspective, all participants in the study had a minimum of ten years of
experience. Three participants in this study had founded and ran their own agencies. Three
others were currently, or at some previous point during their career, agency principals serving
in the capacity of president or managing director.
While the interviews with ad executives served as the primary source of data, the
study also included interviews with national clients who mediate both agencies. This data
was intended to provide contextual information as to how brands arbitrate the working
relationships between Hispanic ad agencies and general market agencies and how decisions
are made regarding the allocation of resources. Finally, interviews also included discussions
with the two main professional organizations: the Los Angeles Chapter of the American
Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of Hispanic Advertising
Agencies (AHAA) which were intended to yield macro level insights about the field of
advertising and Hispanic advertising respectively.
Prospective informants for this study were contacted through snowball sampling, a
technique that involves making initial contact with someone who meets the criteria of the

35
study and asking them to refer other informants who also meet the criteria of the study
(Heckathorn, 2007). Because the technique is preferred in cases where the desired sample
demonstrates highly specific knowledge, skills and characteristics, Sender (2004) argues that
this method of recruitment is especially conducive to investigations that involve advertising
professionals. Furthermore, because the research involves a small community of
professionals who not only know each other, but have worked and competed with one another
and who largely attend the same conferences, conventions and social events (Dávila, 2001)
achieving random sample is not a primary goal. Investigators relying on snowball sampling
place particular importance on the initial contact. In this case, the original contact was a
senior level executive who had longstanding tenure in the Hispanic ad industry but who was
also actively in several trade associations that afforded her close contact with senior general
market agents. This initial contact provided me access to other senior level executives
ultimately providing this study with a much deeper informant pool than cold calling would
have afforded me.
Interview Design
In an effort to ensure the holistic nature of the research approach all interview
discussions were conducted by the investigator. Discussions ranged in duration from ninety
minutes to two and a half hours. Twelve of the interview discussions took place at the
informant’s workplace while sixteen interviews took place at a coffee shop or restaurant near
the agency. In some cases, once a rapport was built between the investigator and the
informant, the investigator was allowed to visit the agency. One interview occurred at the
university in which the investigator was employed. Interview discussions with clients

36
working on national brands were conducted over the phone. Unlike advertising agencies,
which are typically concentrated in a few large urban areas, national clients are diffused
throughout various parts of the country making in-person interviews prohibitive. All
interview discussions any were conducted in English. However, in cases where the informant
was either bilingual or Spanish dominant, the discussion also utilized linguistic mixing as
directed by the informant.
Because the objective of the interviews was to obtain a first-person account of
advertising processes as well as to discover unexpected themes, the interview protocol was
structured in such a manner that would both elicit interactive exchanges of dialogue while
being as nondirective as possible. In qualitative interviews, the informant generally leads the
dialogue and, in turn, the investigator does not approach the topic with presuppositions nor
assumes to have more information than the respondent. Furthermore, the investigator does
not seek to impose a particular logic on the informant. Rather their role is to understand the
logic by which the informant sees and experiences the world (McCracken, 1986). Following
in this tradition, the conversations were generally organic rather than linear in nature and a
strict adherence to the sequence of the discussion guide was not mandatory. However,
because we are not inducing our framework from the interviews but rather are evaluating an
existing framework, a more structured approach was needed to accommodate Bourdieu’s
analytic concepts.
Prior to each interview, the investigator conducted initial background research on the
agency in which the informant worked and the specific account(s) for which the informant
was responsible. When possible, background research also included having a familiarity with

37
the actual commercials or campaign that the informant or the agency was involved in
developing and producing. Having this knowledge up front allowed the researcher to
efficiently utilize the informant’s time while also providing specific prompts for key
discussion areas thus allowing the discussion to be more relevant or incisive. For example,
having knowledge that the agency in question was a member of a large international
conglomerate versus an independent creative boutique allowed the investigator to ask more
relevant questions regarding how the agency’s organizational structure influenced strategic
and creative processes at the agency level. Additionally, having prior knowledge particular
Hispanic ad was either convergent with the general market campaign allowed the researcher
probe about the degree of creative collaboration between partner agencies.
While each conversation varied by informant, all interviews followed a similar flow.
Every interview began with each informant discussing their personal and professional
background, a strategy that was designed to obtain contextual details concerning the
informant’s life world (McCracken, 1986). This strategy was also designed to allow the
participant to express general life meanings and concerns that may inform the subsequent
testimony. Like other biographical information, the informant’s personal and professional
history is not intended to act as historical record. Rather, it is understood that the informant
reconstructs memories through his or her present construct system (Tagg, 1985). By
recounting one’s background, however, the informant a;sp articulates key institutional criteria
for participating in the field and gives the investigator an idea as to what kind of people work
in and have longevity in the field of advertising. It is by answering this question that insight
relating to personal and professional habitus may emerge.

38
The second phase of the interview was meant to examine organizational level
dynamics. Questions in this area were designed to obtain further insight into the personal and
professional habitus of advertising agents. Questions in this area included what kind of
people work at the agency? In an effort to capture relevant forms of capital, questions were
designed to understand specific creative and strategic processes involved in the daily conduct
of the account. Questions in this area probed for how a concept is navigated through an
agency and what factors play a role in ensuring an advertisement’s chances of success? As it
relates to Hispanic advertising, questions revolved around how Hispanic agents navigate the
process in cases where clients do not speak Spanish or share the consumers’ cultural codes?
Questions in this area were also intended to get an understanding of collaborative processes
both internally and with external partners and to understand the relational positions of both
Hispanic ad agents and general market ad agents within the field of advertising production.
The third phase of the interview was designed to get a macro level perspective on the
industry at large. Questions in this area were much more general in nature and probed the
participants’ feelings about advertising in general and interrogated basic assumptions in the
industry. Questions in this area asked, what makes a good ad? How does one know when an
ad is a good ad? Which are the better agencies within the field? What makes them good
agencies? Finally, questions focused on various forms of institutional recognition. How does
industry evaluate and legitimize its peers? What are the major competitive arenas?
While these three phases were designed to provide a forum in which issues of field,
habitus and capital could emerge, the investigator also included sensitizing concepts in cases

39
where the discussion lacked focus or direction. These questions were brought into the
conversation when necessary (See Appendices A-C).
Because they are typically not involved in the day-to-day aspects of advertising
production, interviews with national clients followed a slightly different protocol. Though
they are not formal members of the ad community, clients do fundamentally shape the process
through which advertising is created. Questions designed for client informants were primarily
intended to capture the basis through which basic marketing decisions are made. For example,
what factors played a role in the brand’s decision advertise to Latinos in the first place?
Where did the initiative originate? Furthermore, how do national clients structure their
internal departments to address this audience? Who in the organization is responsible for the
Hispanic effort? Finally, how are resources allocated?
Role of the Researcher
The genesis for this project came in 2003, about a year before I began my doctoral
studies. For ten years I worked in the discipline of account management at creatively oriented
agencies in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston including TBWA Chiat/Day, Goodby,
Silverstein and Partners, Publicis and Hal Riney & Partners and Mullen Advertising. As one
of a few Latinos who worked as an account executive in a general market agency, I was
sometimes recruited to work on campaigns targeting Hispanic consumers when the client
expressed an interested in reaching out to new consumers.
It was during this time that I attended a creative presentation that involved a bilingual
copywriter presenting a Spanish language script to an Anglo client living in in the Midwest.
During the course of the presentation it became evident that the client had difficultly assessing

40
the quality of the script and, in frustration, asked the copywriter’s supervisor, the creative
director, for his opinion. The creative director, also an English speaking monolingual,
acknowledged that he could not provide an informed endorsement but had to trust in the skills
of his copywriter. It was during this meeting that I began to recognize that there may be
something profoundly problematic about the process of creating Hispanic advertising.
My interest in the topic also comes from my own ethnic background and family
history. I am of Mexican origin. During the 1930s, my mother’s parents relocated to East
Los Angeles from the small town of Purepero in the Mexican state of Michoacán. On my
father’s side, citizenship occurred quite differently as his family resided in the territories of
Colorado and New Mexico in the time before the land was acquired by the United States. It is
this particular experience that largely informs my perspective of ethnic identity and drives my
interest acquiring a more complicated and nuanced understanding of Latino culture.
Much of my interest in this topic derives from my experience of being a Latino in a
profession that is primarily occupied by Anglos. However, I also recognize the importance of
maintaining a critical distance from the data and adhering to strict methodological discipline.
While choosing a research problem through the professional or personal experience may seem
more hazardous than through other routes, Strauss and Corbin argue that this is not
necessarily true and suggest that “the touchstone of a researcher’s own experience may be
more valuable an indicator of a potentially successful research endeavor (Strauss & Corbin,
1990, p. 33).” According to Strauss and Corbin, a qualitative researcher requires theoretical
and social sensitivity, the ability to maintain analytical distance while at the same time
drawing upon past experience and theoretical knowledge to interpret what is seen.

41
Theoretical sensitivity (a personal quality of a researcher) indicates an awareness of the
subtleties of meaning to data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). It refers to the attribute of having
insight, the ability to give meaning to data, the capacity to understand, and capability to
separate the relevant to the non relevant. Professional experience is a source of sensitivity.
Throughout years of practice in a field, the investigator may acquire an understanding of how
things work in that field, and why and what will happen there under certain conditions. Thus
professional knowledge and social skills are taken into the research situation and help
elucidate events and actions seen and heard versus the investigator who does not bring this
background into the research.
Being both a Latino and a former ad executive in primarily general market agencies
has allowed me to navigate some potentially contentious issues. Because I am Latino
investigator probing issues regarding Hispanic advertising, there is the potential for awkward
or less than candid interaction with Anglo informants. However, my previous experience
working at several credible “general market” agencies allowed me to disarm such issues by
framing the discussion in general marketing terms. Conversely, amongst Latino informants,
my ethnic background disarmed issues about inter-ethnic relationships.
Treatment of Data
Verbatim transcripts generated from audio taped interviews served as the primary data
for this study. Furthermore, in an effort to keep observations timely and to avoid
contamination associated with fading memory and a multiplicity of interviews, detailed notes
were taken immediately after each interview. Archival data, phone interviews with clients,
professional documents and presentations, field notes and other materials obtained during the

42
interviews were cross-referenced and used as part of the analysis. Finally, because this
project requires the investigator to examine the complex environments in which ad
professionals work the analysis took an interpretive or holistic approach to the data.
This project follows McCracken’s (1988) analytical framework in which analysis is
generally conducted in three phases. In early stages, analysis is ideographic where the
investigator engages a literal reading of the interview text. Separate utterances are then placed
into the context of the overall interview transcript. The second stage involves an across-
person analysis in which separate interviews are related to one another. During this phase, the
researcher begins to observe fields of patterns and themes that emerge from the texts and
these general themes are organized and scrutinized with a specific focus on the degree to
which those themes are confirmed and opposed by the data. Finally, a holistic view is taken
across all interviews and supplemental data and is placed within a larger context. Guiding the
analysis are issues of frequency (how often an idea or concept was brought up), extensiveness
(how many different participants raised that issue) and intensity (how strongly people felt
about that a particular issue).
If left unconstrained, interview discussions may cover a wide range of themes and
without some conceptual boundaries the researcher may be faced with a lack of analytical
structure (Tagg, 1985). As it relates to this project, the thematic categories were shaped by
Bourdieu’s analytic framework. In an effort to maximize full discovery, however, the
researcher must also be prepared to discover new categories and to be prepared to
systematically reconstruct a view of the world that bears no relation to his or her own view or
the one evident in the literature (McCracken, 1988).

43
CHAPTER 3: THE FIELD OF ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
Introduction
Marketers discover the Hispanic market. Major marketers are finally trying to speak
Spanish. After years of viewing the Hispanic market as a virtual afterthought,
advertisers are starting to realize the U.S. Hispanic population is not only huge but
growing, and as such it represents a lucrative marketing opportunity. (Boston Globe,
2006)
While we all hear plenty these days about the rise of the Latino consumer, sometimes
lost in translation is an understanding of how to tap this growing market…to sell to
this mushrooming demographic you have to begin by understanding the culture. It is
not merely a matter of using Latin music in your ads, but rather, understanding the
psychology of the Hispanic consumer and running with that. Do that and you may
have mucha buena suerte. (USA Today, 2007)
In North America, the Spanish language pre-dates English by over a century (Marzan,
2003) and in the Western United States, which includes territories acquired from Mexico, the
histories of Latino citizens are inextricably linked to that of the Anglo population. 2008
marked the two hundred year anniversary of Spanish language media in the United States and
advertising has almost certainly played an important role in its longevity. Despite their
longstanding presence in the United States, however, popular discourses typically characterize
the Hispanic market as a relatively recent phenomenon as if the population did not exist
before the naming of the consumer segment. Furthermore, scholarly discussions of Hispanic
advertising generally begin during the 1960s as if the profession emerged in its current form
to meet the needs of the latest wave of immigrants. Such discourses conceal the fact that as
long as there has been a Latino presence in the United States and media designed to reach
them, there has also been some form of Spanish language advertising.
Investigation into the professional practices and ideals of advertising agents are
generally conducted at the organizational level and may not fully account for the larger

44
historical economic, cultural and social conditions that play a role in shaping these practices.
Some scholars have argued that the use of abstract theories divorced from their historical
context merely gives the investigator a snapshot of the field at a given moment in time
(Schultz, 2007) and while advertisements are artifacts that largely embody their particular
place and time (Mick, 1986), the ideals and practices of advertising agents may be seen as
developmental rather than static phenomena. Like every event and every social institution, the
profession of advertising may itself be seen as a historical product. In light of this insight,
Bourdieu’s approach to field theory includes acquiring an understanding of the specific
national, cultural or social history of the field in question (Schultz, 2007).
The purpose of this chapter is to provide such a perspective by detailing the evolution
of the field of advertising production since its inception as a professional industry in the mid
nineteenth century until current times. The chapter also reframes the discussion regarding
Hispanic advertising by suggesting that Spanish language advertising is not a modern
phenomenon but a profession that has existed for close to two hundred years. What has
changed in recent years is the emergence of a national Spanish language media system, which
has evolved Hispanic advertising from a truly niche and local effort a nationally standardized
one. A historical understanding of the field is intended to provide the contextual background
that will inform the subsequent testimonies of modern day advertising executives.
A History of the Field of Advertising Production
Although advertising pre-dates industrial society, the emergence of the advertising
profession is closely tied to the industrial revolution and the mass production of consumer
goods. Prior to this time, the production and consumption of goods was generally a local

45
endeavor and what could not be produced in the home could be purchased from a
neighborhood shop owner. Products sold within these stores were generally unbranded and
undifferentiated from one another and the promotion of said goods and services were
generally handled by individual business owners. Because there was simply no need to
communicate to a mass audience, advertising agencies were non-essential (Leiss, Kline,
Jhally & Botterill, 2004; Pope, 1983).
Technological innovations leading to mass production, however, fundamentally
changed the way people engaged commercial products. Production of goods became
centralized within a few industrial markets and distributed to retailers across the country. By
the late 1800s, goods that that were produced in the home were largely replaced by those that
could be purchased in the open marketplace (Pope, 1983). These changes in production
processes ultimately lead to the development of national markets for branded, standardized
products. In this new environment, commercially branded messages were needed to invest
products with new meanings and to distinguish one brand from another (Leiss, Kline, Jhally
& Botterill, 2004). In short, developments in production technology combined with
innovations in packaging, labeling, physical distribution and personal salesmanship gave rise
to national advertising at the turn of the century (Pope, 1983).
The selling of mass quantities of goods to a national rather than local consumer base
required intensive advertising. However, the importance of advertising to American culture
may also be closely tied to the evolution of commercial media. Anderson (1991) attributes the
emergence of national media in the early part of the 20
th
century to the imagined state of the
nation by connecting individuals from diverse regions of the country into a unified fabric.

46
However, we cannot ignore the commercially sponsored nature of such media in America. As
early as the 18
th
century, tariffs on newspapers resulted in a greater dependence on sponsors
and subscriptions. In the early days of the medium, advertising revenue largely subsidized
innovations in newspaper production (Pope, 1983). The emergence of broadcast media
during the 20
th
century, however, truly underscored the differences between American models
of mass media and models used elsewhere. Unlike a British model in which broadcasting is
sponsored by public dollars, the American system relies on a marketplace model in which
advertising dollars largely subsidize broadcasting operations. Thus, programming may be
largely influenced by commercial, rather than public interests. Commercially sponsored
media has resulted in the ubiquitous and repetitive presence of advertising exposing of
audiences to uniform patterns of consumption as well as the projection of normative behaviors
such as ways of speaking, dressing and acting (García Canclini, 2001)
For most of the 20
th
century, advertising was primarily a national effort but global
economic and technological changes during the 1980s and 1990s marked a fundamental shift
in the industry. Rapid evolutions in communications technologies, such as satellite and digital
television, resulted in a proliferation of channels and a more fragmented media landscape
(Leiss, Kline, Jhally & Botterill, 2004). Furthermore, policies of deregulation resulted in the
global expansion of large corporations leading towards conglomeration within in the
advertising industry. As clients themselves entered new markets, advertising agencies
responded by setting up international networks that could better meet the global needs of
major clients. By 1991, the ten largest agencies had at least 200 offices in at least fifty
different countries (Leslie, 1995). In recent years, control of the industry has fallen into the

47
hands of a limited number of multinationals that can offer the full portfolio of
communications services that may include traditional advertising, public relations, ethnic
marketing and architectural design. Today, sixty percent of the world’s advertising revenue
comes from six major holding companies. (Deuz, 2007)
Advertising as a Science and an Art
In its guide to careers in advertising (1993), the American Association of Advertising
Agencies (AAAA) describes the vocation as “the marriage of analysis and imagination,” a
description that reflects a compromise between those who view the profession as a science
and those who view it as an art. In Bourdieu’s terms, the description may also reflect the
tension between two opposing forms of capital essential to all fields of cultural production.
On one hand, advertising may be considered a commercial endeavor with the objective of
acquiring economic capital. To ensure this mandate, there is an inclination to impose
processes that are both controllable and measurable. On the other hand, advertising is a
persuasive art and must evoke human emotion in new and innovative ways and thus may be
seen as a creative venture. The tension between art and science appears to be built in from the
industry’s original days as a mere adjunct to the newspaper industry to a profession that
engages with other creative arts including photography design, film making and music
composition.
In 1842, Volney B. Palmer opened what is considered by many to be the precursor of
the modern advertising agency (Holland, 1976). Originally named Palmer’s Philadelphia
Real Estate and Coal Office, one of the many functions that Palmer’s business served was to
sell newspaper space to non-local advertisers. For this service, Palmer charged the

48
newspapers twenty-five percent of their space rates plus postage and stationary costs. By
1849, Palmer had opened offices in New York, Boston, and Baltimore. Shortly after this
time, S.M. Pentengill and Co., N.W. Ayer and Son and other small agencies emerged as
competitors, giving birth to a small industry that was based largely in New York’s Fleet Row
(Holland, 1976).
Early advertising practices were only semi-legitimate. The industry was not yet
regulated, thus sales techniques were suspect and agents had little regard for the quality of the
brands for which they were creating advertising. By the early 1900s, however the profession
sought to move past the hucksterism that characterized its early days and an effort was made
to legitimize the profession. In 1914, the Audit Bureau of Circulations was formed,
standardizing auditing procedures for paid circulations. Three years later, the American
Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) was founded and continues to act as the
industry’s primary trade organization. During this time, there also appears to have been a call
by the industry leaders to approach the profession more systematically. In his book, The
Business of Advertising, Ernest Calkins (1915) calls on the profession to embrace the
scientific method in the practice of advertising. Calkins writes the following:
The so-called advertising expert then is the man who studies the causes of great
successes with the idea of applying them to other articles and other markets. It is for
him to eliminate as far as possible the uncertainty, the waste, the non-essentials; to
change advertising from an art to a science - or at least to a profession worthy of the
ambition of trained minds (Calkins, 1915, p. 8).
By the 1920s, industry leader Claude Hopkins believed that this task had been
achieved. In Scientific Advertising, Hopkins wrote the following:

49
The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a
science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact. The causes and
effects have been analyzed until they are well understood. The correct method of
procedure have been proved and established. We know what is most effective, and we
act on basic laws. (Hopkins, 1923, p. 2).
While industry leaders were calling for more disciplined practices, there is also
evidence that advertising professionals sought to endow the profession with the prestige
afforded other vocations. In Modern Advertising, Calkins and Holden (1905) articulate that
the advertising profession should strive to be on par with the “three black graces: law,
medicine, divinity (p. 6).” In an effort to achieve this, early industry leaders sought to certify
practitioners via specialized exams or by requiring credentials of higher education not unlike
the legal and accounting professions.
During the first years of the profession, advertising agencies were primarily small
businesses that served essentially as adjuncts to the newspaper business and merely facilitated
advertising transactions between marketers and newspapers. Originally called “attorneys,”
the role of the ad agent was similar to today’s account manager or media planner and their
duty was merely to arbitrate contracts. Due to restrictions in formatting that were imposed by
newspapers, early advertising constituted little more than classified ads. Because there was
little skill required, the preparation of advertisements was not the main function of the ad
agency (Pope, 1983).
As the needs of clients grew and media became more complex, ad agents began to
play a larger role in creating advertising messages. Consequently, agencies began to evolve
their creative capabilities. Eventually, newspapers relaxed their formatting rules allowing
advertisers to pursue attractive typeface and design. Furthermore, the emergence of lifestyle

50
magazines introduced color rotogravure printing and half tone press enabling illustrators to
move beyond black and white line drawings. The purpose of an ad was to now to attract as
well as inform consumers. Thus both artwork and copywriting had to be more carefully
considered.
There is evidence that artistic sensibilities became an important factor in the creation
of advertising. Works of high art were commonly commissioned by agencies on behalf of
their clients but agencies also recruited gifted writers from prestigious universities. Among
today’s notable writers who began as advertising copywriters include F. Scott, Fitzgerald,
Sherwood Anderson, Dashielle Hammett, Ogden Nash and Don DeLillo. As media became
richer and included not only print but also broadcast and online, collaboration with other
creative artists including directors, photographers, musicians, etc. has become standard. It is
the artistic element that appears to play an important role in how the industry perceives,
validates and celebrates itself.
The Advertising Professional
In the Journal of Consumer Marketing (2003) scholar Herbert Jack Rotfeld discusses
the disparity between the people who create advertising and the typical consumer. Rotfeld
argues that advertising professionals are a highly homogenous group, a trait that appears to be
a legacy from the industry’s early days in which ad men, typically young and living in New
York, were better educated than their consumers who generally had little formal education
and who lived in rural areas. Due to the disparity between advertising professionals and most
consumers, copywriters were often instructed to aim low. Marchand (1985) argues that the
significant social and cultural differences between producers and consumers of advertising

51
may have led to a general contempt toward consumers whose tastes they believed were
unrefined and unsophisticated.
Early advertising agencies were also heavily male dominated. A review of Who’s
Who in Advertising found that over 97 percent of the professionals listed were male. Women
occupying administrative roles largely accounted for the remaining three percent (Marchand,
1985). The disproportionate representation of males put the industry at odds with an
increasingly important target consumer segment at the time: middle class women who
subscribed to popular magazine weeklies such as Ladies’ Home Journal and McCall’s. It
would take close to eighty years before any significant progress was made when Mary Wells
became the first woman to head a major agency at Wells, Rich and Green advertising in 1967
(Advertising Age, 2009).
While the profession has made significant strides in the hiring and promotion of
female ad executives, the industry has not resolved its struggle with ethnic diversity. Both
Pope (1983) and Marchand (1985) found that the industry has a long legacy of ethnic and
cultural homogeneity and that advertising professionals in the early twentieth century were
largely of European descent although very few agents from Eastern or Southern Europe.
Poles, Irish and Italians were generally not included. Similarly, religious affiliation was
strictly Mainline Protestant with little opportunity for Catholics or Jews. The ethnic
characteristics of the professionals did not go unnoticed by industry leaders of the time. The
editors of Who’s Who in Advertising proudly announced in 1931 that “adherents to the theory
of Nordic supremacy might relish the fact that blue-eyed advertising men are the majority
(Rogers, 1931, p. xiv).”

