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.
It could hardly be doubted that the contents of the mass media are one of the main areas where different stereotypes are (re)produced and massified. Children and adults learn them, which subsequently influences how people perceive and relate to each another. Consequently, the contents of the media are a symbolic space of informal learning. The media participates in the construction of collective imaginaries where people recognize themselves and which represent what they have a ‘right to be’, expect and desire (
On the individual-subjective level, the (re)production of certain social imaginaries in the media can be highly harmful. People that belong to social groups that are stereotyped as socially and/or economically disadvantaged tend to underestimate their abilities; something that often worsens in situations when they are reminded, through the media, about a distinctive feature of their group that places them at a disadvantage (
In the present investigation, the analysis of racism is prioritised in a very particular media product which is the advertising. Due to its main function – to increase the consumption of the advertised product – ads can be considered as one of the main arenas for the construction and objectification of desire. Therefore, they simultaneously function as one of the principal instruments of the legitimation of stereotypes and the normalisation of exclusion. In addition to the message of the ‘client’, ads communicate a wide range of other messages, indirect and subliminal, that may have an even more profound effect on the public than the ‘original’ or planned message (
Considering the importance of these subliminal aspects, it should be noted that in Mexico there is a certain lack of studies focused on the subject of racism in advertising, although it is a virtually omnipresent media product in everyday lives. The main spokesmen in this field have usually expressed themselves in journalistic notes and opinion blogs that, in spite of the fact that they talk about an issue of crucial importance for successful social cohesion, lack analytical depth when it comes to distinguishing the causes and effects of discriminatory representations in the mass media, based on certain ‘phenotypes’ that are defined by producers of media content and linked with different physical characteristics or parameters. The few existing studies on the subject (
The methodological basis of the present study consists of two complementary strategies: quantitative and qualitative. For the quantitative part, which corresponds to the first question, were quantified and analysed 500 casting requests over a period of one year. Casting requests are text documents (sometimes with visual references) – elaborated between the client, the advertising agency and the production house – that indicate all the relevant details of the advertising project for which the casting is made. This includes the name of the product, dates of the casting and the filming (‘shooting’), the types of media where the ad is going to be exposed, the region and the period of time of its exposure, the salary (‘budget’) that potentially hired actors and actresses are going to receive and the ‘profile breakdowns’ where sex, age and the phenotypes that are required for the campaign in question are described. The talent agency (or the booker) receives these casting requests and sends them (by e-mail or phone message) to its represented actors, actresses and models, meanwhile, based on this information, they decide whether to attend the audition. For the goals of the present research, from all of this information the most significant items are the ‘profile breakdowns’ where the stipulated skin tone, the colour of the eyes and the hair are indicated with the purpose to physically define the type of people that are welcomed to the audition. These three phenotypical parameters were quantified in relation to the type of the advertising (commercial or governmental) and the region of its exposure (Mexico or other countries). Thereby it was possible to describe the frequency with which people with certain physiognomic traits (skin tones, eye and hair colour) are requested for advertising campaigns in Mexico.
The qualitative part, which corresponds to the second question of this study, consists of ten individual in-depth interviews with different professionals involved in the realisation of advertising projects. During 2018 in Mexico City were interviewed three actors, two actresses, three castings directors, a director of commercials and a creative director of an advertising agency. The selection of these professionals was based on the ‘snowball’ method (a key informant suggests other key informants) and so designed to gather testimonies from different experiences and roles in the advertising business. I also find it important to indicate that their participation in this study was voluntary and with consent for anonymous use of the recorded interviews as textual quotes in the present article. Considering the objectives of this research, the use of qualitative methodology helps to acknowledge from different points of view the underlying logic that is implied in the selection of actors, actresses and models. In other words, the reasons why people with certain physical traits are auditioned for certain advertising projects and to discuss why people with certain traits are in greater demand in Mexico’s advertising business. The use of this research strategy provides an opportunity to explore the ‘hidden’ or underlying logic of construction of the advertising discourse, especially through the selection of actors and models that together form the human image of the final advertising product. This methodological route also allows us to establish comparative patterns of representation between commercial and governmental publicity in Mexico and the publicity campaigns made for other countries.
