Ban the Bandito!

By Octavio Emilio Nuiry

Madison Avenue takes a more sophisticated approach to Latino stereotypes

Some of the stereotypes about Hispanics have a long, deplorable history in American media. Others are much more subtle--modern negative portraits based upon old prejudices. Meanwhile, new stereotypes are appearing. But one thing is certain. Researchers are nearly clueless as to how to interpret and eradicate negative images of Latinos in advertising.

Thieving Rascal

In 1967 Foote, Cone, and Belding, one of the nation's largest advertising agencies, created a television and magazine campaign for the Frito-Lay Corporation that featured a caricature of a fat, mustachioed Mexican bandit called the "Frito Bandito." The cartoon appeared on television screens and in magazine ads across the United States. On TV, "Frito," as the character was known, had a thick Spanish accent, a long handlebar mustache, a huge sombrero (complete with a bullet hole), and a pair of six-shooters. Magazine advertisements appeared as bullet-ridden "Wanted" posters, issuing a reward for the sly Mexican bandito. The print ads warned: "He loves cronchy [sic] Fritos corn chips so much he'll stop at nothing to get yours. What's more, he's cunning, clever--and sneaky!"

While "Frito" sold a lot of corn chips, the bandito image sparked a showdown with the Mexican American community, pitting the burly bandit and his creators against a rising tide of Latino objection. The Mexican American Anti-Defamation Committee called for banning the Bandito, charging that the campaign carried the "racist message" that Mexicans are "sneaky thieves."

In the December 22, 1969, issue of Newsweek, a columnist wrote, "Frito-Lay has been as touchy as a sunburned Chihuahua about its chubby Mexican thief." William Raspberry, in his Washington Post column, blasted Frito-Lay, saying, "The point is that the ethnic stereotypes, bad enough no matter who they depict, are intolerable when they pick on people who are daily victims of American racism. And if the point had escaped those who created the Frito Bandito ads, the complaints from Mexican Americans have removed whatever innocence there may have been."

Due to mounting public pressure, the "bandito" campaign ended in 1970. Lynn Markley, a spokeswoman for Frito-Lay in Plano, Texas, refused to talk about the banned bandit, but acknowledged that "We ended the Frito Bandito [campaign] several years ago--even though it was well received."

Filtered Through Anglo Eyes

"I don't know," replied Lisa Navarrete, communications director for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). Every year, the NCLR commissions a report on Latino images on television shows. "We have studied Hispanic images on television but not in advertising." But, she added, "a subtle stereotype that worries me is that all Hispanics are immigrants."

That image is prevalent in a radio "contest" from the Lansing, Michigan, suburb of Holt. As reported by Hispanic Link, in 1994 station WJXQ-FM staged a Cinco de Mayo "contest" offering listeners their "own personal Mexican." A legal trailer intones: "Members of the station and their families are not eligible to own Mexicans--bathing and delousing of Mexicans is winner's responsibility. Stations assumes no responsibility for infectious diseases carried by Mexicans."

Fortunately, such offensive stereotyped advertisements (or in-house promotions, in this case) rarely appear in large ad campaigns today. That's not because Madison Avenue has suddenly developed a social conscience. Rather, corporations and advertising agencies have become aware of the tremendous economic muscle of Hispanic consumers and don't want to offend the growing Hispanic market.

Already numbering 27 million--about equal to the population of Canada--the U.S. Hispanic market is growing five times faster than the general U.S. population and is expected to reach 30 million by the year 2000, surpassing African Americans as the largest racial minority group. According to U.S. Census figures, Hispanics, as a consumer group, are younger as an overall population and spend $240 billion annually.

"Minorities now appear in advertisements for automobiles, computers, clothing, liquor, and cigarettes, as well as in corporate image advertising, yet most of these ads are found in Latino media," said Lisa Peñaloza, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

But there is a dilemma, argues Peñaloza. "Latinos are invisible in general-interest media yet appear in rich, luxurious images in Latino media." Pen~aloza and other experts claim that mainstream advertisers still portray a distorted view of Latinos in America. In the general-interest advertising world, Hispanics appear as hired help, disadvantaged children, or as tokenistic members of a group in corporate message ads.

Félix Gutiérrez and Clint Wilson II, in their groundbreaking 1985 book Minorities and Media, write, "Advertisers in the U.S. have reflected the place of minorities in the social fabric of the nation by either ignoring them or, when they have been included in advertisements for the mass media audience, by processing and presenting them so as to make them palatable salespersons for the products being advertised. Advertising images, they conclude, rather than showing minorities as they really were, portrayed minorities as filtered through Anglos' eyes."