52
In recent times, the overwhelming lack of diversity within the advertising industry has
inevitably lead to institutional biases. For years ethnic minorities were either ignored by
advertisers or presented as characters that reflected the values of the white majority (Wilson,
Gutiérrez & Chao, 2003). Furthermore, a study conducted on behalf of the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) found that many advertisers have implemented formal
policies of exclusion and that media buyers have frequently been directed to bypass African
American and Latino media. The FCC concluded that these NUD (No urban dictate)
practices are based on stereotypes and myths about disposable income and desire to maintain
a distance from minority groups (FCC, 2009).
Despite significant changes to the country’s population overall, the advertising
profession remains primarily Anglo. Data from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics
suggests that ethnic minorities continue to be significantly underrepresented (Elliott, 1994)
and in 2006, the New York City Commission on Human Rights issued a scathing criticism of
the New York advertising industry for what it found to be unfair hiring practices leading to an
under-representation of ethnic minorities (Elliott, S, 2006). As part of their hearings,
executives from sixteen New York agencies were subpoenaed to testify on how the
advertising industry hires, retains and promotes minority employees. Among those called to
testify were representatives from the four largest holding companies: the Omnicom Group, the
WPP Group, Interpublic Group of Companies and the Publicis Groupe. In Los Angeles,
where Latinos account for 45 percent of the area’s population (U.S. Census, 2000), the
Multicultural Advertising Training (MAT) program was founded in 1992 largely through the
efforts of Jay Chiat, founder of Chiat/Day. The program is intended to address the lack of

53
diversity in the Los Angeles ad community by providing paid internships for students of
color. Currently there are no statistical measures available on the success of the program.
While the advertising industry has remained ethnically homogenous there have been
substantial changes in the demography of the country on the whole. The publication of recent
census data augmented by quantitative market research has alerted national advertisers to the
potential opportunities that exist within the Hispanic market. The industry, however, has been
poorly equipped to meet the linguistic and cultural needs of this consumer segment. This
vacuum has ultimately led to the emergence of new agencies that specialize in the Hispanic
consumer.
Latino Consumers and Hispanic Advertising
A discussion on the long and complicated history of Latinos in the United States may
ultimately begin with the Spanish conquest of the Americas. During the era of Spanish
colonialism the imposition of Spanish culture on indigenous peoples was profound.
Furthermore, the campaign to establish Catholicism as the dominant religion and Spanish as
the dominant language in New Spain involved the near eradication of native languages,
religions and cultural traditions throughout South America, the Caribbean and well into North
America. It is the commonality of language and religious identity that will eventually provide
a basic framework in which to create a pan-ethnic identity necessary for an economically
formidable consumer segment.
There are several key events that historians regard as marquee moments in U.S. Latino
history (Kent & Huntz, 1996). This includes the end of the Mexican American War resulting
in the annexation of nearly half of Mexico in 1848. Fifty years later, the conclusion of the

54
Spanish American War resulted in the subsequent annexation of Puerto Rico in 1898. During
the Second World War, a demand for manual labor in the US resulted in thousands of
Mexican laborers traveling north as part of the Bracero program and in 1959, the Cuban
Revolution lead to the subsequent migration of thousands of Cuban ex-patriots into New York
and Southern Florida. More recently, economic and political upheaval during the 1980s and
90s has resulted in migration from Southern Mexico and Central America.
The first Spanish language newspaper in the United States, El Misisipi, began
publishing in New Orleans in 1808. Just four pages long, the primary purpose of this
newspaper was to reach Spanish exiles who opposed Napoleon’s conquest of Spain (Kent &
Huntz, 1996). In later years, Spanish language media has largely followed this tradition of
reporting news from the homeland as well as meeting the unique political needs of U.S.
Latinos, not addressed in mainstream media. Scholars Kent and Huntz (1996) tie the
emergence of Spanish language media to key political moments. In 1824, El Habanero was
published primarily to advocate Cuban independence from Spain. In 1855, Francisco Ramírez
launched El Clamor Público in Los Angeles, which exposed violence against Latinos
following the U.S. conquest of northwest Mexico. In 1851, La Estrella de Los Angeles began
printing bilingually. Jose Martí started La Patria in New York in 1892 to promote Cuban and
Puerto Rican independence from Spain (Kent & Huntz, 1996). La Prensa debuted in New
York City nearly a century ago to serve the growing immigrant population. Now called El
Diarió La Prensa, it is the nation’s oldest Spanish-language newspaper. La Opinion,
currently the nation’s largest Spanish language newspaper began publishing in 1926 to meet

55
the needs of the primarily Mexican population and addressed the deportation and repatriations
of Mexicans during the 1930s.
Shortly after the time that the first radio spot ran in New York City, stations in markets
where Latinos constituted a large part of the population began selling blocks of time to Latino
brokers for Spanish language programs. These time slots were typically limited to the early
morning or on the weekends, the most unprofitable for English language market. Brokers
generally paid stations a flat rate for the airtime and then subsidized the programming by
selling time to paid sponsors which were primarily Latino owned business or Anglo
businesses that featured Spanish speaking staff.
It would take several decades before the first dedicated Spanish language radio station
began operation and in 1946 KCOR (Gutiérrez & Schement, 1979) became the first full-time
Spanish language radio station in the United States. Because there were far fewer options
available for Spanish speaking Latinos, many Spanish language stations outperformed their
English language counterparts in many high density Hispanic markets. It has been claimed
that many media buyers for national advertisers would frequently purchase time on Spanish
language radio stations including San Antonio’s KCOR and Miami’s KQBA not knowing
they were Spanish but because they were top stations in audience ratings (Gutiérrez &
Schement, 1979).
For many years, Spanish language advertising was truly a niche effort that escaped the
attention of mainstream culture. Spanish language advertising was generally handled on a
local basis between small business owners and local media operators and mostly involved

56
products and services that were relevant to the local Latino community. Local stations
operated independently and negotiated their own contracts (Gutiérrez & Schement, 1979).
In 1955, KWEX-TV in San Antonio became the first full time Spanish language
television in the United States. Several years later, Spanish International Network (SIN)
became the first Spanish language network in the United States, a system that would
ultimately become Univision. Originally intended as a vehicle in which to import
programming into the United States, SIN had expanded to sixteen stations and become the
first U.S. network connected by satellite in 1976. While the existence of a Spanish language
network could create an imagined community of U.S. Latinos, the development of a
nationally connected media system also delivered a significant number of Latino consumers
across the country. This process ultimately turned Hispanic advertising from a local effort to a
national one.
In Latinos, Inc., Dávila deftly traces the origins of early Hispanic agencies to the
immigration of Cubans to New York City throughout the 1950s. During this period ex-
patriots from an already well-developed Cuban publicity, entertainment and marketing
industry began establishing agencies by leveraging pre-existing relationships with American
advertisers. For example Spanish Advertising and Marketing Services (SAMS) was an
agency founded by Luis Diaz Albertini in 1962. Albertini had worked for McCann Erickson
and J. Walter Thompson in Havana where he headed the Del Monte account (Dávila, 2001).
Because of these existing connections, Cuban exiles were in a better position to entice
national advertisers with the opportunities that existed in sizable Spanish speaking
communities, new markets that had previously gone undetected.

57
In their effort to secure national advertising dollars, Dávila argues that these
professionals actively sold U.S. marketers a conception of the U.S. Latino that was based on
the myth of shared language and shared religious and cultural identity. The findings of her
study reveal that Hispanic advertisers have been complicit in constructing a unified consumer
segment that would be much more appealing to corporate clients. In doing so, Hispanic
advertisers promote commonalities while minimizing differences of nationality, color, and
political orientation (Dávila, 2001). Thus, natives of Miami, Mexico City, Santiago or even
East Los Angeles are all transformed into Hispanic consumers.
Dávila further argues that marketing objectives ultimately manifest themselves in the
creative product. For example, Dávila found that advertisers tend to employ a generic version
of Spanish designed to appeal to Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Mexicans, what the industry
has referred to as Walter Cronkite Spanish. Similarly, while Latinos vary greatly in skin
color, advertisers tend to cast Mediterranean looking Latinos and exclude Afro Latinos or
light skinned Latinos. This strategy appears to have worked. Latino oriented brands have
largely been pushed out of Spanish language media to make way for more profitable
mainstream brands. Today, the top advertisers in Spanish language media are the same as in
English language media and include such brands as McDonald’s, Pepsi and Ford Motor
Company (Advertising Age, 2006).
Like the advertising profession in general, the Hispanic ad industry finds its roots in
New York and began primarily as an effort intended to reach Latinos of Caribbean descent
living in the North East. Later these efforts expanded to South Florida and westward into
California and Texas, markets with significant numbers of Latinos who are of Mexican origin.

58
Also like the industry in general, the Hispanic ad industry’s early days were marked by a lack
of standardized procedures and little availability of empirical consumer research. In time,
Hispanic advertising agencies also sought their own legitimization and established their own
systematic practices. Both Hispanic advertisers and media outlets lobbied ratings companies
to include a measure for Hispanic audiences and in 1992, Nielsen established a ratings index
for Latino household. In 2007, the ratings company found that it made little sense to separate
Latino households from the general population and now they are included in their overall
ratings system. Founded in 1997, the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA)
became the professional trade organization for Hispanic agencies working within the US.
Explicitly stated in the organizations charter is the mission to “raise awareness of the value of
the Hispanic market to advertisers and other communities and to promote and encourage high
standards, conducts and ethics by means of study, discussion and education (AHAA, 2008).”
Among Dávila’s several noteworthy findings are that the characteristics of Hispanic ad
professionals are not unlike the advertising industry in general. Hispanic advertising
professionals are typically higher educated and more affluent than typical Hispanic
consumers. Furthermore, while a majority of Latino consumers are of Mexican origin,
Hispanic ad agents are largely ex-patriots from Latin American countries that have their own
established ad communities. Dávila also suggests that the upper middle class status of
Hispanic advertising professionals distances them from the primarily working class consumer
resulting in an overly simplified approach to Spanish language advertising.
This investigation finds the advertising industry at a unique point in its evolution. As
we have discussed, there have been several global technological, economic and demographic

59
changes that are profoundly impacting the Hispanic advertising industry. Demographic
projections suggest that Latinos will continue to be a significant presence in the United States.
Furthermore, the media offerings that are available to Latino audiences have also grown.
Latinos have more choice of content that is not entirely limited to Spanish. Channels such as
Si TV, Latina magazine and the Los Angeles based radio station Latino 96.3 all make use of
linguistic code-mixing, or Spanglish, complicating traditional approaches to Hispanic media.
Finally, the field has experienced substantial growth. Interviews with representatives
of AHAA indicate that the Hispanic advertising industry has grown and from just a handful of
agencies during the late 1970s to more than one hundred today. However, the Hispanic ad
industry is no longer as isolated as it once was. As the economic opportunity has become
more apparent, the larger industry is in the process of figuring out how to best capitalize on
the Latino consumer. The Hispanic ad industry has followed the larger trend toward
conglomeration and many of the largest independently owned Hispanic agencies have been
purchased by large holding companies seeking to provide ethnic services for their clients.
This is just one of several strategies the advertising profession has used to reach Latino
consumers. It is in this climate of change that we find our informants.

60
CHAPTER 4: HABITUS, FIELD AND DEGREES OF CONGRUENCY
Introduction
Before I go on there’s a couple of phrases you should know. (1) General market.
That’s adspeak for white: as in general market agencies. (2) Targeted. Adspeak for
ethnic (i.e. Black, Latino, Asian, etc.): as in “targeted audiences” or “targeted
work.”(3) Urban. See “targeted.”…Once the general market agency sells their
campaign, the targeted agencies are called to do targeted versions of the general
market work. We call it, “puttin’ some hot sauce on it” (Brandweek, 1999, p. 28)
In a 1999 editorial that ran in Brandweek, an anonymous copywriter rails against an
industry that he believes is increasingly out of touch with a consumer population that is
becoming more ethnically diverse. Rather than moving toward any meaningful degree of
diversity, the industry has typically opted not to engage the ethnic consumer directly. Instead,
many advertisers have decided to collaborate with niche agencies that sell themselves on the
premise that they alone have a unique understanding of the Hispanic consumer, one that
cannot be matched by traditional agencies. Upon further reflection, however, this proposition
introduces a logical dilemma that goes something like this: Hispanic consumers are distinct
to the degree that general market agents cannot adequately understand them. Hispanic
agencies can fill this role because they are culturally and linguistically aligned with the
Hispanic consumer. But if Hispanic agencies are culturally aligned with the Hispanic
consumer, does that mean they are culturally distinct from general market agents?
The purpose of this chapter is to explore this issue in further detail. Here we are
interested in the degree to which Hispanic ad agents and general market agents share the same
values and dispositions and to what degree are they cultural and linguistically distinct? More
importantly, what do these cultural and linguistic differences mean in the field of advertising
production and how do they determine the relative positions of agents within the field? We

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begin with the basic assumption that how one carries oneself, how one speaks and what one
values matters. As stated earlier, Bourdieu defines habitus as a set of dispositions that incline
agents to act and react in certain ways. These dispositions generate practices, perceptions and
attitudes that are regular without being consciously coordinated or governed by any rule.
They are acquired through a gradual process of inculcation in which early childhood
experiences are important. Furthermore, they unavoidably reflect the social conditions within
which they were acquired. Habitus is ingrained in the body, the site of incorporated history,
and manifests itself in the way one speaks, how one carries oneself, etc.
According to Schultz (2007), professional habitus is the mastering of a specific
professional game in a specific professional field. This concept is based on the notion that
different agents within the field of advertising may have their own sets of professional
attitudes, practices and dispositions. It may be a specific way of playing the advertising game
or the specific dispositions the advertising agent has for positioning him/herself in the game.
An understanding of the habitus of different social agents within the field of advertising
production may explain different and even contradictory practices and these differences may
account for the distribution of agents within the professional social space.
Because habitus is not a conscious experience, the research challenge is getting
informants to become cognizant of and describe their own dispositions as well as that of their
colleagues. In addition to in-field observations, several portions of the interview were
designed to assess habitus. First, the initial portion of the interview was dedicated to
ascertaining the informant’s personal and professional background. Such a strategy is
designed to apprehend the influences that inform habitus such as class, education and socio-

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economic background. Furthermore, specific questions were included throughout the
interview protocol that were designed to get the informant’s perspective on the types of agents
that work and thrive in a particular ad agency or within the advertising industry in general.
Such questions included, what kind of people typically do well in the advertising profession?
Similarly, how would you describe the culture of BBDO or what is a BBDO person?
Habitus and the Advertising Professional
Consistent with previous literature on the culture of advertising, the findings of this
study reveal that general market advertising agents were highly educated and primarily Anglo.
All general market informants came from middle class backgrounds and had attended
established, reputable universities. During their academic careers, their majors ranged from
political science to drama to business and only a couple of the informants pursued post-
graduate education in an area related to their field. Informants who worked as art directors
within the creative discipline were more likely to have some formal training in the profession
such as in design or graphic arts. As products of their class, general market ad agents were
able to speak and act in the manner of the professional caste, allowing them to operate more
naturally within the field. Thus, the habitus possessed by general market agents allows them
to more easily relate with their client counterparts with whom they often shared similar
personal background and with whom they often attended the same types of universities.
The research further revealed that advertising executives shared the same professional
values, motivations and traditions. It appears that the inculcation of the advertising agent may
begin as early as college where students are educated on the industry’s key figures and
campaigns. For example, work conducted by David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Bill Bernbach, Jay

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Chiat and other industry leaders are mainstays in university advertising courses. It is here
where agents are first taught about how to appreciate “good advertising.” For example, in
advertising classes across the country, Doyle Dayne Bernbach’s “Think Small” print ad for
Volkswagen or Chiat/Day’s infamous “1984” spot for Apple are held up as the gold standards
of good creative and become the paradigms through which future creative is evaluated.
Professional organizations also make a concerted effort to shape the professional
culture of the advertising industry. For example the American Advertising Federation
established the Advertising Hall of Fame, which celebrates industry leaders who embody the
cultural values of the industry. Through their inductions, these figures serve as professional
models for many advertising contemporaries. During one interview, an industry leader
invokes these key figures as a way to describe the professional ethos of the field that has
shaped the culture of many agencies:
(Advertising) is a business of stars. It is a business of people with a different way of
coming at it. Ogilvy for example was a guy who came up out of the research field. He,
you know, he really believed in analysis. He believed in direct response advertising.
Doyle Dane Bernbach was founded on creative principals and they were known for
many years as the agency that was able to create campaigns for Volkswagen. And if
you were a young creative person you couldn’t wait to get yourself in there.
The informant’s statement provides insight not only into the key figures in advertising
lore but also the values they embody. As agents of transformation within the field, these
figures have come to symbolize innovation. Largely due to the intense competition that is
characteristic of the field, the industry has come to value agents and agencies that provide
new insights, ideas and creative approaches. In advertising, the idea is paramount. Related to
this value, another quality most often cited as necessary to thrive in the industry was what

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informants commonly described as “passion.” Chiat/Day is often referred to as Chiat/Day
and Night and Jay Chiat is believed to have told his employees, “if you don’t come in on
Saturday, don’t bother coming in on Sunday.” During the interviews, informants proudly
described war stories of working late hours in an effort to meet unreasonable deadlines and
they wore these experiences as badges of honor, testaments to their dedication and passion for
the work they do. When describing the characteristics of advertising agents, one informant
says:
We’re gluttons for punishment. It’s a very high intensity business and agencies are
always wanting to grow. I compare the agency business to a being a shark. Not in a
bad way, just that the shark never stops moving because if they stop moving, then they
stop breathing and then they die. So it’s a lot of stress but it’s part of the game and if
you don’t enjoy that part of it, you’re in the wrong business.
Aesthetic Taste as a Point of Distinction
As a creative industry, aesthetic sensibility becomes an important element within the
field. But it is not merely enough that one possesses a strong aesthetic point of view, one
must possess the “correct” aesthetic point of view that is consistent with other agents within
the field. Bourdieu argues that aesthetic stances often become elements of distinction and that
taste unites all who are the products of similar conditions while distinguishing them from all
others. For example, it is no accident that most agency environments have a similar look and
feel (a contemporary, minimalist approach to design) and that, it any given point in time,
advertising tends to have a consistent look and feel. Creatives typically attend the same design
schools, frequent the same creative awards shows and read the same design journals. They
are voracious consumers of their own cultural products.

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Shared aesthetic tastes contribute to an overall homophily that exists amongst
advertising agents, particularly amongst those who occupy dominant positions within the
field. In other words, agents within the field are drawn to other agents that possess similar
professional tastes, dispositions and ideals, essentially leading to a reproduction of the field.
One informant describes the inclination of senior level agents to hire those in their own
image:
Part of it is brainwashing. If you’re a creative director, you’re going to hire ACD’s
(Associate Creative Directors) that you feel share your kind of sensibilities. It’s
definitely a good ol’ boys network and I think those guys kind of cross pollinate a
little bit or go to lunch together and shoot the shit. You hire those in your image a
little bit.
Through the course of their work, ad agents on both the account and creative side
frequently collaborate with photographers, film directors, designers, musicians and other
members of the creative community. The daily experience of most advertising agents puts
them at odds with many of their clients who are who are typically located in regional centers
and collaborate with the more traditional professionals such as sales representatives,
engineers, lawyers, operations people and financial managers. Because ad agents are
collaborating on a cultural product, informants believed that it was necessary for agents to
possess both creative and strategic sensibilities. This quality is expected of all positions
whether one was an account manager who must break down a creative concept for a client or
a copywriter who must write a tagline that accomplishes a particular marketing objective.
Furthermore, all agents are expected to be fluent in both high culture and popular
culture. Informants indicated a healthy consumption of movies, art, fashion and design and it
was commonly believed that exposure to cultural products gives producers of advertising

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knowledge of the technical, cultural and artistic trends of the day that find their way into
insights and creative executions. During an interview, one informant describes the qualities
that the ad agent must possess:
What kind of person would be good in the advertising industry? You need to be the
kind of person that if you have a party and you invite like your engineer friend and
your artist friend who wears like the beret. And you can effectively get them to
communicate and by the end of the night they’re hugging each other and best friends.
When those two people meet each other and talk to each other and can
communicate…beautiful things happen.
Habitus and the Hispanic Agent
Many corporations are located outside of Los Angeles in communities where Latino
presence is minimal. Consequently, Hispanic marketing becomes an abstract proposition for
many clients. During the research, a client based in a large Mid-western city articulated the
challenge of getting senior level executives who live and work in Anglo dominated
neighborhoods to personally connect stating that, “it’s hard for people here to understand
what forty-five percent Hispanic looks like.” To address this, many advocates for Hispanic
marketing have relied on a variety of strategies to make the Latino community more
meaningful for executives including a preponderance of quantitative research, store visits in
Latino communities, as well as community work with Hispanic organizations.
General market advertising agents are in a slightly better position to understand the
call for Hispanic advertising. Although many agencies are located in upscale Los Angeles
neighborhoods, the diversity within the larger metropolitan area is unavoidable.
Consequently, while many advertising agents may not have meaningful daily contact with
Latinos, they are aware that Latinos have a significant presence. That said, general market

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agents believes themselves to be unequipped to meet the needs of consumers who are
linguistically and culturally outside the mainstream. Instead, they have opted to employ the
services of Hispanic ad agents who position themselves as experts on the Latino consumer.
While Hispanic ad agencies sell themselves on the proposition that they have an
intimate understanding of the Latino consumer, this research supports Dávila’s claim that
there is a disparity between the Hispanic ad professional and the typical Latino consumer.
Like their general market counterparts, Hispanic ad agents are better educated and relatively
more affluent than the consumers to whom they are marketing. In this study all informants
appeared to have mastered, to varying degrees, the mannerisms and language of the American
professional class meaning that they could operate within the field with relatively little
difficulty. However, the findings of this study revealed fundamental distinctions between
Latinos who were foreign born and those who were native born. Foreign-born informants
may be described as what Dávila (2001) calls “Latin American elites,” Latinos who come
from relatively privileged backgrounds in their countries of origin. As a result of their class
positions, these informants have enjoyed access to certain privileges not available to most
Latino immigrants such as higher education and the ability to travel freely in pursuit of better
opportunities. In some cases, informants came to the U.S. through student visas and began
working in the advertising industry shortly after graduating from college. In other cases,
informants emigrated to the U.S. with established advertising careers. Consequently, these
informants were essentially guaranteed a position in the professional class, which is quite
unlike the experience of most Latino immigrants.

