The same or different? Spanish-speaking consumers’ response to the use of English or Spanish in product advertisements in Spain and the USA

Abstract

Sociolinguistic research suggests that US Hispanic and Spanish consumers may differ in their response to ads with English and Spanish. An experiment with US Hispanic (N = 97) and Spanish (N = 132) participants showed that, although US Hispanic participants indicated that they used more English and less Spanish in various situations, and had a less positive general attitude to English than did Spanish participants, there were no differences in evaluations of ads with English or Spanish by the two groups. These findings indicate that there is not always a direct relation between general sociolinguistic circumstances/attitudes and ad response.