The traits according to which we determine if a person belongs to a specific ‘race’ are usually defined by superficial parts of the body (the physical appearance), while the genes that determine the characteristics used in defining ‘races’ do not necessarily form a set of inherited traits that always present together (
Although it is possible to talk about racism in general, there are different types of racism that have changed throughout history. Among these, the main has been ‘scientific racism’ (‘race’ as a biological differentiation) and ‘cultural racism’ (cultural difference as the basis of exclusion) (
Unlike the ‘classic’ or ‘scientific’ racism, in
In Mexico, two general types of racialized discrimination are usually emphasized: ethnic discrimination and Afro-Mexican discrimination. While ethnic discrimination already has a long and well documented history from era of colonization to the present, the second remains ‘hidden’ and is due to an invisibilization of the Afro-Mexican population (
To these two mentioned forms of racialized discrimination
According to the ideological premise of
In recent years, the relationship between socioeconomic stratification and physical characteristics of people has attracted interest amongst researchers. A physical feature such as the colour tone of skin can be the cause of different treatment between individuals, be that positive or negative. The degree of social mobility in Mexico is structurally related to skin tone: individuals with lighter skin tones tend to have higher levels of education, move more easily from lower to higher positions within social hierarchies and are more likely to stay in the top positions (
The present investigation commences from the point that the media also actively contributes to this legitimization, being a cultural product that, by creating certain representations and social imaginaries, has an impact upon the configuration of social relations at the everyday life level. In other words, the contents of the media are cultural products at a macro or structural level that are involved in the social construction of meaning at the micro or subjective level.
The quantitative part of this study is based on the analysis of casting requests and ‘profile breakdowns’ for visual image advertising. These casting requests are handled by the ‘talent agencies’ who later send them to people who work in the modelling and acting sectors, and are represented by the agencies. The peculiarity of the ‘profile breakdowns’ is the fact that they contain a more less specific corporeal descriptions – usually, the skin tone, the colour of eyes and hair –, of people who are welcomed to attend the casting, in order to reduce the number of people who want to be auditioned to a specific group that meets the physical constraints of appearance.
For the goals of this research, the advertising projects in this research were divided into two different fields: (1) commercial advertising, destined for the promotion of commercial brands, and (2) governmental or political advertising, intended for the promotion of political parties and/or governmental institutions (ministries, social support programs, etc.). However, both serve the same purpose: to advertise a product, whether it is a commercial brand or a political party, with the goal to elevate consumption or preference for it. In other words, to captivate the greatest number of possible consumers and audience-voters.
For the empirical analysis in total were revised five hundred casting requests received from two ‘talent agencies’, within a period of one year from July 2017 until July 2018. It is important to mention that within the same casting request different profiles can be mentioned simultaneously, therefore, the sum of the percentages in several of the following figures is above 100%, because statistically speaking, they are based on multiple options.
The majority of casting requests (79%) were for advertising projects for its exhibition in Mexico (and within these, the vast majority [94%] for commercial advertising and only 6% for governmental advertising), while the fifth part (21%) of the total were for exposure in other countries, including global advertising campaigns. With this data it is possible to conclude that in the most cases, the work as an actor, actress or a model in advertising in Mexico is for ‘national’ projects and only sometimes for international or foreign campaigns.
The most pronounced difference between advertising projects for Mexico and the worldwide or foreign campaigns is the demand for the profile ‘multiracial/international’ (Figure
Requested phenotypes for advertising projects cast in Mexico.
Source: Own elaboration.
For Mexican advertising projects, only in 3% of the cases the requested phenotypes are not indicated, while almost the same percentage demand ‘European/Caucasian’, ‘Latino’ and ‘Mexican’ actors, as well as ‘indigenous’ and ‘browns and whites’. In other words, all the aforementioned profiles are in the lowest demand bracket, while the most requested profile is ‘international Latino’, especially for national advertising projects (91%) when that is compared to projects for other countries (76%).
Usually for both national and international projects, there is no mention of the physical characteristics that ‘international Latino’ involves (Figure
Phenotyping of ‘international Latino’ in advertising cast in Mexico.
Source: Own elaboration.
According to these descriptions, ‘international Latino’ is defined in a somewhat ambiguous way, although it is simultaneously in the highest demand in the industry. Phenotypical descriptions of this profile can be divided into two categories: (1) those that are based on exclusion and (2) those that are based on inclusion. In the descriptions that correspond to the logic of exclusion, the following phenotypic parameters are mentioned: ‘no white/blonde, no brown’, ‘no white/blonde, nor clear/blue eyes’, ‘no blondes, no afros, no redheads’. Among the descriptions corresponding to the second logic, ‘international Latino’ is described in the following ways: ‘white skin/light brown’, ‘white skin, dark hair’ and ‘white skin, dark to brown hair’. It should be emphasized that this second logic is based on a false inclusion, or rather a subtle exclusion when the required phenotypic characteristics are mentioned, instead of mentioning those that are not accepted.
