How Hispanic bilinguals' cultural stereotypes shape advertising persuasiveness

Given the size of the Hispanic bilingual market in the United States, it is important to understand the relative effectiveness of using English versus Spanish when advertising to these consumers. This research proposes that Hispanic bilinguals' cultural stereotypes about the users of Spanish living in America are a potent determinant of which language is most effective in advertising. Depending on the favorableness of these cultural stereotypes, our results show that Spanish may be persuasively superior, inferior, or functionally equivalent to English in creating favorable attitudes toward the advertised product. The uniqueness of cultural stereotypes about Spanish users in shaping the influence of an ad's language is underscored by our findings that cultural stereotypes about English users do not exert similar effects in determining the relative persuasiveness of advertising in English or Spanish. The paper offers suggestions for advertising practice and future research.