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The experiences of native-born Latinos, or those who immigrated at a very young age,
appeared to be quite different from those of the Latin American elites. Native born
informants typically came from working class backgrounds and were reared in households
where one or both of the parents were immigrants. As a result of both their class and their
immersion in an English-speaking culture, they did not speak the professional forms of
English or Spanish. Furthermore, of all informants, they were more likely to have attended
state colleges or to have started their academic careers at junior colleges.
Bourdieu describes instances where an encounter between a habitus and a field are, to
varying degrees, compatible with another in such a way that on occasions there is a lack of
congruency between the two. As opportunities presented themselves and these agents began
to transition from their native environments into new ones, informants reported an emerging
awareness of their place in the mainstream culture. When discussing their personal
backgrounds, agents frequently described an acute awareness of their own ethnic identities as
they moved from primarily or exclusively Latino communities to primarily Anglo
communities. For example, one informant recalls his transition from the predominantly
Latino neighborhood to his college environment, which was primarily Anglo. While his
Latino identity had not been a point of distinction, in his new environment, it becomes the key
trait through which others identify him:
It’s interesting because all my life, I grew up in East L.A. And growing up when I
was with Mexicans, I was always the white boy because I was into rock and roll and I
was into street racing. When I started going to college, I was “the Mexican.” In sports,
you always pick these crude nicknames for people. One of my nicknames was “the
Mexican.” Well, why is that? Well, there are no other Mexicans there. I was the
Mexican. That was my nickname.

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Another informant, a Latina copywriter, describes immigrating to the United States at
an early age and moving to a primarily Anglo neighborhood in Orange County. In her
testimony, the informant demonstrates perception that members of her ethnic community
were part of an underclass that existed within her residential neighborhood:
I was born in Mexico and I moved to the United States when I was seven. And then I
grew up in a primarily Anglo neighborhood area where there were a lot of Hispanics,
Mexicans really. But they were kind of underground. You saw them everywhere, but
you didn’t hear them. You knew they were there but you didn’t hear us. So they were
the nannies and the gardeners and the people who worked in the hotel industry. We
didn’t and still where I grew up, they still don’t have a voice, in Orange County.
As Hispanic informants described their early backgrounds, they demonstrated an
awareness of how their class, race and cultural difference which are often at odds with the
mainstream population. As we will see in the following section, this perception appears to
carry over into the professional realm.
The Hispanic Ad Industry and Professional Habitus
It’s weird, because it’s almost like you’ve got to be gringo for the client but be Latin
inside…inside the agency. You’ve got to do both worlds. It’s like you have to be white
with them and Latino internally. - Latina account manager
Because the Hispanic advertising industry was basically set up as an adjunct to the
larger industry, Hispanic agencies have largely inherited the practices and ideals of the
broader professional community. Creating an ad in Spanish, therefore, involves the exact
same process as creating an ad in English. Similarly, the Hispanic advertising industry has
inherited the field’s professional value of innovation. However, the Hispanic ad industry has
not had the benefit of fully developing its own professional culture nor establishing its own
industry leaders. Rather it has inherited its professional culture from the community at large.

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Consider the following statement from the owner of an independently owned Hispanic ad
agency:
Chiat doesn’t like to be called TBWA. They’re Chiat. They’re still a pirate ship and
they have their DNA. And that to me is what missing in the Hispanic space. And that’s
why I wanted to be an independent and hang out for a while because I think we need
to have DNA.
The informant is describing the need for the Hispanic advertising industry to establish
an identity of its own. But while there is much overlap between the professional habitus of
general market agencies and Hispanic agencies, there are differences that are of consequence.
Both Latino and Anglo informants articulated their perceived differences between American
and Latino professional culture. American agency culture was frequently described by
informants as hyper-structured but also as cold and impersonal. Conversely, Latino
professional culture was described as warmer and personal but lacking a degree of
professional formality. One informant, who is Anglo but occupies a senior level position
within a Hispanic company describes the cultural differences that she encountered:
(In American culture) we’re much more direct, we don’t necessarily say “sit down and
have a cup of coffee for two hours before we start work.” Kiss each other and stuff.
And you got to get used to that. They call me la jefa. “If la jefa sends you this email
saying do this,” some people want to cry. “She’s telling us to do something and she
didn’t even say hi to us first.” That’s a cultural thing and you just have to deal with
that. It was hard for me because I do tend to be direct but I’ve kind of hit it somewhere
in between. I’m not saying I’m going to sit down with you for an hour, I don’t have an
hour, but I’ll say hello first and how was your weekend. Go through some of the
niceties and then get to work.
Another informant, a Latina, discusses similar perceptions. During her interview she
uses general market agency professional culture as a counterpoint to Latino professional
culture, which she deems as more personal:

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What I noticed working with general market agencies is that it’s more business. More
business. Move fast, less chit chat. Less interactions, less connections. This is a
business so let’s get through it. We’ll drink afterwards but we’re not going to chit chat
between nine-to-five. But Latino agencies, it’s all about little jokes sprinkled here and
there. There are connections. There’s always a personal interaction going on. It’s
never just strictly business.
An overt demonstration of personal and professional habitus may be found in the
presentation of the creative concept, which literally involves performance on the part of the
agent. During the creative presentation advertising professionals present storyboards, read
scripts and act out dialogue in an effort to get a client to vividly imagine what a concept might
look like when fully realized. Latino presenters are often described as exaggerated and prone
to theatrics compared to the cooler, more subdued style of Anglo presenters. While one
Anglo informant felt this presentation style bordered on unprofessional, another informant, a
Hispanic ad executive, sees it as an asset to the presentation:
Once I worked on (a global automotive brand). (This brand) was my client for several
years. And they were a Caucasian marketing department and so we would be
presenting work in Spanish to them. And what I found is that they would be charmed
by our creatives….Yeah, it’s interesting because the bulk of their work is with the
mainstream agency so when it came to us, it felt like to me that they found us to be the
charming exception. Like, “oh, you guys have such cute accents. When you present,
it’s just so charming because you present it with an accent”…Typically the creatives at
a Latin agency, they’re very passionate. They’re not afraid, they’re not shy (and) they
bring a lot of passion and a lot vibrancy to the table. And our gringo clients are often
charmed by that. And so that adds to the sell. (They would say) “Oh look at Juan, he’s
so cute! The way he presents that and he has this accent because he’s from Columbia.”
It’s all a part of the show.
As the informant’s testimony suggests that how one speaks, not simply what one says,
has tremendous impact on how the client responds to the overall message. Here, the
informant sees her client’s reactions to Juan’s accent as a positive response, but others may

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see it as a liability. In other words, the term “cute” may be used to describe one’s linguistic
style as novel but it may also be seen as patronizing.
Discussion
Imagine a dark skinned Latino who speaks with a heavy accent. His speech, his
demeanor and his mannerisms reflect his working class background. Suppose he has attended
largely state universities, or perhaps even a junior college, and does not have the professional
contacts afforded other candidates. Because he has little in common with the person
interviewing him, he cannot develop any meaningful rapport. There is little reason to believe
that this interview will end successfully but to call it an overt act of discrimination would be a
oversimplification. Certainly, the decision to not hire this candidate can be justified by the
internal logic of the field. Can this candidate be trusted to adequately engage the client?
Would this candidate contribute to the agency’s culture? Could this candidate be charged
with drafting important professional documents? In other words, does the agent possess a
habitus that is congruent with the field of advertising production?
Of course, it is unlikely that that candidate would even end up in that position. To
even arrive at the point of the interview, one must have overcome a gauntlet of obstacles that
prohibit access to the field. Those few Latinos that have undergone that process,
consequently, have been transformed through a process of inculcation. Therefore, the Latino
who is sitting in that chair, interviewing for that position with that agency, will look, speak,
dress and carry him/herself differently from most other Latinos in Los Angeles.
A significant number of Hispanic ad agents were born outside of the United States and
their bodies reflect the histories and cultural traditions of their countries of origin. The way

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agents speak and how they carry themselves make visible their foreignness and, in some
cases, their class. Because many of these agents are not native to the United States, there is
less of an embodied feel for the game as it is played in this country. This is especially evident
in one’s linguistic habitus. In an industry in which speaking the professional form of English
is simply the cost of entry, speaking with an accent may be a liability. This is exacerbated by
where Spanish particularly stands in the social hierarchy. For many English-speaking
monolinguals, there is no difference between one who speaks Spanish well and one who does
not. All Spanish speakers are considered inferior, distant or foreign.
It is inevitable that there will be substantial incongruency when members of an ethnic
minority enter a field that has been traditionally ethnically homogenous. But incongruency is
a matter of degrees and the incongruency between a field and a habitus may be more
pronounced in some informants versus others. For the Latin American elites, differences
between themselves and their general market counterparts were minimized by similar socio-
economic backgrounds. In other cases, however, the differences in personal habitus were
exacerbated by differences in socio-economic status. Because these informants were not
inculcated into the professional class at an early age, their transition into the field was not as
fluid.
Latin American elites were more at ease and comfortable within the field and were
more likely to make use of established contacts. Latino informants from working class
backgrounds, conversely, described a lack of having a natural feel for the game and the
serendipity of simply discovering that an industry existed. Because of the environments in
which many U.S. Latinos are reared, simply being aware of the field, much less having the

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knowledge of how to navigate it, suggests that there are clear barriers to entry. An informant,
who is responsible for recruiting Latinos into the field, describes the obstacles to gaining
access:
The kid living in the hood, they may not be aware of all the opportunities. They may
be less assimilated, or they may be fully assimilated but just don’t have the contacts to
get into this industry. They don’t know the opportunities are out there. And they’re
just thinking, I can be an accountant…whatever it is. Or maybe they don’t even have
an opportunity to go to school.
The informant raises some important issues. In Los Angeles, a significant number of
Latinos come from working class backgrounds and it is unlikely that many will find their way
into the professional class. Furthermore, Latinos are highly under-represented in universities,
which have traditionally been the primary grooming grounds for future ad executives. But
simply attending a university is not enough and if one is fortunate enough to obtain higher
education, one must also find oneself in the right kind of university, one that contains the right
social networks that can provide the established contacts necessary to enter the profession.
We must also discuss how differences in professional habitus impact various agents’
mobility within the field. Because the Hispanic ad industry is based on the same principals as
the industry in general, there is significant overlap between the professional habitus of
Hispanic ad agencies and general market agencies but the findings of this research reveal that
there are also some substantial differences that are noteworthy. An industry culture that
promotes personal relationships, small talk and balance may be at odds with a professional
culture that emphasizes long work hours, commitment to the company and focus on the work.
The result of this disparity may lead to view that Hispanic ad agencies are somewhat less
professional in the eyes of Anglo clients and general market counterparts.

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In summary, the findings of this research indicate that Hispanic ad agents perceive that
their cultural, linguistic and professional differences distance them from their Anglo
counterparts. Like all communities, people tend to congregate with others who are like them
but Hispanic ad agents expressed a strong belief that because they are ethnic minorities, there
is no professional advantage gained by their ethnic culture, their accents or their skin color.
Thus, one’s skin color becomes an overt indicator of where one stands in the organizational
hierarchy. During the interviews, a senior director at a Hispanic agency tells a story about
attending a networking event with colleagues. When asked by his companions to give his
advice for networking, the informant identifies his strategy for senior level clients in an
anonymous crowd:
Let me tell you my formula for networking. I told them “we go out there and we look
at all the people of color and we avoid them and we talk to the white people, because
the white people are going to be the clients.” They didn’t say it, but they looked at me
as if to say, “you motherfucker! You don’t think any of us could have a fucking job
like that? You don’t think that any of us could be the client?” (I said) “look, you asked
me. We know for a fact there will be vendors here. The venders are going to be the
sales people and they are going to be people of color. If we know for a fact…your
experience tells you…that primarily clients are white, what should we learn from
this?” So they got pissed off at me but at the end of the next day, one of those people
came up to me and said “you know what? I understand what you mean.”
While this informant is cynical about how organizational hierarchies reflect ethnic
disparities, another informant is much more resigned. Here, the informant demonstrates a
clear awareness of her own linguistic habitus and the relative value it has in the field of
advertising production. As she discusses her career move from Argentina to the United
States, she demonstrates an awareness of her own habitus which has lead her to choose one
type of an agency over another ultimately shaping the course of her career. When asked to

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describe her decision to pursue opportunities with Hispanic agencies versus general market
agencies, the informant indicates the following:
If I look at myself as a product, where am I better positioned? Where am I more
competitive? I mean I have an accent but I don’t have the British accent that will give
me cachet in the planning arena. So the Hispanic accent kind of sort of gives you
credibility in the Hispanic arena. It doesn’t do anything for you in the general market
to be brutally honest.
Habitus: A Case Study
One informant’s personal history provides an illustration of how one’s habitus
determines the mobility of the agent within the field. This particular informant was born to a
Venezuelan mother and an American father who was an oil executive stationed in Venezuela.
During the informant’s childhood in Caracas, he attended American schools where he was
simultaneously taught to speak and write the professional forms of both Spanish and English.
He is light skinned which is different from many of his countrymen. During early adulthood,
the informant leaves Caracas to attend university in the United States. Equipped with that
degree, the informant returns to Venezuela and begins working at a small creative boutique
called Seisenta Sieta (Sixty-Seven). After several fortuitous career moves, he ultimately finds
his way to McCann Erickson, a large multi-national agency where he begins working on a
blue chip account.
In time, the informant marries and has children and after gaining several years of
experience, he decides to move back to the United States with his family. Despite having a
strong professional background, however, he finds it difficult to gain an interview with a
general market agency. Because of his unique linguistic skills, however, he ultimately lands a

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job with a small Hispanic agency. Over time he moves from Hispanic ad agency to Hispanic
ad agency and it is here where he has spent the duration of his career.
There are several aspects of the informant’s history that are noteworthy. First, as a
product of his social class and therefore has privileges many of his countrymen do not. He is
educated, he can speak English fluently and he can travel freely to pursue new opportunities.
Because of his dispositions, the way he looks and carries himself, he has access to and can
operate seamlessly within the professional realm. One might make the argument that his
upbringing ensures his place within a particular social class. But the informant’s fortunes
change somewhat when he enters the United States. Here, he is transitioning into a social
environment in which he is now an ethnic minority and while he is light skinned, he speaks
with an accent and while he has advertising experience, it is experience at a Latin American
agency. Ultimately, the pull away from general market advertising and toward the Hispanic
industry has a profound impact on his career.

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CHAPTER 5: ECONOMIC CAPITAL AND THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS
Introduction
In Inventing Desire, Karen Stabiner’s (1993) account of one year at Chiat/Day, the
author deftly describes the economic volatility within the advertising industry. In the book’s
closing chapter, Stabiner describes a meeting between the agency’s chief operating officer and
representatives from the Morgan Guarantee Trust Company of New York, the agency’s
creditor. During the meeting, the C.O.O. recounts a year of constant competition in which the
agency successfully pitched and won several new accounts but simultaneously suffered
several high profile losses. When describing the turbulent year in which the agency’s
financial standing changed on a daily basis, the bankers can only respond with amazement,
“how can you people live like this?” (Stabiner, 1993, p. 339)
Bourdieu’s concept of field (champ) is described as any socially structured space with
its own laws of functioning and its own relations of force. Its structure, at any given moment,
is determined by the relative position of various agents within the field and the various
resources for which they are competing. Within fields of large-scale cultural production,
economic capital is said to be the dominant form of capital around which the field is
structured. A greater reliance on economic capital, however, is believed to subject the
agent/agency to external or market forces thus limiting their degree of autonomy. The
purpose of this chapter is to examine how the structure of the field shapes the degree to which
Hispanic ad agencies can compete directly with general market agencies for economic capital.
Furthermore, we are interested in how external or market forces impact the Hispanic agency’s
ability to mobilize within the field.

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When we typically think about advertising agencies, we generally consider their
efforts to help brands compete with one another in the open marketplace. What is often
overlooked in the discussion is that agencies are themselves free market enterprises that
compete within a marketplace and operate chiefly for the purpose of profit. Like all
businesses, agencies are beholden to owners, shareholders and ultimately to clients who
provide them with the stream of revenue necessary to subsidize their existence. It may be
argued that the marketplace is the most literal manifestation of Bourdieu’s notion of field and
the most overt indicator the field’s structure because it is the space where agents and agencies
formally compete.
The advertising industry may be best described as a mature market in which there is a
wide range of suitable choices available to discerning consumers. Plurality is a key trait of a
mature market in which the needs of consumer are varied and there is an inability of a single
product to satisfy a variety of needs. Agencies range in size, location and specialty and
operate in a forum in which they are competing with other agencies to meet the needs of
prospective clients. Due to a surplus of qualified agencies, the field is characterized by intense
competition to capture the limited accounts available. The constant presence of competition
has lead to an intense pressure to perform. In other words, if a client becomes dissatisfied
with the performance of their agency, they can turn to the marketplace where several other
agencies, all qualified, can meet the needs of that client.
Whether in the form of a thirty-second television spot, an outdoor board, a magazine
ad or an online banner, it might be argued that all advertising agencies are fundamentally
selling the same basic product: ability to access new consumers through persuasive

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messaging. While the mandate of any agency is the same, unique traits among advertising
agencies allow them to distinguish themselves from their competitors and, therefore, ensure
and advantage in the field. For example, a point of difference may be an agency’s strategic
thinking. By providing a strong marketing prospective, the advertising agency can essentially
position itself as an adjunct to its client’s marketing department. In other cases, the point of
distinction may be a superior creative product, the ability to create a persuasive message in a
way that is compelling and innovative and finds its way into the cultural ether. A strong
creative campaign may provide a client with an enhanced brand personality that can foster
stronger consumer-brand connections. Still, in other cases, an agency’s organizational
structure may be an appealing point of difference to potential clients. For example, a global
marketer may benefit from working with a multinational agency that has a system of offices
strategically placed in key countries. This global organizational structure may offer a more
seamless diffusion of messaging putting them at an advantage over smaller agencies with
limited global ties.
Like other commercial enterprises, larger firms that possess greater economic capital
are better equipped to compete in the marketplace. Larger agencies typically have the
economic resources to draw in the best strategic and creative talent. Therefore these agencies
can convert their economic capital into cultural capital. Large, established agencies can also
afford to pay for the dedicated resources (staff, equipment, etc.) necessary to seek out and
pitch new business. Furthermore, by possessing a greater number of accounts, new clients
may benefit from efficiencies. To illustrate, the costs necessary to run an office are the same
whether one has a single client or multiple clients. With more accounts, however, each client

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assumes only partial expense of running that office. Smaller agencies with fewer clients do
not possess the same economies of scale and cannot generate the same efficiencies for their
clients.
The industry, however, rewards innovation and the ability to thrive under intense
competition has led to the emergence of new players that challenge the status quo. Ensured by
the dynamic nature of the field itself, opportunities emerge for agencies that can provide a
unique service or product not currently offered by existing players. While large corporations
have a considerable advantage, they can also become conservative or lazy, like state
sponsored institutions. The inability of larger, heavier agencies to meet the dynamic needs of
the field leaves room for smaller, nimbler agencies to enter and provide more personalized
service and more innovative ways of thinking. For example, in 2008 a start up agency called
Traffic won the Mitsubishi account worth $155 million. Intuitively, it would seem that an
international automotive manufacturer would seek out a partner with existing expertise in the
automotive industry and a network of offices necessary to meet their global communications
needs. In this case, however, Mitsubishi sought out an agency that could design advertising
that was different from conventional automotive advertising and who were small enough that
would dedicate their senior level staff solely to the account. In Advertising Age, the
Mitsubishi client is reported saying “we wanted Mitsubishi to be a significant part of the
agency's portfolio. Traffic is the right size, flexible and nimble. That's necessary in today's
business world” (Solman, 2008). An industry observer puts it another way, “the client won't
have the B.S. of a large organization to fight its way through for attention” (Parekh &
Halliday, 2008).