The other objective that is proposed in this study is to inquire about the difference in the requested profiles between commercial and governmental advertising in Mexico. In most of the advertising projects, whether for the commercial brands or the political parties and institutions, the most requested profile continues to be the ‘international Latino’, however, with some differences (Figure
Requested phenotypes in advertising for Mexico.
Source: Own elaboration.
Also, for political advertising, unlike commercial advertising, there is a more frequent request for ‘Latino’ (13%) and ‘Mexican’ (21%) profiles, both characterized by darker or ‘brown’ (
The descriptions of the most requested profile in advertising for Mexico rotates around a dominant corporeal
It really has been after committing many errors. I have been batted from many castings and that’s how I learnt to identify where my profile is. There are many castings where just international Latino is convened and that’s it. And sometimes it is specified that you can’t be brown or blonde, or have blue eyes, they want something like a middle point.
The first time I heard it was when I was doing a campaign in Brazil, in the early 1990s. Part of the filming was done in Argentina, but in Brazil the requirements were defined as ‘we want them to be international Latino’. What is that, right? And the answer was that from Mexicans to Argentines and Brazilians can identify with it, that we are different from the rest of the world. So, the international Latino is the following: white complexion, dark hair. Someone that can be from any Latin American nationality.
I think it is a way to represent the whole population. I think it should be that. I think it is a democratic position of having a bit of everything.
In these testimonies it is mentioned that ‘international Latino’ is a category invented by the advertising industries marketing, which is later apprehended in practical terms by trial-and- error. In the case of actors, it is even more pronounced: they have had to learn what type of phenotypic restrictions this profile involves by asking and/or being rejected at the castings. At the same time, it is a denomination that has existed in the Latin American advertising industry for more than 25 years and is based on a generalization of the phenotyped imaginary of a Latin American person (‘from Mexicans to Argentines and Brazilians can identify with it’). According to this imaginary, the person with whom Latin Americans should identify themselves is of a ‘white complexion’ and ‘dark hair’. Leaving aside the topic of phenotypical generalization of the Latin American and Mexican population, and returning to the point about the colonial discourse of castes, ‘white complexion, dark hair’ could hardly be associated with
It is something to be interpreted, isn’t it? Because international Latino is, what do you like? Andy Garcia, Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, that would be the international Latino. It is different from Mexican Latino, browner people who are chosen for characters as a peddler, a construction worker, also for announcements of government programs, the Popular Health Insurance, and that sort of thing, right? Therefore, its [
It cost me a lot to understand what international Latino is, but as far as I understand, it refers to someone who has the characteristics of a Latino, but is not a brown Latino which would evoke the lower class. It is a Latino with light brown or white skin, dark or olive colour eyes, maximum. With hair of all tones of chestnut, as long as it is chestnut to black. And a white Mexican with black hair, but with clear or blue eyes is no longer an international Latino, but is more like a dark European.
A brown skin person that speaks with a neutral accent, that is, not northern, nor of the coast. It is usually addressed to the common people and not to someone who is going to buy something like a 2019 model car, but to someone who is going to buy the cheapest milk. There they use Mexican Latino.
The previous testimonies glimpse another angle of colourist racism, an angle associated with the socioeconomic stratification and its representation in phenotypical terms. One of the common phrases in Mexico to silence and/or naturalize racism is: ‘it is not racism, it is classism’. However, observing that the advertising discourse reproduces the imaginary about certain skin tones in relation to purchasing power (or socioeconomic status), this expression should be ‘it is not only racism, it is also classism’. People with brown and dark skin tones are usually represented as belonging to the lower classes, meanwhile as the skin tone ‘lightens’, the phenotypic representation ‘ascends’ up the socioeconomic stratification. It is not only an essential characteristic of commercial advertising in Mexico, but also a fundamental difference between commercial and governmental advertising:
In Mexico in the 1970s, you didn’t see brown skin persons in TV commercials. But then there was a very important campaign for a government program that basically had to do with a way that social assistance should be in Mexico. Those that don’t have a paved road to the school. You saw a family, a village where all the people were real. And it was the first time when you saw real people on TV, people you see every day crossing the street. I think that was the moment when that stigma that we were carrying in the publicity was broken a bit. Of course, here I am talking about governmental advertising that has always been very clever in trying to portray real people.