From Bandito to Urban Gangster

"Perhaps in a medium in which everything is reduced to sound bites and fifteen-second spots, stereotypes are inevitable," concluded Marye C. Tharp, an associate professor of advertising at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Creators of Hispanic stereotypes employ a variety of means to make their points," added Gail Stern, director of the Historical Society of Princeton. "Accented English, clothing, caricatures, hairstyles, mannerisms--all have been employed by advertisers to amuse Anglo consumers, grab their attention, or play on their prejudices."

For decades, crude and condescending images of Hispanics appeared in newsprint, radio, and TV advertisements. Generally, Hispanic images in advertising were oversimplifications of Latinos without consideration of individual differences. Later, advertisers softened--and some even retired--images because of complaints from Hispanic groups.

Luis Reyes, author of The Mask of Zorro: Mexican Americans in Popular Media, points out that four common Hispanic stereotypes: the bandit, the Latin lover, the Latina spitfire, and the sweet sen~orita. Besides the Mexican bandit stereotype, a second advertising myth romanticized Latina women, who appeared as Spanish spitfires. These two myths, however, are notoriously inconsistent. The bandit image still appears in western movies and on network television, whlie the spitfire myth has invaded your kitchen.

Chiquita Banana: Sexy Señorita

In the sixties, Chiquita Banana aired television ads showing an overtly sexual figure dancing the rumba and singing her famous "I'm Chiquita Banana" jingle complete with a heavily Spanish accent. Even the ubiquitous blue and yellow Chiquita sticker--placed on countless bananas in local grocery stores--still carries the fruit headdress and gaudy costumes worn by Carmen Miranda.

Facing ever-increasing competition for Hispanic consumers, advertisers are spending more and becoming more sophisticated. Only a few years ago, most advertisers merely translated ads into Spanish. Now increasing numbers are creating ads especially designed for the Hispanic audience--with a separate ad strategy to match.

"There was a time when advertisers would run English-language ads dubbed in Spanish. Back then, you would see English-speaking actors on Spanish-language television. Today, you see Hispanics interacting with Hispanics," said Gregg Cebrzynski, managing editor of Marketing News.

Nowadays Hispanic celebrities reign in Spanish-language TV commercials, selling everything from nachos to Nissans. Cristina Saralegui, a popular Univision talk show host, pitches long distance telephone services for AT&T. Comedian Paul Rodriguez pitches Pepsi. Mexican boxing champ Julio César Chávez hawks Coors Beer. Boxer Oscar de la Hoya sells deodorant. Even public service announcements use Rita Moreno and Edward James Olmos to urge Hispanics to register and vote and Jimmy Smits sings the praises of mentoring. This formula has been successful and offers the advantage of replacing the offensive images of the past with a more positive approach.

The impetus to cast Hispanics in leading roles in Spanish-language TV commercials comes from a new understanding among advertisers that Hispanics and non-Hispanics can not be reach by the same ads.

But not all stereotyping is negative, claims advertising professor Tharp. "Asians, for example, are thought of as the 'model minority' because they are all perceived to be good in math and science. Not all Asian students, however, are good in math."

In the early years, Hispanics were usually portrayed in crude and condescending images that catered to popular prejudices, but outraged the Hispanic community, which boycotted the products, forcing advertisers to either sanitize or end stereotypical portrayals of Hispanics.

In the seventies and eighties, advertisers softened the images because of complaints from Hispanic groups and the growing sophistication of the advertising community. During this period, Madison Avenue made a pivotal strategic shift, featuring Hispanics in English-language mainstream television spots for the first time. Many beer commercials highlighted Hispanic sports figures and other personalities as spokesmen.

Don't Drink the Water

Soon, Hispanic images in ads began to grow. Actor Ricardo Montalban got into the spokesperson business hawking cars and watches. Montalban extolled the virtues of the Chrysler Cordoba's rich "Corinthian leather" on general market TV and also pitched watches on Spanish-language TV. Advertisers even began running Spanish-language ads on network TV. PepsiCo's Chayanne ads on CBS during the 1989 Grammy Awards marked the first time a Spanish-only ad aired on a mainstream network television.

But the nineties marked a "new foray" for Hispanic advertising, according to Cebrzynski. For the first time, advertisers are producing Spanish-language commercials in which Hispanics are interacting with non-Hispanics. In a new Anheuser-Busch commercial, a Latino defensive football player heads the football soccer style. The ads focuses on the theme of U.S. Hispanics interacting with mainstream Americans.

Still, Hispanics have yet to break into general media ad portrayals the way African Americans have done in the past decade, but hot prime time stars like Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Lopez, and Cheech Marin may help pave the way.

Far from dead, Hispanic images have been an integral part of American advertising history. Although market-driven advertising has cleaned up its historical depictions of Latinos, the new stereotypes continue to be refined.