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An ethic of innovation captures the professional imagination and this value prevails
despite some clear contradictions. During the interviews, TBWA Chiat/Day was consistently
mentioned as one of the most respected agencies in the field. Originally, the agency was
founded in 1968 and the agency delivered on several unmet needs in the marketplace. At the
time, the advertising industry was based primarily in New York and Chicago but there was no
significant presence in Los Angeles. Furthermore, the industry had become increasingly
reliant on structured practices entrenched firmly in empirical market data. Jay Chiat, the
agency’s founder, conversely placed exceptional value on the creative idea. For some time,
the agency’s unofficial logo was a pirate flag, because, as Chiat would indicate, “we’re the
pirates, not the navy” and the agency’s internal motto was “good enough is not enough”
(Tungate, 2007). This point of difference has lead to great success for Chiat/Day. In 1990, the
agency was chosen “agency of the decade” by Advertising Age. In the years since the
agency’s founding, however, the agency is no longer a regional creative boutique. In 1993,
the company merged with the large international conglomerate TBWA and is now part of a
system that has 312 offices across the globe. Today, the agency more resembles a large fleet
than a rogue vessel but the ethic of innovation continues to be part of the agency’s culture.
Similarly, Los Angeles based agency David and Goliath was founded on the belief
that the little guy can take on the giant. In new business pitches, the agency plays up its
underdog status and prides itself on being the smaller, nimbler player going up against larger,
more established firms. In fact, this belief is so much a part of the agency’s cultural identity
that the agency’s lobby is filled with artwork that pays tribute to the biblical story including a

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five-foot sculpture of a rudimentary sling and paintings depicting the famous battle. The
agency’s mission statement reads as follows:
We believe there are two types of people. There are those who move through the
world at a nice, steady pace, content to let life simply happen around them. These
people never question anything. They never ask for more. Then there are the brave.
The select few demand more and are prepared to fight for it. They are never satisfied
with what they have achieved. They are determined to be better, they are willing to
take risks and hold themselves accountable. The brave takes on challenges others
might walk away from. They don’t charge blindly into the fray but rather arm
themselves with intelligence and creativity in order to outwit, outwork and outlast the
opposition. Remember there will always be somebody better than you, someone
quicker, wiser, more experienced or more talented. It all comes down to who wants it
more. Who’s brave enough to push…to fight. The truth is that no one ever became
great without first becoming brave.
In 2007, David and Goliath won a large automotive account and is well on its way to
becoming Goliath. Faced with the disparity between how it imagines itself and what it has
become, the agency has had to define its mission more abstractly. The David and Goliath
metaphor is no longer limited to just large agencies. “Goliaths” are simply defined as any
obstacle that an agent or agency encounters whether it may complacency, fear of competing
or fear of failure.
External Changes and Profits of Distinction
Bourdieu suggests that the activity of agents within the field will primarily attempt to
reproduce the field’s structure; however, the field itself is subject to external shocks that
disrupt the order of the field. While Bourdieu focuses on political and economic changes,
shocks may also be attributed to population changes as well as changes in technology. In the
era of globalization rapid changes in communications technology, financial interdependence
and the rapid increase in transnational migration have had a profound impact on the industry.

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Financially, the industry has moved toward increased consolidation decreasing the number of
legitimate players in the marketplace. Today, there are fewer independently owned
advertising agencies and much of the industry is embedded within larger networks.
The emergence of new communications technologies has also indelibly changed the
media landscape. Traditional agencies have been slower to respond to the new opportunities
that exist in the online world leaving room open for new players to emerge. For example, the
dot boom of the 1990s was characterized by the proliferation of companies based on new
media but also provided advertisers with a new way of reaching potential consumers.
Traditional agencies were largely unequipped to offer this service to their clients giving rise to
new players that specialized in new media. Razorfish was founded in 1995 by two
entrepreneurs and was located in a small apartment. Today, the agency now has more than
2,000 employees worldwide and offices across the world including Hong Kong, Sydney and
Frankfurt.
Finally, while immigration has been central to the American experience, what
distinguishes immigration in the era of globalization from others is the strong ties that are
maintained to the home country and a reluctance to abandon native identities. The
development of communications technology has allowed for easier access to the home
country allowing immigrants to keep these ties relevant in their everyday lives. Finally, the
proliferation of ethnic media has also played an influential role in identity formation. One
executive for a Hispanic ad agency described the importance of ethnic media to the retention
of ethnic identity amongst Latino consumers and suggested that this has opened the door for
marketers to more easily target ethnic consumers:

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What has happened is that with more mediums and different ways of reaching them,
we can segment Latinos from top to bottom. The role of media and the power of
money to chase people is really driving this effort. I really believe that if the Irish had
had the mediums in Chicago that we have, you would see a larger Irish identity being
held on to. Look at how the Irish identity has held on throughout the years with the
limited media it has had.
In short, an influx of immigrants has fundamentally changed the demographic
landscape. As the consumer landscape has changed, marketers have been enticed by the idea
of capitalizing on ethnic consumers but existing agencies have been unequipped to address the
needs of consumers who are linguistically and culturally outside the mainstream. In theory, a
fundamental change to the marketplace should leave room for smaller, more specialized
agencies that possess profits of distinction to emerge and to better meet the demands of the
field. Under these conditions, Hispanic agencies may be best equipped to provide profits of
distinction in the marketplace but the ability for Hispanic ad agencies to act in this capacity is
greatly hindered by the structure of the field and the availability of resources in which to
compete.
Economic Capital and the Hispanic Ad Industry
In Los Angeles, the term ethnic minority does not quite accurately describe the Latino
population. In this market, Latinos currently account for 44.6 percent of the area’s population
(U.S. Census, 2000). In other words, all things being equal, if a franchisee operates a
McDonald’s store in the Los Angeles area and a customer walks into a store, chances are that
customer will be Latino. Of course, populations are not distributed equally and certain
products will over-index on particular consumers. For example, luxury products may have a
disproportionately higher percentage of Anglo consumers and therefore, index higher with
that group. For some product categories, however, the distinction between the general market

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and the Hispanic market may be less distinct. Household products, for example, such as
paper towels or milk are functional goods, privately consumed and are less cost prohibitive
and less tied to self-identity. Therefore, they should have a consumer base that more
accurately reflects the general population. For these products, it becomes harder to make the
case that the Hispanic consumer is not the general market consumer. Put another way, due to
the shear representation of Latinos in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Latino consumers
will inevitably represent a significant portion of one’s consumer base.
In Business, Not Politics, Katherine Sender (2004) builds the case that niche
marketing is not motivated by purely economic reasons but always has political undertones.
There is some evidence of this that emerged during the interviews. While the market data
provides clear evidence that Latino consumers represent a lucrative economic opportunity, the
realization by a particular brand that they should engage in Hispanic marketing is not always
been apparent nor warmly embraced. In some cases, the decision to engage in Hispanic
marketing was a top-down process in which a senior level employee with access to key
decision makers built a strong business case for Hispanic marketing. In other cases, the
process was a bottom-up effort in which corporate level clients were pressured from store
operators operating in neighborhoods that are high density Hispanic. For example, one
informant discussed how her client, a multinational fast food chain, was initially reluctant to
engage in Hispanic marketing. Because the company was based in the Midwest, senior level
officers had no sense of urgency to engage the Hispanic consumer. Franchisees that were
operating in high-density Hispanic neighborhoods, however, were all too aware of the need to
have advertising that speaks to the Spanish-speaking consumer. Finding themselves with

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little marketing support to accommodate a significant client base a bloc of Latino franchisees
resorted to dramatic gestures designed to pressure corporate clients to engage in marketing.
Here, she describes the incident:
It was political. A large percentage of their operator body is Latino and so I was told
they staged walk outs at their Op-Ad (Operator Advertising) meetings and when the
speaker approached the podium, the Hispanic operators walked out.
In the end, the fast food chain acquiesced but the incident reveals the tension that
sometimes occurs during the process of initiating a Hispanic effort. To capitalize on the
Latino consumer, the industry has implemented a Hispanic market/general market model in
which the advertising function has been divided. Thus, the general market agency, assumes
responsibility for the brand at large while the Hispanic ad agency is responsible for a limited
portion of the business. But a Hispanic market-general market paradigm is essentially a zero
sum proposition and there is little appreciation for the fact that the Latino consumer may also
be the general market consumer.
Framed in this manner, Hispanic and general market agencies are placed into an
antagonistic relationship, particularly as it relates to competition for economic capital. Both
general market and Hispanic agencies described the process by which clients allocate budgets,
which can range from highly structured to highly subjective. In some cases, advertising
budgets may be a portion of the company’s sales. In other cases, it may be funded through
individual store operators who must contribute to collective advertising fund. Still in other
cases, the marketing department may simply allocate their budgets based on the most pending
initiatives. In all cases, there is some degree of subjectivity that leaves room for competition
between agencies for limited resources. The more players that are involved in a particular

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client’s business, the more intense the competition is for these limited resources. One
Hispanic agent describes how advertising budgets are allocated:
When the advertising department gets the budget it’s one budget. And they assign,
okay, “I’m gonna spend this much for Hispanic and I’m going to spend this much for
general market.” And the two agencies are vying. The Hispanic agency is telling the
client, “you need to spend this much” and the general market agency is saying,
“you’re taking away from our budget and you’re asking me to do more.” It’s always
the same. They’re both competing for the same dollars.
The informant is describing a process in which both Hispanic agents and general
market agents are competing directly, although not formally, for limited advertising resources.
Furthermore, the process reveals that the way most budgets are set up ensure that one of those
agents will come out on the losing end. Today, agents who had once enjoyed control of the
entire advertising budget now must share that revenue with other collaborators. Another
informant, a general market agent, describes the process as such:
The other thing is that there’s a revenue sharing problem. Whether it’s online or
Hispanic or whatever, it’s a money grab. We have this fifteen million dollar pot that’s
advertising and that all belonged to the general market agency. But, okay, now I’ve
got to divvy it up to you guys and I have to divvy it up to you guys and you guys, and
suddenly, my pot is only eleven million.
While both Hispanic agents and general market agents are directly competing for the
same dollars, the structure of the field ensures that Hispanic ad agents only compete for a
fraction of the overall budget. While a general market/Hispanic market model ensures that
some form of advertising will reach Hispanic consumer, it essentially relegates the Hispanic
consumer to the realm of ethnic minority. Therefore, the field is set up in such a manner that
Hispanic agencies, by definition, cannot compete for the larger business. When asked with

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whom they compete, rarely was it reported that a Hispanic ad agency and a general market
agency would formally compete for the same portion of the business.
Beholden to this model, Hispanic advertising agencies will essentially occupy a lower
level position in the organizational hierarchy where general market agencies are considered
stewards of the brand while Hispanic agencies have ownership of only a portion of the
communications plan. Within the confines of this space, Hispanic agencies do not have
access to higher level discourses that shape the brand’s strategic goals. Because they are not
influential to the overall marketing process, they are only reacting to communications plans
that have already been established. An informant describes how Hispanic agencies are
excluded from planning processes leaving the Hispanic consumer as a virtual afterthought:
Rarely will the Hispanic agency be invited to the initial planning discussions. They
really don’t have a place at the table whereas the general market agency does. And
that kind of sets the agenda. What the growth initiatives are going to be and where
they’re going to focus on. And by the time the Hispanic agency gets involved it’s kind
of run its course through the approval process and you’ve got a semblance of a rough
plan and then the Hispanic agency is exposed to it. You’ve made progress in a
specific direction without really understanding what the implication is for Hispanic.
The Hispanic ad industry has not yet reached the maturity of the advertising industry
in general meaning there are still relatively few competitors compared to the industry at large.
Lack of competition typically gives fewer players more influence, resulting in relative parity
in the field and limited range of options available for potential consumers. That said, the field
has demonstrated some growth. Several decades ago, the industry began with a handful of
Hispanic agencies but today the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies indicates that
there are close to one-hundred agencies operating within the United States, not including
Puerto Rico (AHAA, 2009).

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In addition to the presence of more Hispanic agencies in the field, there are also more
brands and product categories represented in Spanish language media. Just several years ago,
a single client might enjoy significant share of voice within a particular product category but
as more competitors engage in Hispanic marketing, that share of voice is becoming smaller
and smaller. One informant describes how the competitive landscape has shifted for one of his
longtime clients:
There was one category that we were working in where six years ago we had like fifty
percent of the share of voice. And five years later, spending in that category went up
ten times. And we went down to an eight percent share of voice with the same
budget…so that means that clients who are used to spending small amounts are going
to need to be more in line with the business as opposed to okay, let’s just take ten
percent of our budget and put it against Latinos.
Here, the informant is discussing advertising within a competitive environment. In a
contested landscape it is not merely enough to say that one does Hispanic advertising. Rather
there is more pressure for advertisers and advertising agencies to invest in creative that will
distinguish the brand from others and will cut through the clutter.
As more players are entering the field, new players have entered the Hispanic space
and are beginning to establish points of difference. As competitors fight for distinction, the
force of distinction drives forward the field in a constant pursuit to outcast the other. This has
lead to more innovative creative, more complex strategic thinking and has undoubtedly
introduced slightly more nuanced understandings of the Hispanic consumer. Previously, the
Hispanic market was defined as a monolithic construct but new players are introducing new
models of segmentation that are beginning to challenge traditional conceptions. During the

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interviews, an informant with longstanding experiences in the field describes how strategic
thinking has changed over the course of thirty years:
In the early days it didn’t make much sense to segment the population except to say on
the East Coast you had Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans and some South
Americans. But pretty much that was pretty much it. Florida was Cuban and New
York was Puerto Rican. And Chicago was mostly Puerto Rican and some Mexican
and then the west coast was all Mexican. And that’s how you segmented the market.
What we were telling corporate America was “we’re going to bring you the Spanish
speaking Hispanic, the market that isn’t being spoken to.” And it didn’t make much
sense to segment beyond that. The budgets weren’t there to support it and the data
wasn’t there. Now fast forward to 2008, almost 2009 and there’s a lot more ability to
work on smaller segments with insights that hone in on.
Here the informant is referring to the tools that allow marketers to better legitimize,
sell and validate the Hispanic market to potential clients. In the industry’s early days, there
was little third party information available to marketers who were in the position of selling
clients the notion of Hispanic advertising based on little more than personal or anecdotal
information. Today, metrics have become more developed and the availability of more
sophisticated market data has complicated traditional thinking on the Hispanic consumer.
In the past Hispanic marketers played a significant role in presenting Latino
consumers as foreign and distant, but today new data on the linguistic and cultural complexity
of most U.S. Latinos challenges the standing Hispanic market-general market paradigm.
Armed with this information, Hispanic marketers are beginning to raise questions about their
place in the organizational hierarchy and now have an eye toward the larger overall budget.
That said, several informants were cognizant of the fact that while the demographic data is in
their favor, they are still competing for a relatively small portion of the overall budget. As one
informant suggested, “more often than not, the money that is on the Hispanic table is still a

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fraction of what the total piece is and therefore the tail never wags the dog. I think the model
is inherently flawed.”
Another informant describes it this way. Here, he reports that Hispanic agencies are
engaged in fierce competition limited advertising dollars. If these agencies were to re-define
the paradigm, however, they would have access to much more significant economic capital:
We’re busy fighting each other for a very small percentage whereas if we were to
focus our attention on the dollars being spent against the general market and if we
could break off a significant piece of that budget…We’re looking at our pie and we’re
trying to fight for the biggest piece of pie, and yet our pie doesn’t even compare to
what’s out there in the general market.
The threat to their economic well being has not been lost on general market agencies
that have become more aware that their budgets may be lost to Hispanic ad agencies. In
recent years, the budgets that general market agencies have traditionally enjoyed have been
diminished as more collaborators have entered the process. In an effort to keep that revenue
stream in house general market firms have employed a variety of tactics including the creation
of ad-hoc Hispanic teams that are housed within their agencies. These Hispanic units
generally consist of a Hispanic account person and a Hispanic copywriter. This strategy has
some appeal to clients. First, it allows the client to pay agency fees to a single agency rather
than to multiple agencies. Second, it creates the perception of brand synergy. By having a
team that is based in-house, the argument is that there is less strategic and creative
fragmentation, what one informant calls “brand schizophrenia.” The presence of a Hispanic
advertising unit has the additional benefit of providing a point of distinction in the
marketplace. An agency that can demonstrate some Hispanic capabilities may serve as a
point of difference for clients who are choosing between two equally qualified agencies.

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A second strategy that has been employed is for large multinational conglomerates to
simply purchase smaller Hispanic agencies. This allows the entire network to serve as a one-
stop shop for clients with a multiplicity of advertising needs. Theoretically, inclusion in a
larger network puts these agencies at an advantage over independently owned agencies
because it creates the perception that clients are receiving synergy and economies of scale.
During the interviews, the founder and president of Hispanic agency indicated that he was
seeing more and more cases where he was competing against Hispanic agencies that were part
of a larger network. Due to the challenges associated with competing with multinationals, he
refuses to participate in those pitches. Here he describes his rationale:
There are times when we compete with what I call consolidation. And I try to get out
of those reviews as soon as I figure that out. By that I mean a client saying, “we’re
trying to bundle it all within the McCann network or the Ogilvy network or the WPP.”
And I say, “well I’m really not competing against the agency, I’m competing against
your desire to bundle everything under one roof. I’ll never win that. You’re asking
me to prove to you that that model doesn’t work. That’s not what I do.”
Discussion
In a competitive marketplace, advertising is ultimately tied to client sales. In an effort
to quantify a campaign’s success, a client may institute a variety of measures, the most
reported being “return on investment” (ROI) in which gains (sales, traffic, online hits, etc.)
are determined relative to the amount of money invested. While agencies can control the
creative product they deliver, an ad’s success is inextricably linked to dynamics beyond their
control. In other words, advertising alone cannot deliver a sale and the connection between a
consumer and product is ultimately based on a variety of external forces including cultural,
social and economic factors. For example, an advertisement for an automotive company may

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accomplish a variety of communications goals. It may inform consumers about a price point,
it may increase the recognition of a brand or product name or it may establish a positive
perception of a brand. But the process through which the consumer actually purchases a new
car may be also be mediated by the price of oil, social trends such as environmental
consciousness, as well as economic factors such as interest rates or consumer confidence.
When one considers these dynamics, agencies in reality have relatively little control
over their ability to satisfy a client’s needs. Consequently, they are always vulnerable to
being resigned by clients who wish to sever the relationship in search of a more productive
partnership. Larger agencies with more robust client rosters are better suited to ferry the ups
and downs of the industry whereas smaller agencies, with limited client rosters, are more
vulnerable to the temperament of the industry. In an effort to not become too beholden to a
single client, all agencies seek equilibrium where revenue is diffused across multiple
accounts. Under such a state the loss of one account can more easily be absorbed by the other
accounts. The president of a small agency discusses her strategic goal of seeking equilibrium
in an effort to offset any potential losses:
We try not to let any client be more than twenty-five percent of our business although
we’re not succeeding yet. So, as an example, if Lexus goes away tomorrow, then
Team One goes away tomorrow. We’ve got one client who is fifty percent right now
or forty-eight percent. And we’re trying to balance that out so that each represents no
more than twenty-five percent. And that way if a client goes away it’s not a
bloodbath.
Another informant describes an incident in which the small general market agency in
which he was employed suffered the near loss of a large account. The informant describes
what the potential loss of that account would have meant to the agency:

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It was one of those things that if we had lost that piece of the business (the agency)
would have had to have let go of twenty percent of the agency because it was one of
the bigger clients. At a larger agency you can lose a secondary client you can usually
move people around and keep them on staff for a while focusing on new business,
whereas at a small agency, just the overhead of having a quarter of your staff without
anything to work on…it’s just not feasible.
Shortly after these interviews were conducted, two agencies (one Hispanic and one
general market) mentioned in this dissertation closed their doors for precisely the reasons
indicated. Both were small agencies in which a single client accounted for a majority of the
agency’s revenue. When those clients left, those agencies could not sustain themselves and
ultimately shut down. The fates of these agencies provide sobering testimony to the
importance of economic capital within the field.
While all agencies are exposed to client turnover, Hispanic ad agencies face unique
challenges that make them particularly vulnerable. Unlike most advertising, Hispanic
advertising is assured and several informants reported that a concerted effort is continually
being made to persuade senior level clients that Hispanic marketing is even necessary.
Informants described a two-step process common in most pitches. The first step involves
building the case for Hispanic marketing or legitimizing the Hispanic market to a tentative
client. The second step involves the actual advertising including what approach should be
taken and what messaging would be most relevant, etc? One informant describes it as such:
The first part is just getting the brand to enter the Hispanic market. That piece of it is
very much, “you should (advertise to Hispanics) because there’s x number of
Hispanics, x number of people buy x number of product and this will be your R.O.I.”
That tactic is a very much (intended to say) “if you only do a general market plan,
you’re not reaching this piece of the pie and therefore you’re not reaching your full
potential.” And once you clear that hurdle, then it’s what do I say once I’m there. And
that takes on a whole different strategic approach. At that point it’s much more idea
driven and much more creative.

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Because Hispanic efforts hold tentative positions in many advertising budgets, many
Hispanic ad agents expressed the belief that they were particularly vulnerable to client
demands. In other words, it is easier for a client to walk away from Hispanic marketing.
With little leverage available to them, Hispanic agencies were not able to push back on client
mandates resulting in compromised creative. Furthermore, because Hispanic ad agencies are
typically small agencies they cannot absorb the loss of a client without significant impact.
Again, the vulnerability of many Hispanic agencies may be due to the framing of advertising
as an either-or proposition. To many clients, dollars directed toward Hispanic consumer are
dollars not directed to general market consumers. Clients, who are themselves under pressure
to maximize results while minimizing costs, place considerable pressure on Hispanic
advertising to produce results. Consequently, many informants believed that Hispanic
advertising was generally not afforded the luxury of brand building advertising and that there
appeared to be particular urgency in generating immediate impact. In other words, Hispanic
agencies have had to demonstrate a higher return on investment in one of two ways: either by
increasing the returns (proving immediate impact through an increase in calls, traffic, sales, or
other measure) or by minimizing the investment.
Because yielding higher returns is based on factors beyond the agency’s control,
Hispanic ad agencies have primarily focused their attention on that which they can control,
lowering the cost of investment. For example, in an effort to reach its strategic objectives, the
general market campaign may utilize multiple television spots that are complemented by
newspaper ads, magazine ads, radio spots and online banners. Conversely, Hispanic agencies
may have only a few executions in their arsenals. Consequently, a single ad must carry a

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greater load. Furthermore, in an effort to save their clients money, many Hispanic agencies
have found unconventional approaches to production. For example, Hispanic advertising may
adapt existing spots into Hispanic by utilizing existing elements this may include re-editing a
spot shot for the general market or resorting to re-dubbing and English language spot.
In other cases, the agency might engage in shadow-shooting or double shooting in
which the same concept is shot in English and then the same exact spot is shot in Spanish
using Spanish speaking actors. This creates efficiencies versus shooting two entirely separate
commercials with different locations, props, crew, etc. Finally, Hispanic agencies may save
money by foregoing what general market would consider necessities. For example, many
Hispanic ad agencies do not have account planning departments and in some cases, they may
not have full time account planners. While the position is a mainstay in most general market
advertising agencies, many Hispanic agencies have been able to get by without that role.
Cost savings efforts have also included forgoing working with domestic talent and
producing commercials in Latin America where talent and production costs are cheaper.
During an interview, an informant describes that marketing to Latinos is a costly and
problematic process largely due to union requirements and the linguistic skills required for
extensive Spanish language dialogue. In an effort to avoid issues that arise domestically,
production has become an international endeavor. Here she describes her company’s choice
to shoot commercials in Latin American countries rather than producing locally:
We do some of our production in Columbia. It saves a lot of money. Oh my God, a
lot. But, of course, we use Columbians. We want them to speak Spanish, so that’s
good for us. More agencies should think about moving production to another country.
You have to fly back and forth, you have to travel but it’s okay, it still saves money.

