Effects of Spanish vs. English Ads on Bilingual Hispanics: Moderating Role of Language Dominance

This paper examines the question concerning the choice of language when advertising to bilingual Hispanics. The prevalent view among advertisers serving the Hispanic market is that it is ’besf to advertise in Spanish. Such a policy assumes that most Hispanic consumers prefer communication in Spanish over communication in English. However, statistics indicate that more and more Hispanics are embracing English as their primary language of communication. Thus, some members of the Hispanic community actually prefer communicating in English to communicating in Spanish. The present paper indicates that the choice of language in advertising to bilingual Hispanics should be based on the language proficiency and practice of the target audience.