| 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. |