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As we have discussed, the ability for an ad to reach its strategic goal is dependent
upon a variety of factors beyond the control of the agency. There are, however, additional
factors that must be considered in regards to Hispanic advertising. For example, Hispanic
advertising may create interest in a brand or product amongst Spanish speakers, but few
companies have the infrastructure to adequately meet the needs of that consumer. Several
informants reported that their clients ran advertising in Spanish but did not have Spanish
speaking representatives, in language collateral, a Spanish language website or a significant
presence in high density Hispanic areas. In other words, a Hispanic advertising effort may
generate traffic, calls or online hits but if there are no Spanish-speaking representatives or
other in language material, that sale may be ultimately lost or even backfire by creating ill will
toward the brand. One informant recalls an experience in which a Spanish language campaign
generated interest amongst Latino consumers but there were no Spanish-speaking
representatives who could communicate with them once they called:
At least on two occasions we told our client to stop the advertising because when we
were advertising, we tried out the whole system. And we call the 1-800 number and
find out that the call center is not handling the calls well. So we told our client that
you’re throwing away money so let’s fix the problem and then let’s resume
advertising.
In short, this study reveals several important findings about the role of economic
capital. First, the study finds that the structure of the field prohibits the Hispanic ad agency
from acquiring significant economic capital. A second finding is that Hispanic agencies are
particularly vulnerable to external, or market forces, which greatly impacts the creative
product. Furthermore, because Hispanic agencies are typically small agencies they generally
do not enjoy the benefits as larger agencies with significant economic capital. They do not

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have the resources draw in top-level talent and cannot provide clients with the efficiencies
afforded to agencies with more robust client rosters. Because of the economic vulnerability
of many small agencies, it is easy to be tempted by consolidation and many Hispanic agencies
have followed this path. This does not come without a cost and Hispanic agencies are often
making a Faustian pact with the larger company. To illustrate, Interpublic Group (IPG), a
large holding company owns both Casanova Pendrill and Deutsch Advertising. A review of
IPG’s website reveals within the company’s portfolio of services, Deutsch is listed as a “full
service” agency while Casanova Pendrill is listed as a “multi-cultural” agency (IPG, 2009).
For the independently owned agency, there is more flexibility. For the agency that lives
within a portfolio of agencies, the division of labor has been formalized and institutionalized
within the larger company’s structure.

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CHAPTER 6: CULTURAL CAPITAL AND THE CREATIVE PRODUCT
Introduction
Clients say they don’t care about awards, but boy, when they’re picking new agencies,
in a lot of cases they’re very interested in how many (Cannes) Lions or what creative
stars are going to work on the business. - General market agent
In the previous chapter, we discussed the importance of economic capital to the field
of advertising production. We have further argued that economic capital, or the bottom line,
becomes a dominant principal of hierarchy that ultimately subjects the field to external or
market forces. Thus, to a large degree, advertising is valued for its capacity to generate
revenue. However, economic capital alone cannot explain the distribution of agents within
the field. What constitutes a good advertising agent/agency, or even good advertising, is not
solely based on economic value but is also beholden to the standards internal to the field
itself. So while the field is a forum of competition for economic capital, it also functions as a
field of competition for cultural legitimacy. Like all forms of capital, cultural capital is
unequally distributed, thereby creating opportunities for exclusive advantages. In this
chapter, we focus on how cultural capital manifests itself within the field of advertising, how
cultural capital affords particular agents with points of difference and how those who occupy
symbolically dominant positions within the field inevitably attempt to replicate it. Here, we
are particularly interested in the constraints that Hispanic agencies face in their efforts to
generate cultural legitimacy.
Bourdieu defines cultural capital as cultural knowledge or expertise that encompass
such things as education credentials, technical expertise, general knowledge and artistic
sensibilities. According to Bourdieu (1986), cultural capital may take one of three forms:

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embodied, objectified and institutional. Embodied capital includes skill or competence that
cannot be separated from the individual. It is both the inherited and acquired properties of
one’s self. Objectified capital refers to material objects which are owned, such as scientific
instruments or works of art. But while one may own a painting, in order to understand its
cultural meaning, one must also possess the appropriate embodied capital. Finally, cultural
capital may take institutionalized form, meaning institutional recognition held by an
individual, most often understood as academic credentials or qualifications. These forms of
cultural capital are mainly understood in relation to the labor market and allow for easier
conversion into economic capital by guaranteeing a certain monetary value for a certain level
of achievement. Within the field of advertising production, cultural capital may take on
various forms such as education credentials, professional expertise, creative pedigree, industry
awards and artistic sensibilities.
Because cultural capital is fundamentally determined by the internal logic of the field,
the investigator is interested in assessing what is of cultural value to members of the field and
how the industry recognizes cultural capital? Because agents are immersed in the field, they
become too “inside” meaning they follow the logic of their profession. In other words, their
way of seeing is perfectly adapted to the perspective of their position. For those who are not
privy to the logic of the field what is considered “obvious” must be interrogated by the
researcher. The challenge for the researcher is, therefore, getting informants to discuss what
they mean by “good advertising” or what does the informant mean when they describe an
agency as a “successful agency.”

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In its basic form, cultural capital may include the skill-set necessary to do a particular
job within the advertising profession. Agents may acquire these skills through formal
education, training or on the job and real life experience. In other words, to work as an art
director, one must possess the appropriate credentials and skill-set that enable them to be
fluent the process through which an ad can be taken from a rough concept to a finished piece.
Similarly, occupying the position of a senior account manager may require fundamental
marketing knowledge or perhaps experience in a particular product category (automotive,
financial, hi-tech, etc).
But the interviews reveal that simply having the ability function within the field does
not entitle the agent to significant levels of cultural capital. In each field, there are those who
dominate and those who are dominated according to the values internal to that field. As
Bourdieu suggests, a good historian is someone good historians call a good historian and, in
the same sense, a good advertiser is someone good advertisers call a good advertiser. The
interviews provided important insights into what characteristics placed certain agents in a
better position over others. For example, the interviews reveal that previous experience at
particular agencies provides an agent with currency, what agents sometimes referred to as
“pedigree.” In other words, informants believed there to be a substantial difference between
someone who works at Goodby Silverstein and Partners, an agency with significant cachet,
versus someone who works at Grey Advertising, a less prestigious agency. Furthermore,
because those who occupy symbolically dominant positions within the field tend to feel
solidarity, it is easier from someone working at TBWA Chiat/Day to get a job at Goodby,
Silverstein and Partners, another agency that occupies a similar position within the field.

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Conversely, it is difficult to transition from a less prestigious agency into one that is more
prestigious.
The interviews reveal that cultural capital in its objectified and institutional forms can
be converted into economic capital during the interview process when an agent is seeking a
higher salary. While a college degree is valued within the field, it is merely the cost of entry
and offers the agent little point of distinction from their competition. While there are cases
where certain universities are privileged over others it is one’s professional resumé that acts
as a form of currency within the industry and helps to position one agent in a more favorable
position over others. Amongst those in the creative discipline, cultural capital takes on
additional, objectified form via the creative portfolio, which is literally a physical collection
of advertising. One’s creative portfolio includes material examples of one’s work and is sent
to prospective employers so that they may assess the quality of advertising that a candidate
has developed and produced.
An agency, which is a confederacy of agents, may also possess cultural capital through
the portfolio of work that has been produced on its behalf. For agencies, cultural capital may
manifest itself in the form of the agency reel or in the accumulation of creative awards that are
commonly displayed in agency lobbies. An agency’s cultural capital can, in turn, be
transformed into economic capital. The first point of contact between and agency and a
prospective client is the presentation of the agency reel and can often be the factor that
determines whether the agency will move forward in the pitch process. Furthermore, creative
awards become an appealing selling point by suggesting to potential clients that the agency
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Agencies that possess high levels of cultural capital are in the position of attracting
the best talent. In other words, talented creatives who wish to produce award-winning work
will be drawn to an agency that has a history of producing award winning work. This
becomes a circular process in which those who occupy the symbolically dominant positions
are able to attract the best creative talent, a position that cannot be matched by agencies that
possess less cultural capital.
The Creative Product
What is a good ad? To me a good ad is an ad that touches you on an emotional level.
So if it makes me laugh, if it makes me cry, if it makes me angry, then that’s a good
ad. If it touches me at a level that is more intimate, then I think that is a good ad. –
Latina copywriter
If you go through the reels of all the greatest spots from forty or fifty years ago even,
they’re entertaining. They’re wonderful. They get you laughing and they’re very
memorable. - General market agent
The interviews reveal that the creative product plays a central role in the generation of
cultural capital. While informants acknowledged that the measure of a good ad was tied to
economic performance, what is considered good advertising is also dependent upon the tastes
and sensibilities and advertising agents. Thus, it must be recognized that the advertiser does
not create advertisements solely for the client, or even the end consumer, but for a public of
equals who are also competitors.
To understand how the field evaluates good creative, it is necessary to understand the
conditions in which advertising is conceived. Advertisers are ultimately working within
highly constrained conditions that are generally not conducive to creative processes.
Generally, advertising is limited by any number of technical constraints such as adherence to

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particular time and format (:30 spot, 8 x 7 inch print ad, 30 sheet billboard, etc). Furthermore,
the ad must accomplish a particular marketing objective such as informing consumers about a
particular product feature or achieving a particular brand positioning. In an effort to be both
effective and efficient, the ad must reach a broad public, which means that it has to dispense
with sharp edges and anything that might divide or exclude consumers. Finally, the
copywriter or art director is working under the pressure of expeditious timelines.
Amongst advertising agents, not all advertising is considered equal. Rather, some
brands and product categories are believed to lend themselves to better creative. For example,
informants reported that it is easier to get good creative from a fashion brand than it is to
create advertising for, say, a pharmaceutical company. Symbolic brands have less defined
strategic objectives and are not encumbered by strict regulatory standards. In other words, the
advertiser does not need to explain a given product nor instruct consumers on its use, include
a price point, or any other restriction that is believed to compromise creative quality.
Furthermore, informants believed there to be a difference between working on a nationally
recognized brand, such as Nissan Corporation versus someone who works on advertising for
the local Nissan dealership. National accounts are generally more robust and enjoy wider
visibility than local advertising.
Most informants acknowledged that what is considered “good advertising” is often
based on peer recognition rather than on client satisfaction. During an interview, one
informant describes the need for agents to generate discussion amongst their professional
colleagues:

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I think awards probably matter more for within your peer group than to clients or
consumer. They don’t even know about advertising awards. So I think there’s a little
bit of a patting each other on the back kind of thing….and there are a lot of influences
from the entertainment industry…cachet amongst your peers. “Hey did you see the
dudes over at Chiat got blah, blah, blah to direct the new spot?”
Here, the informant makes an important insight. The value of an ad is not inherent to
the creative product but involves a generative process in which meaning and value build
through collaboration, discussion and institutional validation. So, different ads may generate
different levels of cachet depending on a variety of factors including the medium (a television
spot versus a billboard), its reach (national, primetime vs. regional, late afternoon), who is
involved in its execution (a renowned director or photographer vs. stock photography or
footage) and industry validation (the creative awards it did or did not win). For example,
Apple’s “1984” spot has become accepted by the field as one of the industry’s most
successful ads. But the “1984” spot has become the “1984” spot certainly because it was
directed by film director Ridley Scott, because the ad ran on the Superbowl and because it
received a number of industry accolades.
Ten years after the “1984” spot aired, Advertising Age (Bradley, 1994) ran a
retrospective that included a section titled, “Where are they now?” A decade later, this piece
followed the careers of those agents that were intimately involved in the production of the
infamous spot. The mere interest in the careers of particular advertising agents provides
another fundamental insight about the advertising profession, namely that agents’ names are
inextricably tied to the creative product. Agencies typically don the names of their founders
or managing partners and creative awards generally list the names of those involved. Thus,
one’s name or reputation becomes a form of currency in the field of advertising.

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Good creative is legitimized through a variety of means including favorable trade
press, being featured in creative journals and positive mention in peer advertising related
blogs. However, it is the creative award that provides good creative and agents with their
institutional validation. Good creative is recognized through competition in awards shows that
range from the local (the Belding award) to the national (the Addy) to the international (the
Cannes Lion). For creatives particularly, an award can play a central role in generating
cultural capital which can then be converted into economic capital. This provides some
degree of contention with those who believe an ad must first and foremost accomplish its
marketing objective. One informant, a copywriter, discusses the internal conflict she feels
about the work she does:
Some people measure (good advertising) by whether it wins awards. So if it’s a
creative ad and it wins an award then it earns the respect of your peers. Some people
measure it by whether it accomplished what the client wanted it to accomplish,
whether it’s more sales, or (unclear). I think both are valid. I think ultimately and I
have to fight, I have to remind myself of this, I’m not an artist, I’m here to sell toilet
paper, to sell an insurance company. So at the end of the day if I have an ad that I
wouldn’t send to an awards contest but it accomplished what the client wanted and it
kept the client happy and it kept the account at the agency, then I have a job. And at
the end of the day, that’s what we do.
Through her testimony the copywriter reveals her personal struggle with having to
weigh client needs (economic growth) with her personal goals (peer acknowledgement). She
admits that while her inclination is to create advertisements that will achieve industry
recognition she has to make a conscious effort to create advertising that will ultimately
achieve the agency’s economic objectives. Thus, she has to find a balance between the
pragmatic and the artistic.

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Hispanic advertising and Creative Capital
The real rub comes from the fact that the Goodbys and the Rineys and the Chiats don’t
respect the work that we do as being on the same level. - President, Hispanic agency
If industry heralded creative provides an agency with its cultural capital, then the
interview suggest that many Hispanic agencies are operating at a deficit. The interview data
reveals a general perception amongst advertising professionals that there is a disparity
between the quality of Hispanic advertising and general market creative and most informants
believed Hispanic creative to be derivative, stereotyped and poorly executed. The interviews
further reveal that there are several obstacles that Hispanic agencies face to creative quality.
From an economic standpoint, informants reported that Hispanic agencies are
generally given fewer dollars in which to produce creative. While larger budgets do not
guarantee a superior creative product, production budgets do have several implications on the
final creative execution. Greater economic resources provide the storyteller with more
options in which to tell a story. For example, greater funding may give the advertiser the
option to choose location over studio, to utilize a large cast versus a small cast, to use a
popular song versus stock music, or to hire a recognized director or photographer versus a
relatively less skilled artistic collaborator. All of these options are costly endeavors that may
impact the ability of a creative to execute a particular idea. Without the financial resources,
these options are simply not available to the Hispanic agent. Consider Apple’s infamous
“Think Different” campaign which launched in 1997 and utilized the images of various world
figures. The particular idea behind the campaign did not require original footage, an
extensive cast or remote locations. This campaign did, however, require an ample budget

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necessary to negotiate with the estates of John Lennon, Albert Einstein, Cesar Chávez and a
host of other public figures for commercial use of their likenesses. No doubt this effort
amounted to considerable sums and could not have been achieved within the limited budgets
generally afforded to most Hispanic campaigns. When asked about the ability of Hispanic
advertising to compete with general market advertising, one informant describes the impact of
financial limitations:
Does it really have a chance? It really doesn’t. You have the whole issue of budget.
Where let’s just say, one client has two separate agencies working on two separate
markets. So let’s just say there’s a commercial, the budget for the (general market)
commercial is $800,000. That’s cool, $800,000. However, for the ethnic markets it’s
$500,000. Well, why is that? Because the thing is you still have to get equipment, you
don’t get African American or Latino rates. You still have to pay talent. So they’re
being held to essentially the same standard and the same expenses, but yet they don’t
have the same money to compete.
While funding may have direct impact on the creative product, the creative impact
may also come indirectly. Ultimately, Hispanic efforts are seen as auxiliary efforts to the
general market campaign. Working with a Hispanic agency means incurring additional costs
not only in additional production and media costs associated with running Hispanic
advertising but also in additional fees associated with working with an additional agency. In
an effort to justify these additional costs, informants reported that clients must feel like they
are getting a creative product that cannot be provided by the general market agency. In other
words, the more that a concept looks and feels like the general market agency concept, the
less clear it becomes to the client why they should be paying additional fees. Most Hispanic
informants reported that is essential that their clients believe the creative to be distinctly

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Hispanic. One informant describes it as such: “To clients, (the advertising) needs to feel
Hispanic to them and unfortunately it comes out in stereotypes, a lot of clichés.”
To illustrate, imagine that a Hispanic agency comes up with a concept that uses no on-
screen talent and no voice over. Furthermore, the concept calls for a soundtrack of classical
music. The ad, in other words, has no overt cues signaling that it has been designed for a
Hispanic consumer. This ultimately becomes a client rather than a consumer problem. While
the Latino consumer may respond favorably to this ad, it becomes less clear to the client that
the execution is specific to the Hispanic consumer. Without the overt cues, the client is in less
of a position to justify spending additional dollars for Hispanic creative.
The disparities between Hispanic marketing agents and clients and general market
agents may also play a large role in the quality of Hispanic creative. In most environments,
advertising is created in the context in which both the marketer and the consumer share the
same cultural vocabulary (Scott, 1994). It is also assumed that they share the same linguistic
codes. Thus, while much of an advertising discussion between agents and clients is pragmatic
in nature, much of the discussion also involves subjective opinion. Did the client react
viscerally to an ad concept? Were they moved? Did they feel the concept was too risqué
given the current cultural climate? All of these evaluations are based on one’s cultural
fluency.
In the context of Hispanic marketing, the client does not always share the same
linguistic or cultural codes. Generally, clients are Anglo and have limited exposure to the
Hispanic consumers to whom they are marketing. Thus, the client, who is typically an
English speaking monolingual from a relatively privileged background is in the predicament

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of providing feedback on a concept written in Spanish and targeting a culture with whom they
have had no meaningful contact. In many cases, clients feel they are simply not equipped
with the personal knowledge or “common sense” in which to truly evaluate Hispanic creative
but this is the context in which much of Hispanic creative is developed. This is particularly
problematic with clients who are based outside of Los Angeles and the disparity between
marketers and consumers can lead to a range of miscues. Several Hispanic informants
brought up their frustration that advertising concepts must culturally and linguistically
translated for their clients. Thus they are merely responding to an approximation of the
original idea. One informant describes the process:
(In Hispanic) the client isn’t the consumer. Whereas in the general marketplace, for
lack of a better word, nine times out of ten, the client is the consumer. They’re part of
the consumer marketplace. They share the same vernacular and they share the world
that they’re creating to. They don’t share our world.
Hispanic informants described the difficulty in getting clients to engage the creative
aspect of Hispanic advertising. In an effort to make the concepts understandable for their
Anglo counterparts, Hispanic creatives are put in the position of translating the idea, both
literally and culturally, into a form in which the client can appreciate. Furthermore, because
clients are unfamiliar with the nuances of Latino culture or the boundaries of what is
appropriate or inappropriate, they have difficulty assessing when lines have been crossed.
Consequently clients have been said to become conservative in their decision-making and
they are believed to be unwilling to take the same creative risks that they might take in the
general market. The conservative nature of clients may lead them to think in clichés, ideas
that are conventional to the point that reception is never a problem. One Hispanic copywriter

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describes an exchange with her client and involved an ad that included a coupon with a
perforated line. The client believed that Hispanic consumers would not know that the
perforated line was an indicator of where to cut and suggested the inclusion of a line of copy
reading “cut here.” While the copywriter made the case that the perforated line was self
evident, the client insisted on the more literal treatment. The copywriter recounts the
exchange: “An e-mail that I got yesterday. (The client) said to make it completely, entirely,
dumb-ass proof! Fool proof.”
The conservative nature of Hispanic advertising becomes exacerbated by the fact that
many times, the clients responsible for day-to-day activity in Hispanic marketing are junior
level clients. During one interview, a Hispanic marketing informant reported that their client
placed an intern in charge of the brand’s Hispanic efforts. For many Hispanic informants, this
arrangement is highly problematic because junior clients tend to be particularly risk averse
and are uninformed in how to navigate an ad through an internal approval processes.
Trust me, I’m Hispanic
It was kind of a trust me thing. Trust me. “You don’t speak Spanish? I do. I know
these people, trust me.” The metrics weren’t there, the measures weren’t there. –
President, Hispanic agency
There was an urban myth that circulated during the course of this investigation. The
story takes place during the early days of the Hispanic ad industry and involves a Hispanic ad
agent who is trying to convince his client, a tampon manufacturer, that he needs to market his
product to Latinas. To make his case that Hispanics need a campaign that is distinct from the
general market campaign, the advertiser makes the claim that Hispanic women use tampons

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differently than Anglo women. Latinas, the agent claims, are hot blooded and therefore bleed
more than Anglo women.
“Trust” was a word that came up in all but one of the interviews with Hispanic ad
executives. Ultimately, because clients are not fluent in Latino culture, the Hispanic agency
wields a power of expertise to which the client must defer. This has given some Hispanic
marketers the opportunity to misrepresent the market. Dávila describes how Hispanic
advertising is rife with stereotypes that Hispanic marketers have been eager to sell to Anglo
clients who have been willing to believe. While this was more prevalent in the early days of
Hispanic ad industry, several informants reported that it was still common practice today.
One Latino informant describes how Hispanic advertising agents, in an effort to sell clients on
a particular concept, will misrepresent the market to clients who are not equipped with the
cultural knowledge necessary to evaluate the concept:
Okay, (clients) got past the mariachi music, the big mustaches and all that, but
(clients) do expect some cultural relevance. That’s when you end up hearing
comments like “Hispanic kids don’t do sleepovers. It’s a cultural thing.” You end up
hearing all of these things to sell the creative. I’ve heard some of these characters and
they have some really strange ideas about what Hispanic culture is.
The legacy of selling Hispanic creative based purely on anecdotal and oftentimes
misguided information. This trait appears to be a tradition that has continued to haunt
Hispanic agencies in modern times. Consequently, in an effort to make clients feel more
comfortable with Hispanic marketing discussions, conversations are disproportionately based
in metrics. In his testimony, the President of a Hispanic agency describes how he encourages
candid discussion:

