Colourism in commercial and governmental advertising in Mexico: 'International latino', racism and ethics

Abstract

By employing a mixed methodology, in-depth interviews with different professionals involved in the development and implementation of advertising projects and a quantitative study (n = 500) of casting requests, in this article the expressions of colourist racism in commercial and governmental advertising in Mexico are analysed. The present study is based on two main axes of analysis: (1) the frequency with which people with certain physiognomic traits are requested for advertising campaigns in Mexico; (2) the underlying logic that is implied in the selection of actors and models, depending on the nature and the contents of the campaigns. It is concluded that this selection process is based on explicit colourist discrimination, one of the expressions of racism that is socio-historically linked to the construction of Mexican society and the nation. In this selection there exists a steady tendency to exclude people with 'indigenous' traits from commercial advertising, as well as people with dark skin tones, who are usually requested for governmental ads. However, the same trend also exists in commercial publicity in respect to people with stereotypical 'European' or 'Caucasian' traits, leaving 'international Latino' as the most requested profile and an ambiguous category that is far away from representing the bio-cultural diversity of the Mexican population. These observed tendencies raise many ethical issues about symbolic and structural (re)production of colourism within Mexican society. Therefore, the social and ethical responsibility of advertising is also discussed with publicists and casting directors.