If ‘international Latino’ predominates in commercial advertising, in governmental advertising, especially of social support programs, ‘Mexican Latino’ is taken into account, associated with lower strata and dark skin tones, as well as the ‘indigenous’ profile. Also, it is within political advertising that ‘real people’ are often portrayed whom ‘you see every day crossing the street.’ So ‘international Latino’ is really quite distant from the Mexican population in its daily life. Perhaps, therefore, in the casting requests you see suddenly appear phrases like ‘aspirational people’ or ‘aspirational class’, making a symbolic reference to something that one is not, but would or should want to be.
I wouldn’t even dream of being in a commercial of ‘Liverpool’ [
I don’t think they feel identified, definitely. It’s nothing but bombing us with that aspirational stuff. Like, if I buy those jeans, I’m going to look like the girl in the commercial. If I buy that car, I’m going to go to those amazing places, right? Although I never will. I mean, they’re just marketing strategies.’
This symbolic ‘aspiration’ or the ‘scenario of the
Whilst the two general questions of this study (whether and how advertising in Mexico is one of the media products that indirectly promotes racism) have been answered, I would now like to focus on the opinions and experiences by the people who participated in this research. Most participants of this study considered the area of advertising in Mexico as racist, which means that they are forced to work or seek employment in a field that involves various limitations not associated with the person’s talent, but with their superficial physical aspects, particularly,
I think so. Look, I recently made a casting for a beer campaign and so they wanted good actors. I presented them a guy who is just the international Latino, dark brown hair, lighter than mine, then a whiter guy, a bit shorter. But I proposed to them several actors, very, very good actors, really, good. And they did not choose a single brown one.
In respect of discrimination and racism, there is a general one. For example, for me it’s racism that they don’t accept browns in certain commercials, although it’s also racism when they just want browns and reject light-skinned blondes. So, it’s a general racism, really.
The
For the products here in Mexico, it’s fucking impossible to get chosen. For napkins, for diapers, for sugar, well, those are such a basic thing, right? For insurance, cars, banks, right? I have done commercials for banks in the United States, for foreign airlines, ‘Lufthansa’, world brands, ‘Volkswagen’ for Germany. The truth is that I don’t even go to castings for Mexican brands anymore. Well, you just learn from that feeling when they tell you: ‘No!’
Apparently, actors and actresses are those who have to experience colourist racism in the media in an explicitly significant way, as long as they are not classified as ‘international Latinos’. Their job opportunities and income by exercising their profession are at risk and these people, even if they are Mexican, are limited to attend castings that are not meant for Mexico. In this sense, it is worth remembering that the advertising projects for foreign countries form just one fifth of all casting calls, while the majority of advertising projects are precisely for their exhibition in Mexico.
This analysis demonstrates in a very apparent manner that the selection of actors and models for advertising projects in Mexico is based explicitly on phenotyping. In the case of advertising targeted for Mexico, this phenotyping is much narrower, generally prioritizing people with ‘white’ skin tones, dark brown hair and dark eyes, denominated as ‘international Latino’. The causes of this ‘
In the next step of this research, agents involved in advertising were asked about the reasons for the exclusion of people who do not fit into this profile and the moral responsibility that these agents should assume in this process.
I don’t know if those authors, who are generally young graduates of universities and not only of private universities, have that responsibility. Look, they are employees of a large company, those large advertising agencies. And honestly, I don’t think they are interested in rescuing those values that you mention. What they want is to place the product and sell it. What they want is that the client earns money so they can earn money. Also, the owner of the brand has the right to choose who will appear in the commercial, right? So, the values of inclusion of gender or race, whatever you want, I think that is not an issue for them.