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One of my clients told me, “I’m removed from that consumer as it is, and if you can’t bring
me closer and you expect me to trust you you’re expecting a lot and that’s very difficult.”
And during meetings we pass out bullshit cards to our clients, basically. We tell them “you
call out bullshit. You’ve got to come to me and say wait a minute, that doesn’t jive with
everything you’ve been telling me. I can’t see that Hispanics will drink more water because
blah, blah, blah.”
In an effort to ensure that his clients feel a certain comfort level with the Hispanic
creative product, the informant encourages his clients to reclaim common sense and to feel
free to challenge Hispanic agencies on their cultural insights. While this approach may be
appear to be confrontational, the informant believes that it is a process necessary to building
long term trust with clients. Furthermore, the informant believes that challenging clients to
understand the Latino consumers demystifies the target making them more relevant and
meaningful.
The Talent Gap
In the general market, there is appears to be a surplus of qualified talent. Future
advertising executive are groomed at universities in which marketing and communications
departments educate students in the appreciation and production of advertising. Beyond these
traditional institutions, ad schools such as the Miami Ad Center, the Art Center College of
Design in Pasadena and the Creative Circus in Atlanta were specifically established to offer
formal training in the art of advertising and providing students with a ready-made portfolio
that will allow them to better compete for the finest jobs in the industry.
Ultimately the amount of jobs available at an advertising industry is finite and the
competition for entry-level positions, particularly at marquee agencies, can be fierce. The
research reveals that agencies that possess high levels of economic and cultural can best
compete for human capital. While smaller agencies are less in a position to compete for the

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best talent, a surplus of talent ensures that even these shops will have a range of qualified
talent to choose from. The managing partner of a small agency describes the number of
candidates that express an interest in working at his agency:
There are so many resumés that come in. I could say you have no idea, but maybe you
do. I get between seventy and ninety resumés every single week. In some cases there
are guys who are my age and are really in sad shape. They have a kid in school and
they’ve been laid off. They’re desperate for freelance work and they cut their rate by
two thirds in some cases. Some people are even willing to do a free campaign to get a
foot in the door.
While general market agencies appear to enjoy a surplus of talent, several informants
articulated a frustration with finding qualified Hispanic candidates. Consider the frustration
that one informant expresses at the limited pool of qualified talent in Los Angeles compared
to the options available to general market agencies:
At Goodby Silverstein (and Partners), how many interns and how many entry-level
positions were just being filled with (qualified talent)? There are twenty-five new kids
there each day, you know? Yeah, sure, twenty of them were not going to make it but
next week there are twenty-five more added to the five you kept.
While the lack of qualified Hispanic candidates may be due to the specialized nature
of the job (linguistic, cultural and professional expertise), many informants believed that local
Hispanic talent simply did not possess the same professional skill-set as their general market
counterparts. The perceived disparity in professional talent may be partially explained by the
relative positions of agents within the field. As we have discussed, Hispanic agencies possess
relatively little economic capital, therefore losing a single client may result in substantial loss
to the agency. This puts the account manager in the unfortunate position of having to please
the client at the cost of candid discursive exchange. This trait was described by one informant

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as a “complejo d’inferioridad” (inferiority complex) where Hispanic account executives are
believed to be unwilling to challenge their clients thus sacrificing creative quality.
Hispanic advertising position as an auxiliary effort also compromises the professional
training of the Hispanic ad agent, particularly the account executive. Practically speaking, an
agent who spends his/her career at a Hispanic agency will be working with only a single facet
of a brand campaign but will never be responsible for guiding the total brand effort.
Furthermore, this agent will inherit a brand that will already have an established look and feel
but will not be responsible for originating those elements. Finally, they will be dealing
primarily with junior level clients. In short, these agents will not receive the same quality of
training that general market ad agents are provided. This is a product of producing
advertising for an ethnic minority. An informant who began his career in Latin America
suggests that agents who are creating advertising for the U.S. Latino is quite a different
process compared to creative advertising for Latinos living elsewhere:
McCann in Venezuela probably works more like a general market agency here. In
terms of the roles, the responsibilities, the approach, the philosophy. So the skill-set is
right there. I think it’s just that here in the states, very few people (in Hispanic)
develop those skills.
The professional training of art directors and copywriters is also limited. Beholden to
the general market campaign, most Hispanic agencies are typically inheriting a ready-made
brand personality, a look and feel that has already been established by the general market
agency. Consequently there is little room for Hispanic art directors and copywriters to
contribute to the creative idea, even as it relates to simple creative contributions such as voice,
type, color and layout. For example, while the Hispanic copywriter may draft a version of the

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brand tagline, they are not tasked with writing a tagline that will capture the entire brand
positioning. For the most part, Hispanic creatives accepted this as a limitation of their role
Market Local, Recruit Global
I’m here sitting that is in the third, if not the second largest Hispanic City in the world
and I can’t find talent? I say if I can’t find it here then where am I going to find it? –
Hispanic agent
In the general market, most qualified talent can generally be recruited locally.
Therefore, general market agencies typically do not import talent from outside the United
States unless there is a rare skill-set that cannot be met domestically. For example, during the
1990s, when account planning was new to the U.S. ad industry, agencies wishing to build
their account planning departments imported talent from the United Kingdom. Today,
account planning is commonplace in most U.S. agencies and junior account planners can be
groomed and hired domestically.
Amongst Hispanic market agencies, however, the practice of importing talent is more
commonly practiced and even several participants in this study were themselves professionals
who began their careers in Latin America. During the course of several interviews, Hispanic
agents reported that because it is difficult to find qualified candidates domestically, agencies
have looked to foreign talent in an effort to achieve a competitive advantage over their
competitors. The testimony of this informant was not uncommon during the interviews:
In order to up the creative product, because for some reason it didn’t seem to be able
to be upped in the U.S. because there really wasn’t a good culture of good creative in
Hispanic. No one’s teaching anybody how to do it. So the shift became to import
talent. So there was a big movement to bring over Argentinians, Venezuelans,
Columbians. Particularly those groups more than any other group, even though a bulk
of our market is Mexican.

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As discussed by the informant, that Latin American countries with strong advertising
traditions were particularly good recruiting grounds. As one informant puts it, “advertising
professionals are like rock stars in those countries.” Argentina appeared to be widely
recognized for its copywriting while Brazil was recognized for its art direction. Venezuela,
Columbia and Spain also appeared to be highly regarded in the industry. Conversely, while
the U.S. Hispanic market is primarily of Mexican origin, Mexican agencies did not appear to
be highly regarded.
Discussion
While economic capital and cultural capital are generally regarded separately, the
interviews reveal that the two are inextricably linked. Larger agencies are in the position to
generate a greater volume of work and, therefore, increase their chances of producing award
winning creative. Similarly, they have the dedicated resources in which to place their work
on the award show circuit. Furthermore, because they are more autonomous, they can push
back on client demands if they feel those demands are compromising the creative idea.
The findings of this research reveal that Hispanic agencies face formidable obstacles
to good advertising that are ultimately tied to the relative position they occupy within the
field. Because Hispanic agencies are small agencies and have responsibility for a fraction of
the overall campaign/budget, these agencies possess relatively small levels of economic
capital. Consequently, they cannot invest heavily into their creative products, a key
component in the generation of cultural capital. Furthermore, because they are
disproportionately reliant on the client, they do not have the leverage that allows them to push

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back on client demands compared to agencies with higher levels of capital. Thus, the creative
idea is at risk of compromise.
Cultural capital is also limited in that Hispanic creative is typically isolated from other
advertising and therefore invisible to most industry peers. While much of this the function of
language, here we focus on institutionalized separation. For most advertising competitions,
Hispanic creative is limited to the Hispanic category, meaning that for the most part, a
Spanish language spot will never compete against an English television spot. During an
interview, the President of a Hispanic agency discusses his choice not to participate in awards
shows that include a Hispanic category. For him, the decision is a principled one based on the
conviction that in those awards shows, Hispanic ad is seen as inferior:
So you’re either saying that Hispanic work doesn’t merit being evaluated with the best
work you have or you don’t have a panel of judges that can truly evaluate that work
which would then speak to the quality of your panel. We’re talking about Los
Angeles here. We’re talking about forty percent of the population. And you still see
us as this segment of your consumer.
While Hispanic agencies are largely unable to compete directly with U.S. agencies in
most creative awards shows, they often compete internationally against Spanish speaking
countries. For example, the Festival Interamericano de Publicidad (FIAP) is an awards
competition that was frequently mentioned by Hispanic informants. Within international
competitions, the U.S. Hispanic market is treated as a de-facto nation but does not necessarily
enjoy the benefits of the nation state. When describing the process of competing, the president
and founder of one Hispanic agency describes the challenges that Hispanic agencies face
during creative competitions:

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We are truly an agency or an industry without a country. When you go compete
internationally, we won’t get the nod from the American judge. And yet we won’t get
the nod from the Spanish or Argentinian judge. If it comes down to Argentina voting
on a piece from Argentina, then they would rather do that. And that’s unfortunately
how that works.
Ultimately, the lack of cultural currency limits the mobility of Hispanic agents within
the field, making collaboration difficult contributing to a viscous cycle. While those who
occupy symbolically dominant positions within the field can draw in the best talent, agencies
that occupy less prestigious positions are not as fortunate. For many informants, producing
creative under these conditions can be personally unrewarding and career limiting. Ultimately
the obstacles to creating good Hispanic advertising may become too formidable.
Consequently, top creative talent may choose to forego the Hispanic side of the business or
return to Latin America. One informant describes how one colleague became discouraged by
the process and eventually returned to his home country:
(There was) this creative director from Spain and he ended up going home because he
was like, “I want to do advertising in Spanish and I want it to be about the concept. I
don’t want to be niche. So for me to do general market I have to do it in a Spanish
country.” And I’ve been to Columbia and I have friends that work at the advertising
agencies there and I just feel that it’s not burdened by all the nuances, that it gets
watered down so much. I just feel that the process is very…it’s very castrating in a
way. It really is.

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CHAPTER 7: LINGUISTIC CAPITAL AND THE CURRENCY OF SPANISH
Introduction
As I said, I think the thing that has been very different to me is talking about the
reflection and not talking about the thing itself. You’re talking about the reflection of
it and having to explain why this is important to this culture and why it this is not. –
Latina copywriter
In the above testimony, a copywriter is describing the process through which Spanish
language advertising is developed and approved. Under such a process a concept, which has
been designed for Latino consumers, must first be evaluated and approved by clients who are
themselves non-Latino and non-Spanish speakers. In other words for English speaking
stakeholders to evaluate a Hispanic advertisement it must be culturally and linguistically
translated in terms they can understand. The copywriter’s frustration rests in the fact that
clients are merely reacting to an approximation of the original concept.
Because Spanish plays a prominent role in much of Hispanic advertising, this chapter
is will explore issues of language and the relative value of Spanish within the field of
advertising production. To interrogate this question, we invoke Bourdieu’s notion of
linguistic habitus and linguistic capital. Linguistic habitus refers to a sub-set of dispositions
acquired in the course of learning to speak in particular contexts and includes linguistic
matters such as accents, intonations, and articulatory styles that reflect classes or speech
communities.
In Language and Symbolic Power, Bourdieu describes the concept of linguistic
capital, which he defines as the capacity to produce expression a propos for a particular
market. The more linguistic capital that speakers possess the more they are able to exploit the
system of differences to their advantage and thereby secure a profit of distinction (Bourdieu,

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1991, p. 18). Bourdieu further argues that linguistic usage is highly policed by those that hold
symbolically dominant positions within the field. For example, in order for an agent to
prevail in the academic field, one must observe the forms and formalities of that field.
Therefore, to even engage in academic discourse, one must write and speak in the linguistic
style of those who dominate the field.
Linguistic capital is based on the assumption that every language is stratified, an idea
that complicates the notion of language as a “collective treasure” shared by all members of a
community (Saussere, 1974). Drawing from the field of socio-linguistics, Bourdieu argues
there is no such thing as a completely homogenous language or speech community, what he
calls “fictio juri” or “the illusion of linguistic communism” (Bourdieu, 1991, p. 5). Instead,
linguistic exchanges express relations of power. Variations in accent, intonation and
vocabulary reflect different positions in the social hierarchy. Linguist Mikhail Bakhtin
describes the complexity of language within any given society:
At any given moment of its evolution, language is stratified not only into linguistic
dialects in the strict sense of the word, but also, and for us this is the essential point –
into languages that are socio-ideological: language of social groups, “professional”
and “generic” languages, languages of generations and so forth. (Bakhtin, 1981, p.
271)
For purposes of this discussion, therefore, it is not enough to simply say that one
speaks English or Spanish, but is important to know that one speaks the correct forms of
English and Spanish that are appropriate for a given field. As with all speech communities,
different people speak with differing degrees of authority and words are loaded with unequal
weights depending on the circumstances, on whom may be speaking, and how words are
articulated.

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Advertising and Linguistic Practice
All informants in the study were proficient in English, meaning that they had a full
command of the language. Furthermore, the English they spoke was spoken well and was in
accordance with that of the professional class and reflected the social conditions into which
they were born. Amongst general market informants, the field of advertising production
appeared to be marked by linguistic parity and simply having a command of professional
English does not appear to be a strong differentiator amongst competitors. That is not to say
that understanding English is not important, it simply means that all advertising agents speak
well. Because all informants came from the same types of socio-economic backgrounds and
attended the same kinds of universities, their linguistic training was similar; therefore there is
no profit of distinction.
Hispanic ad agents were also college educated and appeared to have mastered, to
varying degrees, the mannerisms and dispositions of the American professional class meaning
that they could operate within the field with relatively little difficulty. Furthermore, foreign-
born informants who came from privileged backgrounds spoke a form of Spanish that
reflected their social class. But language is not simply an in or out proposition, and while
these agents indicated that they were bilingual, equal proficiency in both languages was rarely
encountered. As expected, the language of one’s country of origin was the dominant
language.
In the U.S. social hierarchy, English carries more authority than Spanish and
ultimately clients and other key decision makers are largely English speaking monolinguals.
Therefore, Hispanic ad agents who do not have a command of the professional form of

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English do not possess the adequate linguistic capital in which to fully compete. This leaves
room for other Hispanic ad agents, who do speak the professional form of English, to gain
considerable advantage over their peers. Consider the following case. An informant, now the
founder and president of a small, Hispanic agency describes her early career. She is non-
Latino and a non-native Spanish speaker. Shortly after she graduated from college, the
informant was hired as an assistant to a well-connected Cuban ex-patriot who was in the
process of founding a Hispanic agency in New York. What begins as a purely administrative
position becomes more meaningful as the proprietor begins to rely more on her linguistic
skills. Over time, she is invited to attend agency-client meetings. The informant recalls her
early days in the business and realizing that the she was at a loss for the language:
I remember sitting in meetings and not understanding, realizing that the Spanish was
way over my head…because these were business discussions. This wasn’t just like
“me llamo.” I mean we were talking about fragrances and aspirin…legal.
In time the informant becomes more proficient in Spanish, although because she is not
a native speaker she will never have the proficiency of a Latin American ex-patriot.
Intuitively, it would appear that not having the ability to speak Spanish fluently would be a
formidable obstacle to competing in the Hispanic ad industry but this does not prove to be the
case. Ultimately, what is important to succeed is the ability to engage English-speaking
clients. The informant indicates that at the time her Latino colleagues were “not that very
good at presenting” and, because she was one of the few native English speakers in her
cohort, she was able to fill a much needed role. Furthermore, whatever limited Spanish she
does know is still more than her client. Therefore, she has the ability to act as a linguistic
guide for many English-speaking clients. It is her proficiency in English, rather than Spanish,

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that allows her to gain a competitive advantage in her field. Later, she reveals that her
proficiency in English provides her access to Anglo clients. By having meaningful exposure
with these clients, she begins to develop stronger professional relationships and, in a sense,
assumes the role of agency spokesperson. This provides the informant with an essential role in
the agency, ensuring her value.
For someone to rise to the prominence of founder and president of a Hispanic agency
while not being a native Spanish speaker is remarkable testimony to the currency that English
holds in senior level discourse. While Spanish is the language of the targeted consumer their
linguistic needs can be met on a tactical basis by junior level employees. Conversely, because
much of the job requires oral and written communications with English speaking clients, the
inability to speak fully in English limits the mobility of non-native English speakers.
Another informant, also the president of a Hispanic agency, reported that he offers
formal training for his employees in which he literally teaches writing skills in English. The
informant believes that it is necessary to be able to speak and write in English simply to
engage in the marketing fundamentals with a client. Articulating one’s goals, clarifying why
those goals are important, identifying the resources you need to accomplish these goals and
providing the tactical next steps are all things that are taken for granted amongst English
speakers. But without these linguistic skills it becomes harder for a Spanish speaker to
manage and ultimately lead the client.
Consider the testimony of an informant who is Anglo but occupies the position of a
senior level officer within a Hispanic company. The informant speaks very limited Spanish,

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but she possesses the strategic skills and experience that the job requires. Here, she describes
her own professional experience:
We’re a Hispanic company and that I’m a gringa is very much an anomaly. They
probably didn’t want to hire me but they wanted a skill set. And you couldn’t find
anybody who has that skill set who is also Hispanic.
When asked to describe how is she able to operate in this capacity, the informant
responds that she can get by with limited Spanish because strategic discussions occur in
English while tactical ones occur in Spanish. Because she manages a team of native speakers,
she can rely on them to manage the technical details:
I speak enough to where I can get by because I have people who speak Spanish who
work for me. I actually speak with people in (Latin America) who only speak
Spanish. But the kinds of things that we’re talking about are pretty basic. Like how
many calls did we get today or are we selling this or are we selling that? It’s not like
I’m reading a Garcia- Márquez novel or anything like that.
Here the informant is ultimately describing where language fits into the organizational
division of labor. While English is the language of strategic and economic discourse, Spanish
has been relegated to the technical and non-essential. Thus, her capacity as a senior level
manager is not impeded by her inability to speak Spanish.
The Limited Currency of Spanish
If a strong command of English is necessary to compete in the field of advertising,
then one must question the value one gains by being proficient in Spanish. As we have
discussed, both general market agents and clients are primarily English speaking
monolinguals with little or no understanding of Spanish. Many of the consumers they wish to
market to, however, are Spanish dominant. Thus, Spanish language proficiency provides the

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Hispanic agency with a profit of distinction because it meets need in the marketplace that
cannot be met by general market agents.
Again, not all jobs at an agency require that the agent possess perfect Spanish. For
agents who have primarily client interaction, proficiency in English was essential.
Conversely, positions that required the agent to engage the Spanish dominant consumer,
either directly through consumer research or indirectly through messaging, proficiency in
Spanish was essential. Amongst participants, the job of copywriter was mentioned as the
single most important position for which a perfect understanding of Spanish is necessary.
What is critical for copywriting is that the writer can generate ideas and to articulate those
ideas in an eloquent and compelling way. Copywriters are often writing rhetorically as well
as describing, in detail, technical, legal and financial details.
Given the requirements of the job, foreign-born Latinos had a considerable advantage
over their U.S. born counterparts. Bourdieu has argued that the legitimate language is a semi-
artificial language that is sustained by continuous efforts of correction. Thus, emersion in an
English language world and the lack of any meaningful formal education in Spanish greatly
hinders the ability of U.S. born Latinos to speak Spanish to the degree necessary to copywrite
in Spanish. The founder and president of a Hispanic agency describes the linguistic
challenges that are unique to U.S. born Latinos:
Just look at lower socio-economic white neighborhoods. Let’s say you have white
parents who didn’t graduate high school. Who dropped out at fifth, fourth, sixth,
seventh, eighth grade, and then have them raise kids in that household, where the
language that they do know, English, they don’t speak it well. They don’t have great
grammar and they don’t have a large vocabulary. Then put them in a position where
English isn’t the primary language. Those kids would be disadvantaged in two ways.

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The informant raises an essential point that linguistic proficiency may also be shaped
by one’s of socio-economic status. Consequently, while many U.S. born Latinos may be
learning Spanish, they are not learning the Spanish of the professional class. A broader
knowledge of Spanish, in its multiple forms is necessary for making rhetorical arguments, for
describing technical details and for articulating legal regulations, all of which are common to
advertising. Another informant describes how the particular qualifications necessary for
Spanish language copywriting largely exclude U.S. born Latinos:
People here grew up speaking Spanish, but they can’t write in Spanish…So if I’m
relying on anybody to actually write something in Spanish, they need to come from a
country where they learned Spanish formally and then maybe learned English at the
same time. And these are highly educated people most of the time and that’s ideally
what I want. The problem is it’s really hard for me to hire because I need that and then
I need a skill set of what I’m looking for. And the combination can just be daunting.
The struggle that the informant describes complicates traditional notions of
bilingualism. It is rare to achieve excellence in two languages and those few informants who
did were formally educated in both the U.S. and Latin America. These informants were also
in the best positions because they served as critical discursive links between clients and
Spanish dominant agents. One such informant describes how his linguistic background has
given him an advantage over his less proficient colleagues:
See, I learned English and Spanish at the same time. So my English language
vocabulary is probably as good as my Spanish vocabulary. And a lot of times with a
lot of Hispanic people that are doing marketing, their English vocabulary isn’t as
good. So they’re writing English words but they’re using Spanish syntax and
grammar. And it’s been a struggle because sometimes what they’re trying to say isn’t
what they’re saying in English. The clearest cut example is when you write Spanish
copy and the writers have to present it to the Anglo client and they do a back
translation. We’ve had so many ideas that have died because of a bad back
translation.

