Marketing Disease to Latinos
Guillermo Brito, Ph.D. & Katherine Culliton, Esq.

The National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention (LCAT) is undertaking a new civil rights campaign to redress aggressive, discriminatory alcohol and tobacco advertising targeting the Latino community. Alcohol and tobacco abuse cause serious health damage in this community, resulting in millions of cases of preventable disease and social conflict.

Underage smoking and drinking is illegal. Alcohol and tobacco companies have been enjoined from using ads directed at youth. Despite this, these companies are targeting Latino youth and exploiting the community with tactics that are legally prohibited and generally not used in “mainstream” advertising.

Now a third, (34.4 percent) of the U.S. Latino population is under age 18. The Latino youth population (18-24) is projected to grow at an astounding rate of 32 percent by 2010. As Time Magazine reported last week, Latino consumer spending has reached $600 billion. Thus they represent the newest emerging market, and alcohol and tobacco companies have been aggressively courting their spending power and undertaking campaigns to get these young adults hooked for life.

Unlike ads on English-language TV, recent beer advertising campaigns on Spanish-language TV do not contain warnings, and they appear more frequently than in mainstream TV.

In 1989, the beer Industry promised the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it would not advertise when more than half of the audience is underage. The median age of Hispanics is 25, nearly ten years lower than for non-Hispanic whites.

Rather than advertising less on Spanish-language TV, as required to avoid youth targeting, beer industry members are advertising more, and networks like Univisión are letting them do so, with serious consequences. Experts have documented that the greater the level of alcohol advertising, the greater the level of alcohol-related violence, preventable disease and deaths in the community.

This apparent disregard for Latino health is part of a pattern. For example, alcohol companies have made heavy promotional investments in marketing Cinco de Mayo as a drinking holiday, with extremely profitable results. Many ads, including the infamous 2004 Tecate billboard, (removed after community protest) have been highly offensive and demeaning to Latina women. Studies have shown a correlation between this type of advertising and increased violence against young Latinas.

Latinos have also been left out of legal protections against deceptive and unfair tobacco advertising. Litigation by the 50 states revealed that tobacco companies had been lying about evidence that nicotine is addictive and illegally marketing cigarettes to youth. A settlement agreement worth billions, along with firm obligations to refrain from targeting youth, was approved in 1997.

Currently, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) litigation under the RICO Act alleges that tobacco companies conspired to commit fraud and target youth. But this June, the DOJ reduced its request for damages to eight percent of what its own expert recommended, raising concerns about Administration ties to big tobacco. Neither the state nor federal litigation included analysis of how tobacco companies have been targeting Latinos.

Per recent data, Latino adolescent smoking has increased, after having declined in previous decades. This is troubling because it occurred after the clear legal prohibitions against targeting youth. Youth smoking is highly preventable and more readily leads to a lifetime of addiction.

There is a right to advertising and free choice. However, the Latino community deserves the same respect and legal protections for its health as any other community. Government, Spanish-language media, Latino and industry leadership must take action to stop this aggressive, discriminatory targeting.

(Dr. Guillermo Brito is executive director and Katherine Culliton, Esq. interim policy manager of LCAT, a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated solely to reducing the harm caused by alcohol and tobacco in the Latino community. LCAT is holding its fourth annual conference Sept. 15-16th in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where advocates will gather to discuss strategies to stop the targeting. For more information, see www.nlcatp.org or call 202 265-8054)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service
08/28/05
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