The people who appear in the commercials is a result of a decision, a decision whose main purpose is to present the product with the aim to increase its consumption. It is also a decision about the direction towards a certain ‘target market’. ‘International Latino’ could not be considered as a profile that represents the diversity of Mexicans because technically it should be the ‘multiracial’, ‘multiethnic’ or ‘international’ profile, commonly used in ‘profile breakdowns’ for advertising projects for the United States, Canada and worldwide campaigns. It should be stressed that Mexico’s is a highly diverse population, and that is something that also should be reflected in advertising, so that a greater number of ‘sectors’ could identify themselves with its visual contents. However, ‘the owner of the brand has the right to choose who will appear in the commercial’. Therefore, I would like to return to the question: why does such a ‘international Latino’ reductionism prevail?
Look, I don’t think that … well, at the population level, maybe we should go back to the conquest, and I think there are better voices than mine to speak about it. I do not feel that obsession with white skin in advertising. We do not think of it that way, what you are looking for is to transmit a commercial idea. But yes, as you know, it is an issue that is not resolved in Mexican society and what advertising is most afraid of, is rejection. Everything is tested and proven, so if you suddenly see certain type of people in the ads, it is because the people, the public to whom it was addressed, liked it that way. In many group sessions I hear that ‘no, this girl should be prettier’, and I am like ‘what do you mean by prettier?’. ‘No, well, taller, slimmer’, whatever. People tell you what they want. Everything is tested. With these data I design the campaign and return it to society. This is how advertising is done.
I insist! Advertising is not responsible, advertising is not generating it, advertising portrays the reality that will better empathize with people. What the publicity does is to take into account the consumer research. That is the context where I am going to try to insert the product or a cause. Ask the society! Question the society! It is not advertising! I think your approach is wrong. If there’s racism, it’s out there.
Here I would like to emphasize two points: (1) the issue that ‘is not resolved in Mexican society’ and (2) the point, ‘it’s not the advertising, it’s the society’. It is clear from the above testimony that some aspects of the design of an advertising project are derived from ‘focus groups’ consisting of potential consumers and/or marketing studies on potential consumers. This is done with the goal of ensuring that the advertising product results in a sympathetic response, because rejection is ‘what advertising is most afraid of’. The present situation describes a vicious circle: advertising in Mexico is based on colourist racism (‘an unresolved issue in Mexican society’) because that’s how the society is to which the advertising is directed to; and meanwhile there aren’t going to be changes in the society, nor there are going to be in the advertising contents because they ‘adjust’ to the desires of the society (‘empathize with people’).
Subsequently, by reflecting these desires and preferences, advertising reinforces or (re)produces them, which later functions as a source of symbolic learning about what should be
The main objectives of this study were to describe and analyse the frequency with which people with certain physiognomic traits are requested for visual advertising campaigns in and for Mexico, as well as to analyse the underlying logics of the selection of actors, actresses and models for advertising projects, with the goal of inquiring whether advertising in Mexico is one of the symbolic spaces that (re)produce colourist racism or
The profile with the highest demand in advertising for Mexico is ‘international Latino’, whose phenotypic description is far from the corporal features of the majority of the population of Mexico. It is usually characterized as ‘white skin’ and ‘dark’ or ‘brown’ hair, while the skin tones of the majority of the Mexican population are much more diverse. The ‘international Latino’ profile is based on exclusion of the dark skin tones and blondes (
Exclusion of the Afro-descendant profiles is also notorious: together with the ‘blondes’ profile (with the exception of some brands that require high purchasing power), it is associated with the foreign or something that cannot representative the population of Mexico, despite the fact that the Mexican population is extremely diverse. Consequently, advertising projects in Mexico also act as a symbolic instrument of invisibilization of its Afro-Mexican population and the diversity of Mexican society in general.
In advertising for Mexico, the intersection between classism and
Considering the diversity of the Mexican population, it would be necessary to critically assess the possible consequences of
The fact that the advertising discourse in Mexico is based on colourist racism and classism, brings us to the question who is going to impulse a change. According to advertisers, the change in advertising is going to happen after a change in society, because advertising nourishes from society and ‘reflects’ its desires with the intention of increasing the sales of the advertised product. This intentionally passive positioning should be critically questioned. The advertising industry is not external to society, but is a media product that impacts it through building and projecting imaginaries, that is,
The author has no competing interests to declare.
Juris Tipa is a Bachelors graduate in sociology of the University of Latvia earning a PhD in Social Anthropology from the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH, Mexico City, Mexico). Currently he is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre Of Interdisciplinary Research In Sciences And Humanities (CEIICH) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM, Mexico City), focusing his research on the expressions of racism and discrimination in advertising and in the media in Mexico. He is co-author of the book