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Lost in Back Translation
In speaking about her role in translating the novels of Gabriel García Márquez, Edith
Grossman (2003) makes the following point about the incompatibility that exists between two
different languages:
Fidelity is surely our highest aim, but a translation is not made with tracing paper. It is
an act of critical interpretation. Let me insist on the obvious: Languages trail immense,
individual histories behind them, and no two languages, with all their accretions of
tradition and culture, ever dovetail perfectly. They can be linked by translation, as a
photograph can link movement and stasis, but it is disingenuous to assume that either
translation or photography, or acting for that matter, are representational in any narrow
sense of the term. Fidelity is our noble purpose, but it does not have much, if anything,
to do with what is called literal meaning. A translation can be faithful to tone and
intention, to meaning. It can rarely be faithful to words or syntax, for these are
peculiar to specific languages and are not transferable.
While it seems counter-intuitive or English speaking monolinguals to evaluate Spanish
language creative, there are mechanisms built into the process that allow for their
involvement. The back-translation has become an essential component in the Hispanic
advertising process, one that has a long history in the profession. In the early days of the
profession, Hispanic advertising consisted largely of dubbing English language spots.
Therefore it was necessary to translate English language scripts into Spanish within the
confines of the dialogue. Those scripts were then translated back into English, in their literal
form, for legal and technical evaluation. Today, that particular process has largely gone away
but it is still standard practice to translate Spanish language copy into English so that non-
Spanish speaking clients can evaluate it. While the process is technically simple translation,
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In Bilingual Games, socio-linguist Ana Cecilia Zentella makes the point that in white
public space, Spanish is often dismissed as a simple language. There was evidence of this in
the interviews with the widely held belief that a Spanish language script can literally be
translated into English without losing any of its intended meaning. Thus, translation is
considered simply a technical process. This misconception can be particularly problematic
when it comes to advertising which is idea driven and presenting a concept under these
conditions has opened the door for tremendous miscommunication. One informant takes
philosophical issue with the concept of the back-translation:
There’s a Spanish poet who said an idea does not go from one language to another
without change. And for me that is an interesting of summing it up because
advertising is idea driven. Information can be translated, to some degree, but ideas or
emotion…it’s harder. The most critical function in an agency is copywriting.
Another informant, a creative director, discusses more specifically, the challenges of
presenting Spanish language advertising to English speaking monolinguals. Language, which
is itself an abstraction of the real world, becomes even more removed as those words are
converted into another language. As more players become involved in the process, translation
becomes more problematic. He describes the process as such:
When you present an ad in Spanish that flows very nicely and the copy’s funny and
there’s a play on a word and you present it in English and you expect them to get it but
they don’t. You have to present in English and it’s very difficult to translate
the…English is a very practical language. Words go together, like all these
contractions, and sometimes there’s no translation. We hit that cultural difference
because if the word doesn’t have a translation in another language, that concept
doesn’t exist. It’s an approximation but it’s really hard to get the exact feeling of the
word. And this gets really complicated when it has to go to their legal department. So
there are again, removed from the process.

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The informant raises the point that some ideas simply have no direct equivalent, a
concept that has not been well received by clients. One informant reported the case of a
billboard that used the phrase “de tin marin de do pingüé,” a popular children’s phrase in
Latin America. It is a phrase that is grounded in the culture and the phrase itself has a very
specific meaning and has its own rhythm. The approximation in English, however, may be
closest to “eeny meeny miny mo.” That is not to say they are the same, but it is a similar
concept. That said, the concept received complaints and was almost killed by the Anglo client.
The client, who had learned some Spanish as a Mormon missionary, argued that the line was
not correct Spanish and, therefore, was a defective message.
This case introduces a character commonly invoked during the interviews, what many
referred to as the “Hispanic expert.” During the interviews, the Hispanic expert assumed
many forms. In some cases, he/she was a colleague but some cases they were also the client’s
nanny or administrative assistant. Because clients do not speak Spanish or believe themselves
to be unfamiliar with the language, they are at the whim of the Hispanic ad agency tells them
what an ad means. Unable to evaluate the message for themselves, clients seek some form of
corroboration. Therefore, they look to somebody else, in many cases any other Latino that
they know, to corroborate or refute the Hispanic message or the translation of that message.
Often, this may task may fall to individuals who are themselves, not linguistically proficient
to the degree of the copywriter, or who may not have any form of advertising or marketing
expertise. Furthermore, because there is less appreciation that Spanish language copywriting
is a creative skill any person becomes endowed with the ability to evaluate a Spanish

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language concept. For example, it was common to hear stories about how Hispanic ad
campaigns were shown to anybody in the company who spoke Spanish.
Many times it’s fatal because they’ll have a Spanish language speaker who has no
marketing or advertising background. It could be some random person in H.R. or even
as down as, I’ve seen it, down and dirty as “we have a custodian that speaks Spanish
and we ran (the concept) past them and they didn’t understand what you were saying.”
Another informant describes his experiences. Here, the informant raises the issue of
trust. In several cases informants reported that clients simply could not get past particular
phrasing in the back-translations without completely realizing that the English words are, to a
degree meaningless because they represent only an approximation of an idea. Despite
protests from the Hispanic agency that the Spanish language copy is capturing the same idea,
these clients ultimately did not trust the agency enough to take the risk:
That’s why you have the case in the Hispanic market where the VP of advertising will
show the secretary of finance. Because she’s Hispanic, he’ll show her an ad campaign
and have her critique the ad campaign. That happens…it still happens, a lot. Because
the VP of advertising, who doesn’t understand the language and, yeah, doesn’t trust
the agency.
The logic surrounding English language copywriting does not appear to be the same
logic applied to Spanish language copywriting and the perception that Spanish is a uniform
construct can be creatively limiting. In other words, if one believes that there is only one
correct way to say something in Spanish then there is little room for linguistic innovation. In
any language, advertising copy reflects rhetorical choices not merely functional ones and the
copywriter is faced with many opportunities in which to challenge language. In some cases,
the goal of an ad may be to cut through the clutter, to express something in a new and
compelling way. In other cases, the copywriter is attempting to capture colloquialisms of the

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culture of the day. To accomplish these objectives, the copywriter must often engage in
linguistic innovations. Words such as “fantabulous” or even Apple’s “think different” are
certainly not a word recognized by the academy to be correct but certainly pithier and more
rhetorically creative than their correct versions.
Discussion
In theory, fluency in Spanish can provide the Hispanic agency with a profit of
distinction. Essentially, you have a significant number of consumers who are Spanish
dominant and a field that by and large does not have the linguistic proficiency to reach them.
For an agency that can speak to this consumer in his or her own language, linguistic
proficiency can ensure their economic viability. Thus, linguistic capital can be converted into
economic capital. Upon deeper consideration, however, it becomes evident that the currency
of linguistic capital is constrained by the place that Spanish occupies in the social hierarchy.
The Best Creative Never Seen
(Our client) would probably get more cachet out of the English language advertising
being memorable and funny and breakthrough than she would ever out of the Spanish
language advertising because no one’s going to see it including possibly her. I’m sure
she’ll tune into it to make sure it ran but she’s not watching Univision television, she’s
probably watching ABC.
An essential finding is that writing and producing advertising in Spanish essentially
ensures that these ads will not be seen by a broader public of peers. Thus Spanish limits the
degree to which linguistic currency can be converted into cultural currency. It is important to
consider that the field itself functions as a field of competition for cultural legitimacy. While
Hispanic ad agents are creative advertising that will primarily run on Spanish language media,
their general market counterparts are consuming solely English language programming.

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Consequently, Spanish language advertising in the United States suffers from the fact that the
larger peer group will never see the advertising they produce. As a result, Hispanic agencies
suffer from limited cachet. Furthermore, because clients are watching ABC and not
Univision, they have relatively little personal investment in the Hispanic ads they are involved
with. In some cases, even Hispanic ad executives who work on Spanish language creative
admitted to having limited exposure to Spanish language media during their personal time.
During one interview, an agent who began her career in Latin America laments the
diminished role of her work here in the United States. She attributes this to the fact that the
work is in Spanish, which not the language of popular culture. Because Spanish is considered
a minority language, her work is invisible to both her peers and the larger public. When asked
to describe the differences between producing advertising in Argentina and producing it in the
United States, she describes a process in which Hispanic advertising is left out of popular
culture:
One of the biggest differences for me is that in Argentina, advertising is part of pop
culture. So whatever you put out there you hear people talking about it. And here it’s
much tougher to get a sense of what’s being talked about or what has buzz. It’s harder
to have a pulse on the market I would say. So in that sense it’s different. In Argentina,
you know if a campaign is working because you hear people talking about it. Whereas
here, you might have this feeling because you get one or two comments or you do a
focus group and people are talking about it but until you get the tracking you don’t
know the bigness of it.

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CHAPTER 8: DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS
This project has employed Bourdieu’s theoretical framework as an explanatory
mechanism in which to gain new understandings of ethnically targeted advertising and the
context in which it is produced. In doing so, we contribute to the current literature by
examining Hispanic advertising agencies not as members of an isolated community but as
part of a larger profession that has its own ideals and practices and operates within the
confines of its own particular logic. Furthermore, by focusing on the linguistic and ethnic
differences amongst agents within a given field, this project advances aspects of Bourdieu’s
theory that have previously been left under- explored.
In this final chapter, larger conclusions are drawn about how the dynamics involved
in the production of Hispanic advertising are tied to the larger issues concerning the U.S.
ethnic experience. To begin this discussion, the following example serves as an illustration
of how the logic of the field may ultimately shape the nature of the advertising message:
In 2006, Volkswagen of America’s Hispanic agency, Creative On Demand, produced
a Spanish language television spot for the Volkswagen Golf G.T.I. The spot, designed to
highlight the Golf’s performance capabilities, blended footage from a vintage Speedy
Gonzales cartoon with newly created animated footage featuring the Volkswagen Golf. The
premise of the spot is such: Speedy Gonzales, “the fastest mouse in all of Mexico” is first
seen telling his friends “no te preocupes!” (Don’t worry!). He then disappears and quickly
returns with a handful of cheese. The event happens so quickly that it is barely registered by
the human eye. At this point, the viewer is meant to believe that it is Speedy’s own
supernatural speed allows him to return with the cheese so quickly, however, the spot

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suddenly stops and the same sequence rewinds and is re-played at a slower pace. The slower
viewing reveals that, in actuality, Speedy has jumped into a Volkswagen Golf, has driven
quickly to a food processing factory, taken the cheese and returned. The spot concludes with
an end card that reads “Agarra Calle” (Hug the Road), the Hispanic alternative to the general
market tagline, “Drivers Wanted.”
According to the conventions of Hispanic advertising, the elements for a successful
commercial are certainly there. The spot is produced in Spanish, which minimizes barriers to
comprehension and also signifies to consumers that an attempt has been made by the marketer
to accommodate the needs of Hispanic audiences. Additionally, the ad includes a protagonist
with whom Latinos are meant to identify, thereby triggering in-group mechanisms that may
result in more favorable consumer responses. Finally, because the spot uses no originally
produced footage, there are not the typical expenses associated with professional talent and
on-site location. Thus, the ad has been produced within the confines of a limited budget.
Of the infinite strategies that an advertiser may use to market an automobile to a
consumer, why chose this one? A critical reading of the spot reveals several fundamental
shortcomings that may prove to be problematic for many Latino consumers. For example,
why use the character of Speedy Gonzales, an icon that has had a contested history in the
United States? While some may see Speedy as the embodiment of resourcefulness, others
have criticized the cartoon for its stereotypical depiction of Mexicans and Mexican life
(Nericcio, 2006). Furthermore, Speedy is distinctly Mexican and while he is intended as a
spokesperson for the Hispanic market, will Guatemalans, Chileans and other Latinos who are
not Mexican feel equally attached to him? Finally, what do consumers make of the fact that

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the spot looks nothing at all like other Volkswagen ads running on English language
television at the same time?
In many ways it might be argued that this spot is an inevitability of the logic of the
field that produced it and once an ad has been identified as Hispanic, the marketer has begun
the unavoidable process that ensures that ad will take this very form. But what if all who are
involved in this process are simply locked into a false logic, one that claims that consumer
segments reflect relationships that exist naturally in the social world?
By looking at the advertising industry as a social field, a primary objective of this
study has been to take a critical look at the very structure of the field as well as the
naturalized, taken for granted positions of various agents within the field. Furthermore, the
relational aspect of field theory requires the investigator to place the Hispanic agency in
relation to the general market agency. Finally, a theoretical assumption of this dissertation
project has been that the dynamics involved in the production of Hispanic advertising are
inextricably linked to dynamics at play in the larger social space and that the conversation
between marketers and Latino consumers is largely mediated by issues of class, race and
power. Thus, the structure of the field is shaped by values that are prevalent in the larger
culture.
This project supports Foucault’s insight (2006) that what is often presented as
objective, irrefutible discovery is in fact the product of a given social orientation. As it relates
to this discussion, the decision to isolate Hispanic consumers from general market consumers
may be less a consequence of actual consumer behaviors and more a function of where ethnic
minorities are positioned in the larger social hierarchy. For example, García Canclini (2001)

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observes the tendency in the United States to view ethnic identity as distinct and separate
from national identity and suggests that a “multiculturalism as separatism” view of ethnicity is
deeply embedded in class relations and antagonisms which inhibit a much more fluid or
plastic conception of national identity commonly found in other countries. Furthermore,
Acosta-Belén (1992) argues that ethnic experiences in the United States are not rooted solely
in specific cultural traditions or national characteristics, but are fundamentally shaped by
inter-group relations with each group (dominant and subordinate) placing itself within a
dichotomous relationship of “us” and “them.”
From this orientation, a Hispanic market/general market paradigm prevalent in the
U.S. advertising industry may be indicative of how social space is imagined by those who
dominate the field. The representation of space is not arbitrary. Rather, how somebody
categorizes, imagines and institutionalizes space is based on power relations and where one
lies in the social space determines their position in the power structure and, therefore, their
perspective. As it relates to this discussion, while the Los Angeles consumer marketplace is
highly pluralistic, the social world as imagined by marketers assumes a much different reality.
In the world of marketing, Latinos are disconnected from the consumer in general and are
relegated to the world of the niche.
Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts of field, habitus and capital have acted as useful
analytical tools for understanding the dynamics within the field of study but also in
understanding how the dynamics of the field are connected to larger cultural values. Here, we
elaborate on the findings of our three primary research questions:

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RQ1: What are the significant differences in the personal and professional habitus
between Hispanic ad agents and general market ad agents?
The agency business early on was prejudiced. No doubt about it. When I was running
out to see a client, if you brought someone who was a person of color, there was like a
“whoa, what’s this?” It was noted. Not today, but then it was. I mean I started in 1968
so there was prejudice, there just was. And everyone who was in the business was
somebody’s brother or son or uncle or whatever it was. It just worked that way. –
General market agent
A review of the literature suggests that the advertising industry has traditionally been
dominated by Anglo professionals born into privileged backgrounds. Furthermore, recent
news suggests that the industry has been resilient at resisting any significant diversification
despite formidable legal, cultural and economic pressure. As the disparity between the
advertising professional and the typical consumer has grown, new advertising agents who are
themselves ethnic minorities have been able to enter the field and carve out a small niche by
marketing their cultural expertise. But how is collaboration shaped when these agents are
ethnically and linguistically different from those who dominate the field?
To attribute the industry’s lack of diversity to overt discrimination would be a
simplification of social dynamics. Much of social theory is based on the premise that the
exercise of power is rarely conscious, calculated or intentional. Rather, power structures are
often reinforced through everyday practice. For example, sociologist Anthony Giddens
(1986) describes the inextricable link between human action and structure. Structures,
Giddens argues, are shaped by the moral codes, implicit rules and practices of individual
agents and the more that agents engage in these practices, the more the social structure is
reproduced. Like Giddens, Bourdieu is necessarily concerned with the relationship between
power and practice, which largely accounts the central role that “habitus” plays in field

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theory. While Bourdieu argues that the ideals and practices of individual agents play an
important role in the structure of the field, a more important assertion is that habitus dictates
where one is positioned within the field. In other words, there is the assumption that
seemingly unimportant issues such as wearing the right clothes, speaking the right form of
language and carrying oneself in a particular fashion are, in fact, quite important and
determine the degree to which one can fully participate in the field. To explore this issue
more fully, this project was interested in the degree to which Hispanic ad agents and general
market ad agents share the same practices, values and dispositions and to what degree are they
culturally and linguistically different. Furthermore, what do these differences mean in the
field of advertising and how do they determine how agents may succeed within the field?
It becomes clear from the research that there is a difference in habitus between
Hispanic agents and their general market counterparts, differences that are primarily cultural.
A significant number of Hispanic ad agents were born outside of the United States and their
bodies reflect the histories and cultural traditions of their countries of origin. Furthermore,
because these agents are not native to the United States, there is less of an embodied feel for
the game as it is played in this country. This is especially evident in one’s linguistic habitus.
In an industry in which speaking the professional form of English is simply the cost of entry,
speaking with an accent or not having access to the correct verbiage can be a liability.
It is inevitable that there will be significant incongruency between habitus and field
when members of an ethnic minority enter a field which has traditionally been dominated by
the ethnic majority. But incongruency is a matter of degrees and the incongruency between a
field and a habitus may be more pronounced in some informants versus others. Amongst Latin

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American elites the differences between themselves and their general market counterparts
may be minimized by a shared background of privilege. Latin American elites appeared to
have more intuitive feel for the fame and comfortable within the field. They are also more
likely to make use of established contacts to begin or advance their careers. Working class
Latinos, conversely, described a lack of having a natural feel for the game and the serendipity
of simply discovering that an industry even existed. In several cases, the incongruency
between the field and habitus were exacerbated by differences in socio-economic status.
Because these informants were not inculcated into the professional class at an early age, their
transition into the field was not as fluid.
This project also examined the professional habitus of the informants. The findings of
this research suggest that the Hispanic ad industry is based on the same principals as the
industry in general. Therefore, there is significant overlap between the professional habitus of
Hispanic ad agencies and general market agencies. The research also reveals, however, that
there are some substantial differences that are noteworthy. Several informants described the
culture of advertising is intense and highly competitive requiring unequivocal commitment on
the part of the agent demonstrated by long work hours. This approach to work appears to be
somewhat at odds with the culture of the Hispanic ad industry in which levity valued and in
which small talk plays an important role. The result of this disparity may lead to view that
Hispanic ad agencies are somewhat less professional in the eyes of Anglo clients and general
market counterparts.
RQ2: To what degree can Hispanic ad agents/agencies and general market
agents/agencies compete for the same forms of capital?

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In 1999, an anonymous copywriter wrote in Brandweek that ethnic agencies
essentially reside within ad ghettos, a belief long held by many in the advertising profession.
At the time, the copywriter argued that ethnic agencies essentially are forced to work within
the parameters of existing creative frameworks, sell ideas to Anglo clients who view their
culture stereotypically, are given less money to produce the same results and forced to work
under expedited deadlines. All pose tremendous obstacles to developing any meaningful
creative for ethnic consumers. While there has long been a suspicion about the existence of
an advertising ghetto, the findings of this research suggest that ten years after this article was
published, these same obstacles are still very relevant today.
A second line of inquiry was designed to examine how the position that Hispanic
agents occupy within the field dictates their ability to compete with general market agencies
for the some forms of capital. The findings of this research suggest that, like most exclusive
spaces, those who dominate the field attempt to re-produce it thus limiting the mobility of
new players. Furthermore, the ability for Hispanic agencies to compete for various forms of
capital is largely impeded by the very structure of the field. Because the Hispanic consumer
is considered niche rather than the norm, Hispanic agencies will be subordinated within the
larger profession.
When describing his agency, the founder and president indicated that “we’re not a
Hispanic agency, we’re an agency that happens to market to the Hispanic consumer.” To this
informant, the distinction is meaningful. The informant reports that he models his agency
after such creative agencies as Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and TBWA Chiat/Day but he
also recognizes that as a Hispanic agency he will not be considered in the same space as those

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others. Thus, the informant is astutely aware that the label of Hispanic agency is much too
limiting and places his agency in a realm in which he cannot fairly compete within the field.
This is not to say that the Hispanic market and the general market occupy two
mutually exclusive spaces. The structure of the field has proven to be highly contextual
where barriers become like sliding doors. In many cases, competition is not a two way street
and because general market agencies have more mobility within the field, they can often
challenge Hispanic agencies on their own terms. For example, while there are no legal
barriers that separate Hispanic agencies from general market agencies, direct formal
competition between the two is rare. Consider how new business is pitched and won. Except
in very rare cases, a Hispanic agency will almost never pitch against a general market agency
for the larger business. Thus, Hispanic agencies are limited in their ability to generate
significant economic capital compared to their general market counterparts. But the
testimonies reveal that general market agencies will often compete with Hispanic agencies for
the Hispanic part of the business. Thus, general market agencies have more mobility allowing
them to pursue greater economic gain.
With less economic capital, many Hispanic agencies are constrained in their ability to
acquire other forms of capital. For example, without significant economic capital, many
Hispanic agencies cannot invest significant monies in creative talent and infrastructure
necessary to produce award winning creative, an artifact that serves as an agencies primary
form of cultural currency. Furthermore, the interviews suggest that relatively fewer dollars
are invested in the production of Hispanic advertising compared to general market advertising
thus undermining the amount and quality of Hispanic creative. The disparity between

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Hispanic agencies and general market agencies is exacerbated by the fact that most Hispanic
agencies are small agencies and particularly vulnerable to external or market forces, causing
them to be conservative. Without any economic leverage, Hispanic agencies must defer to
clients demands at the risk of compromising creative integrity.
Finally, there is evidence that linguistic capital can be converted into economic
capital. Because most agencies do not possess the linguistic skills necessary to reach many
Latino consumers, Spanish becomes a profit of distinction. The study indicates that its
currency, however, is diminished by where Spanish stands within the linguistic hierarchy.
Senior level conversations almost exclusively occur in English and without a proficiency in
the correct form of English, one cannot fully participate in those discussions. Conversely,
Spanish language copywriting is seen neither as a creative nor a rhetorical expertise, as it is in
English, but is generally considered to be a technical skill that can be handled at the junior
level. Finally, creative that runs on Spanish language media ensures that most of that peer
group will never see it. Because cultural capital is largely dependent on the legitimization of
a community of peers, Spanish becomes a significant obstacle to a Hispanic agency’s ability
to generate cultural capital.
RQ3: To what degree can Hispanic ad agencies act as transformative or conservative
agents within the field?
The third and final question posed in this study inquired about the degree to which
Hispanic ad agencies can act as either transformative or conservative agents within the field.
Because of the dynamic nature of the field, transformative agencies are those that can adapt to
the dynamic changes in the marketplace and that can provide a service or expertise that is

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currently unmet by other agencies. From this perspective, it makes intuitive sense that
Hispanic agencies might provide a unique contribution to the industry. Hispanic agencies
may offer an alternative perspective to the mainstream, tell new kinds of stories or, at
minimum, cast faces that are not typically seen in most television commercials.
The findings of this study suggest, however, Hispanic agencies lack significant levels
of capital that allow them to act as transformative agents within the field. Because Hispanic
ad agencies possess relatively lower levels of economic, cultural and linguistic capital,
collaboration with other partners becomes a difficult endeavor. For example, one informant, a
Hispanic ad agent, recounts an experience in which a client, seeking synergy for its campaign,
hired the general market agency and the Hispanic agency simultaneously. In theory, the idea
was for both to collaborate on the advertising, each bringing a different perspective to the
same campaign. The informant quickly learned that this ideal would not be achieved when
the two agents begin a discussion how to deal with the logic of a single brand spokes-
character speaking two separate languages. The creative director at the general market
agency argued that the spokesperson should speak Spanish in a gringo accent. The Hispanic
market representative contested this idea feeling that the Latino consumer would not respond
well to this approach. After some debate, the informant reports a shift in the nature of the
relationship where the general market agency distances itself from the Hispanic agency.
Here, the informant describes the incident:
The first decision that had to be made, I’ll never forget this one. (The creative
director) and I were at a vending machine and arguing about casting. …So I remember
having this discussion with (the creative director) and him looking at me like I was
from the planet Mars. He just really didn’t want to deal with me. And then he
basically said “you know, I think it would be better if we just worked separately. I

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understand that you need to do what you need to do, but I need to focus on my brand.”
But I wasn’t trying to separate the two things I was trying to unify the two things. But
it didn’t work because his approach was you go your way, I’ll go mine. And I get that.
It was just sort of like, “I get that you need to do Hispanic but I don’t want to be a part
of it.” It’s like he really just didn’t want to deal with it.
The testimony reveals that because the Hispanic agency has overstepped its
boundaries, it has been shut out from strategic discussions that can shape the campaign in
meaningful ways. Furthermore, when the creative director asserts that he needs to “focus on
my brand,” the division of labor becomes clear. The general market agency is positioned as
the steward of the brand while the Hispanic agency conversely, is relegated to the periphery.
Because the Hispanic agency has economic and creative capital, the general market has little
motivation to collaborate. Conversely, the Hispanic agency does not have the leverage to
insert itself into the process.
Hispanic Advertising and the Future of the Field
As we consider the future of the advertising industry two things will almost certainly
happen. First, the country will continue to become more and more diverse and the chasm that
exists between marketers and consumers will continue to grow. If one heeds the growth
projections, the Latino presence in the United States will be particularly pronounced.
In 2000, the national census alerted marketers to the economic opportunity that exists
within the Hispanic market and they have responded by investing more money into Hispanic
advertising. Over the course of ten years, U.S. Hispanic ad spending has grown from 1.4
billion in 1997 (Valdes, 2002) to just over 3.9 billion in 2007 (Advertising Age, 2008). While
investment in Hispanic advertising has grown steadily, the research suggests that Hispanic

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advertising lags behind general market advertising, particularly in creative development and
execution.
As the consumer landscape changes, advertisers will need to find ways to speak to
Latino consumers in relevant and meaningful ways. An anonymous copywriter articulated
this sentiment well when he wrote the following:
There are certain insights that only a black or a Latino person can bring to advertising.
You can’t fake it with music or casting. You either know it or you don’t. There’s
nothing more offensive than “trying to be down” with another culture in order to sell a
product. Consumers know when they’re being had. We may think that we’re fooling
them but we’re not (Brandweek, 1999, p. 28).
The point that the author is making is that cultural relevance continues to be an
important factor in persuasive messaging and that marketers must pay more critical attention
to their ethnically targeted efforts. Ultimately, as the Latino population grows and they
become a more formidable economic force, the industry will have to respond and staff
accordingly. Or perhaps the changing demography will necessarily result in a more
diversified talent pool making it harder for agencies to proceed along the path of ethnic
homogeneity.
While this may be a long-term destination but there is no indication that this will
happen anytime soon. Change generally does not occur without resistance and the advertising
industry has proven to be highly adept at perpetuating the status quo. Like other integration
efforts, the effort to diversify the advertising industry has not been an easy process and
despite intense political pressure there has been little significant change. During the
interviews, an informant describes the frustration of trying to prompt diversity within the
industry:

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Back in the 70s the attorney general made an investigation and said “you guys are
being discriminatory in your hiring practices.” So, thirty years later they come back
and they’re looking at it again and are saying “you guys are still fucking around. You
still haven’t done it.”…If I were to go public with some of the H.R. directors have told
me, there would be major lawsuits…they’re only hiring people at the lower level.
In Los Angeles, the Minority Advertising Program was established to specifically
address the industry’s lack of diversity by placing qualified people of color into entry-level
positions with the hope that they would be groomed for senior level positions. While MAT
has been in existence for sixteen years, the program has yielded inconclusive results and today
there is no clear evidence that advertising agencies in Los Angeles have achieved any
significant diversity. An informant who is closely involved with the Minority Advertising
Program firmly believes that despite its goal of helping ethnic minorities find their way into
advertising jobs, these candidates still face barriers to entry and are essentially limited to
junior level positions. During his interview, the informant expresses a frustration that ethnic
candidates appear to be excluded from senior level positions:
It pisses me off. It fucking angers me to see that they have all these qualified people
that are working at these agencies but yet nobody’s giving them the opportunities to
work at senior level positions at these general market agencies. Does that mean
nobody’s qualified?
While diversity may not be a self-initiated process, competition within the Hispanic
space marketplace may ultimately hold the key to significant change. As more and more
agencies enter the field, it is not merely enough to say that one simply does Hispanic
advertising. Rather it becomes necessary for agencies to seek profits of distinction that
complicate the status quo. The advertising landscape that was encountered during the course
of this study was not necessarily the one that Dávila found which she described as derivative,

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simplified and stereotypical. Rather, there were a number of examples of creative work that
could rival the most competitive general market creative.
Although there has been significant creative progress, strategic thinking still appears
to be underdeveloped. Through the course of several interviews, Hispanic advertising was
often equated with Spanish language advertising but rarely accounted for the linguistic and
cultural complexity of most U.S. Latinos. Furthermore, the construct of “Hispanic” is
currently so inclusive that it has long been at risk of collapsing under its own weight. Today,
new agencies are beginning the process of finding new ways of looking at the Hispanic
consumer that go beyond one-dimensional characterizations. As competition increases, newer
and more nuanced ways of understanding the Latino consumer may emerge. For example, in
many urban settings there is little difference between African Americans and Latinos.
Furthermore, Latinos are currently relegated to the Spanish-speaking world, but this approach
does not account for the widespread use of English and code-mixing among most Latino
consumers. As traditional notions Latino identity become complicated, new representations
that that reflect different racial and linguistic nuances may emerge.
Grooming Future Talent
What ex-patriot recruiting doesn’t give you is young talent. Because of Special O (O-
1) visas, which are based on talent, merit based visas. You have to have a body of
work. It’s a special skills visa which is different from the regular, every day visa. So
most of our creatives come with a special skills visa because their work is award
winning and we can use them. – Hispanic ad agent
The interviews have revealed the common practice of importing talent from Latin
America due to a belief that there is little qualified local talent. After 9-11, it has become
more difficult to acquire the specialized visas necessary to bring in foreign talent.

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Furthermore, importing talent acts as a stop-gap measure but there is a need to find a longer
term solution. Informants described advertising as a highly insular profession where entry
into the industry is largely reliant on the social networks to which one has access. Several
informants have suggested that this may account for the conspicuous absence of Latino
candidates. While Latino elites could tap into their social networks, working class Latinos,
who are not connected into the advertising network, simply do not have an awareness of how
the industry operates nor do they have the contacts necessary to gain access to the field. Here,
an informant describes the problem:
The problem is, how many students are out there that may have the skill set but aren’t
aware of the industry. How do you contact those students? How do you reach them
and say, you know, there’s an industry out there. I was talking to some people over at
Disney, they have a program where they go out and speak to children in grammar
schools because ideally that’s where you want to do it.
Here, the informant is suggesting that the private sector take an active role in
generating awareness amongst Latino students. This is an insight that appears to be closer to
realization in the New York ad community. In a separate interview, another informant
describes an effort underway in the East Coast. In this case, a cooperative effort between
corporations and government entities are developing schools in which advertising production
can be formally taught. Here, the informant describes the initiative:
Right now, the New York Four A’s is working on a school that is going to be in
Brooklyn. It’s in place. The Brooklyn borough president has let his go forward. The
(ad) community has put up some money and the teachers are going to be from the ad
industry…and right now I’m trying to get through to our mayor to see if we can do
that sort of program here. Because the issue now becomes don’t tell young people
they can’t go anywhere. Encourage them to come into advertising. Get the bright
young minds. Bring them in because we don’t have to deal with a lot of these issues
anymore. You just don’t.

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Limitations and Future Direction
While this investigation has provided several important insights into the relationship
between the production of Hispanic advertising and larger cultural values, there are several
limitations that must be acknowledged. First, this investigation has been situated in Los
Angeles, a city that holds a significant Latino presence. We must, however, acknowledge the
uniqueness of the city as it relates to this topic.
The city of Los Angeles occupies a unique space in U.S. Latino culture. While Los
Angeles continues to be a primary reception area for new immigrants, Latinos have also been
integral to the city since its founding in 1781. Once a territory of Spain, and then Mexico, the
city’s history has been shaped the relationship between Mexican Americans and the Anglo
population. Furthermore, Spanish language media has long played an important role in the
city’s Latino community. Because of the significant impact on the city’s cultural importance,
Los Angeles has been seen as a case study for what’s to come nationally. One informant
discusses how the city reveals larger implications for the Hispanic advertising industry:
I think L.A. is going to be the true incubus of what’s going to happen to Hispanics in
this country. Because San Antonio and Miami, what I would consider two cities of
significance, in the general landscape, they’re not as important. They’re, what?
Number eighteen and number twenty-eight in size? But they’re big enough that they
wouldn’t be considered small markets. They are both majority Hispanic but they look
totally different, don’t they? They act totally different. Now L.A. is one that is now
majority Hispanic. It’s not over fifty but it’s still the majority population where the
largest group is Hispanic. Where are they gonna go? Are they going to be like San
Antonio or are they going to be like Miami? And it’s an anthropologist’s dream
because the one that you think…high income, high education…would lead to
assimilation but it’s exactly the opposite. It’s the one that has embraced its Latin-ness.
And San Antonio hasn’t and it’s lost it…so why aren’t we pouring resources into
fielding studies about what advertising is going to look like. What’s marketing going
to look like?

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While Los Angeles is profoundly influential in Hispanic advertising, in the larger
advertising landscape the city is still a regional market. Globally, the center of advertising is
New York and by limiting our study to Los Angeles we are removed from the larger
economic and global influences that shape the industry. Furthermore, Latinos of Mexican
origin dominate the Los Angeles Hispanic community and do not reflect the racial and ethnic
diversity of U.S. Latino population as a whole. Future research should examine similar
dynamics in other U.S. markets with high Hispanic density.
Furthermore, future research should focus on the global implications of ethnically
targeted advertising. Transnational migration has become commonplace in the global era and
various countries have employed various strategies for designing persuasive efforts intended
to reach ethnic and linguistic minorities. The findings of this study are not meant to be highly
specific to Los Angeles but raise several important issues about the relationship between
national identity, ethnic identity and consumer identity. As advertising becomes an
increasingly global phenomenon there is a need to understand the various contexts in which
national marketers reach out linguistic and cultural minorities. For example, are the strategies
used to persuade French-speaking consumers in Canada similar to those designed to attract
Moroccan consumers in France? Furthermore, how are these efforts reflective of the social
dynamics and national histories of these respective countries?
A second limitation of this study is its focus on the internal logic of the field but the
project may benefit from further investigation that interrogates larger socio-cultural
implications. For example, this study has found that the structure of the field impedes the
ability of Hispanic agents/agencies to compete directly with general market agents/agencies.

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But what is the cost of succeeding? To “win,” according to the logic of the field, means that
Hispanic agencies become more central to a field that reproduces itself, thus leading to an
overall homogenization of messaging. But we must also consider what has been lost. To what
degree have larger, global brands pushed out smaller, more culturally relevant ones? To gain
this perspective, future research must also include an audit of Hispanic advertising since the
emergence of U.S. Spanish language media almost two hundred years ago. As Hispanic
agencies move toward direct competition with general market agencies, will there be a space
in which Latinos can be spoken to a new way? Or does the homogenization of culture
through advertising eventually become complete? Future research should focus on the nature
of advertising messages how they have evolved over the past several decades.
Finally, the research revealed a complicated relationship between social space and
physical space the implications of which must be further explored in future research. Rapid
developments in communications technology have connected people globally much in which
the same way that newspapers, radio, and film connected the nation state during the 20
th

century. But the role that multinational corporations have played in re-structuring space has
been profound. While maps themselves are largely fictions, space today is less defined by a
nation’s territorial limits and political history but more as interpretive communities of
consumers. Multinational corporations have played a significant role in re-shaping social
space and it has been widely acknowledge the fact that division of labor has been reallocated
across multi-national lines. The tension between local and global dynamics that have been
raised in this study must be further explored. For example, informants report that Hispanic
agencies are unable to compete directly with U.S. agencies in most creative awards shows.

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However, they can compete internationally against countries that fall under the rubric of
Ibero-America. In these competitions, the U.S. Hispanic market is treated as a de-facto nation
but does not enjoy the benefits of the nation state. What does it mean when an agency based
in Los Angeles must compete directly with an agency in Argentina but cannot compete
directly with one down the street? Furthermore, why must an Argentine copywriter shoot a
commercial in Columbia using Columbian talent in order to reach a Latino living in Los
Angeles?
Conclusion: Challenging Existing Paradigms
This investigation took place during an election year in which Barack Obama was
elected the forty-fourth President of the United States. Obama’s candidacy and subsequent
victory raised some important issues regarding the complexity of race in America, which has
literally been a black and white proposition. There was much enthusiasm for Obama’s
candidacy amongst Hispanic ad agents and while this enthusiasm may be attributed to the
energy of the campaign, several informants considered this to be a watershed moment that has
tremendous implications for the work they do. If traditional notions of ethnic identity are
being contested, then one must also question the notion of a Hispanic market/general market
model. One informant describes this moment in history:
If you looked at (the coverage from) Grant Park, you had white guys and you had
white women and you had Hispanic women and you had African Americans. You had
Asians and you had old and you had young. And I’m not trying to be political here,
but you had to be struck by (the difference between) the Grant Park picture and the
pictures at the Arizona Biltmore…the McCain/Palin picture. Because the general
market is Grant Park, it is everybody. But the Biltmore was heavily skewed toward a
pretty homogeneous audience of people. And we’ve been used to a Hispanic world
and a general market world but really the world has changed and you’ve gotta ask who
is the general market?

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What the informant is speaking to is a post-racial America in which most of the
consumer population will consist of ethnic minorities. In 2008, the U.S. Census bureau
reported that racial minorities will account for a majority of the country’s population by 2042.
Among Americans under the age of 18, this shift is expected to take place earlier, in 2023. A
recent Atlantic Monthly article put it this way, “as a purely demographic matter, ‘white
America’ may cease to exist in 2040, 2050 or 2060, or later still. But where the culture is
concerned, it’s already all but finished” (Hsu, 2009, p. 45).
A Hispanic market/general model is based firmly in the belief of two mutually
exclusive consumers: a general market audience that consumes English language media and a
Hispanic consumer that consumes Spanish language media. In days past, this model may
have made more intuitive sense. Old acculturation models ensured that new immigrants
would eventually abandon their native language and culture and assimilate into the
mainstream culture. Once the immigrant transitioned fully into the dominant culture, they
could fairly be categorized as part of the general market. Today, these models no longer
hold up. Ethnic cultures retain their identities and, in many cases, U.S. born Latinos are retro-
acculturating, or reestablishing meaningful ties to their cultural heritage. Furthermore, the
proliferation of Spanish language media has made it easier for Latinos to accomplish their
identity goals. The blurring of lines has complicated traditional notions of ethnic identity. Is
a consumer with a Spanish surname, who watches primarily English media but strongly self
identifies as Latino a legitimate member of the Hispanic market? If so how does one market
to this consumer?

156
The status quo, however, still exists despite dramatic changes in the population. We
still live within the boundaries of social structures that continue to prevail. But how long
before the paradigms such as the Hispanic market-general market paradigm no longer hold
weight. The interviews provided no evidence that they are going away anytime soon. One
informant describes the prevalence of existing disparities in today’s advertising landscape:
And even the terminology “general market.” We use it because it’s in our psyche, but
what’s general market? The reality is that general market has become code for
advertising in English to Anglos. And we’ve been so lopped into these silos and the
advertising community and I’ll just say it straight, because the ad industry is about to
get sued for lack of representation because the ad industry hasn’t changed that much
since Mad Men, except for women meaning we don’t get as sexually harassed as we
used to and we have a few better jobs. When you look at the general market, the
diversity is shockingly lacking and these are the image makers of today.
Ultimately, the informant is suggesting that the logic of the field structures the field of
competition. To undo this logic is not easily accomplished despite the influence of external
forces. During the course of the interviews, several Hispanic informants were aware that they
were relegated to the Hispanic space but expressed a desire to be allowed to compete on equal
footing with general market agencies. There is hope in this idea. García Canclini’s
Consumers and Citizens is largely dedicated to the idea that the marketplace, rather than the
political forum, becomes the incubus for social change. In other words, the pursuit of greater
economic gain may ultimately be the driver in this movement. During the various
testimonies, only one instance was reported in which the Hispanic agency challenged the
general market agency for the overall brand direction. The product was for toilet paper in
which Latinos accounted for a significant portion of the brand’s consumers. She describes the
process:

157
Our ads tested so well in Spanish and they increase sales by, I don’t know how much.
And the client said can you do them in English and we’ll test them with our general
market. And depending on which of the two does better it’s going to air in the general
market. (The client) said, “I will put on the air whatever sells. And if my general
market work is going to outplay your work then I’ll put it on your airwaves. And if
you’re work outsells my general market agency work then that’s what I’m going to go
with. So there are no sacred cows here.”
If the Spanish language concept tests well with consumers, then the general market
agency will be in the awkward position of having to adapt a Hispanic spot for Anglo
consumers. While this process is not the norm, it provides a glimpse of a competitive arena in
which the best idea can win.

158
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166
APPENDIX A:
Sensitizing Concepts (Hispanic Advertising Executives)
I. Individual level questions
a. Can you tell me a little about yourself?
i. Probe for country of origin/native language
b. Brief professional history
c. Can you define your present profession and your main tasks and
responsibilities?
d. What are the skills that allow you to function within that capacity?
II. Organizational level questions
a. Can you describe the agency culture?
b. How beholden are you to the general market campaign?
c. Who is your point person at the client?
d. How do budgets typically get allocated?
e. How does account size impact how you conduct business?
f. When pitching new business, how does the agency sell itself versus its
competitors? Why does a new client select this agency over others?
III. Industry level questions
a. What makes good advertising?
i. What makes good Hispanic advertising?
b. How is good advertising evaluated within the industry?
c. What awards shows does the agency compete in?

167
i. Do they compete with general market agencies or Hispanic agencies?
d. What are the important professional organizations to which you belong? Are
these organizations useful? In what way?
e. What agencies in the industry are particularly strong agencies in the field?

168
APPENDIX B:
Sensitizing Concepts (General Market Advertising Executives)
I. Individual level questions
II. Can you give me a little background about yourself?
a. Where were you born and raised?
b. Brief professional history
c. Can you define your present profession and your main tasks and
responsibilities?
d. What are the skills that allow you to function within that capacity?
III. Organizational level questions
a. Can you describe the agency culture
b. What kind of employees does (name of agency) hire?
c. How does account size impact how you conduct business?
d. When you are pitching new business, how does the agency sell itself versus its
competitors? Why does a new client select this agency over others?
e. Does your agency ever produce advertising for Hispanic consumers?
f. In those cases, is the agency primarily responsible or do you work with a
Hispanic agency?
g. Can you describe that working relationship?

169
IV. Industry level questions
a. What work are you most proud of? Why?
b. What makes good advertising?
c. What makes good advertising possible?
d. How is good advertising evaluated within the industry?
e. How would you characterize Hispanic advertising?
f. Look for systematic measures (billings? Return on investment? Awards?)
g. Probe for industry awards (symbolic capital)
h. What agencies in the industry are particularly strong agencies in the field?
i. Where is the industry going?

170
APPENDIX C:
Sensitizing Concepts (National Clients)
I. Individual level questions
f. Can you give me a little about yourself?
g. Where were you born and raised?
h. Brief professional history
i. What are your present profession and your main tasks and responsibilities?
j. What are the skills that allow you to function within that capacity?
II. Organizational level questions
k. Can you describe the culture at (name of company)
l. How ethnically diverse is your company?
m. Where did the decision to market to Latinos come from?
i. Probe for bottom up or top down processes
ii. What kind of data did you rely on to make your decisions
n. Who in your company is primarily responsible for Hispanic advertising?
o. How does the agency typically take you through a creative campaign?
p. Do you speak Spanish?
q. How does this impede your ability to evaluate the creative concept?
r. Do you work with a separate agency for Hispanic advertising or do you work
primarily work with your agency of record?
s. How are budgets allocated?
t. What decisions go into how resources will be allocated?

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Asset Metadata

Creator Chávez, Christopher A. (author)

Core Title Hispanic advertising as social orientation: an examination of the advertising industry as a field of cultural production

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Communication

Degree Conferral Date 2009-08

Publication Date 08/09/2009

Defense Date 05/01/2009

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag advertising,Bourdieu,Hispanic,Latino,OAI-PMH Harvest,social field

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Ball-Rokeach, Sandra (committee member), Cody, Michael J. (committee member), Folkes, Valerie (committee member), McLaughlin, Margaret (committee member), Murphy, Sheila (committee member)

Creator Email chavezc@usc.edu,chavezdeleon@yahoo.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m2555

Unique identifier UC1454500

Identifier etd-Chavez-3017 (filename),usctheses-m40 (legacy collection record id),usctheses-c127-260600 (legacy record id),usctheses-m2555 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-Chavez-3017.pdf

Dmrecord 260600

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Chávez, Christopher A.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu